Pellets, Dog/cat Food, and Diet

Be careful in using dog food & cat foods. These foods often may contain gram negative bacteria. The gram negative bacteria can make birds VERY ill. In addition, I have seen large numbers of birds sicken & die when the fats in the dog & cat food become rancid.

For my clients, I reccommend a diet such as you describe substituting a quality pellet such as Kaytee, Harrisons, Zupreem, etc. These pellets for birds are made under much stricter controls so that gram negative bacteria do not pose a problem.

> I've just read a few postings on whether pellets can be bad for birds. Has > there been any research done on bird (parrot) diets? From reading the > posts it seems like there may anecdotal evidence that maybe it is not such > a good thing. Yet, up until now I've heard that pelleted diets are the way > to go. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Too much of anything can have its drawbacks. I know some people have had difficulties with pelleted diets. (especially when fed exclusively.) the long & the short of it is that no two species of bird have the exact same dietary requirements. Research has been done on pelleted diets, but much of the research has centered on cockatiels & other more common species. It would be too time consuming & cost prohibitive for every researcher to research his or her diet on every species of bird. My opinion is still that pellets are a good PART of a balanced diet. It seems that since pellets have become available, fewer malnutrition problems are being presented (although they are still seen too often.) I would NEVER advise an all seed diet & I would NEVER advise an all pellet diet. The problems seen with pelleted diets do not occur from feeding the pellets, but rather from a diet of EXCLUSIVELY pellets (no other foiods being fed.) Pellets in my opinion are not a mainstay of the diet, but simply a part of a well-balanced diet. Fruits, veggies & other foods are still needed as well as far as I am concerned.

Dr. Lisa
DrLisa@aol.com