Hari Pellets

hollandgirl4

Regular Member
Registered
Hi, my cockatiels are extremely fussy and have been fed on shop bought seed mix (the stuff that you scoop out of a barrel) for the 5 years that I’ve had them as this is what I was told by the shop I got them from was ok to feed.
It wasn’t until I started looking into what to feed my mealy amazon (that I adopted a few weeks ago) that I realised how bad seeds are and desperately want to transition them to pellets. I offer fruit and vegetables to my cockatiels and they have never touched them, in fact they get quite cross when I put them in.
I have recently bought Hari Tropimix and Hari Tropican lifetime pellets for them and have been mixing half of each with a sprinkling of the seed they like. I will include the ingredients for each below- my question is, will these be ok for my cockatiels to live on if I mix them together? They have started to eat them, but they’re not eating anywhere near as much as they were and aren’t tucking in as happily as they were with their old seed, if anyone has any advice to get EXTREMELY fussy cockatiels to eat pellets please share as I’m aware that they will starve themselves to death, but also don’t want to give in and just continue giving them the shop bought seeds if they can do bad damage to their health.
Here are the ingredients:
Tropimix:
Millet Kernel, Oat Groats, Red Milo, Corn, Wheat, Toasted Split Peas, Brown Rice, Dehulled Sunflower Seeds, Soybean Meal, Dehulled Peanuts, Flaxseed, Cracked Corn, Toasted Buckwheat, Dried Papaya, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybeans, Dried Split Red Lentils, Dried Pineapple, Dried Carrot, Canola Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Dicalcium Phosphate, Lecithin, Calcium Carbonate, Yeast Culture, Flaxseed, Dried Beet Pulp, Dried Kelp, L - lysine, Yeast Extract, Choline Chloride, DLmethionine, Orange Oil, Banana Oil, Biotin, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Calcium L - Ascorbyl - 2 - Monophosphate (source of Vitamin C,) Zinc Oxide, Manganous Oxide, D-calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Rosemary Extract, Copper Sulfate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Beta-carotene, Thiamine Mononitrate, Inositol, Folic Acid, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin D3 Supplement.

Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein (min) 14%, Crude Fat (min) 8%, Crude Fibre (max) 3.5%, Moisture (max) 12%, Calcium (min) 0.15%, Phosphorus (min) 0.3%, Vitamin A (min) 800 IU/kg, Vitamin D3 (min) 80 IU/kg, Vitamin E (min) 30 IU/kg

Additive per kg
Vitamin A - 2,063 IU, Vitamin D3 - 165IU, Calcium Iodate - 0.2750mg, Cupric Sulphate Pentahydrate 3.3mg, Manganous Oxide 38.5mg, Zinc Oxide 44mg, Sodium Selenate 0.11mg.

Tropican Lifetime Pellets:
Ground corn, soybean meal, ground wheat, ground dehulled peanuts, ground brown rice, dehulled sunflower seed, canola oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols and rosemary extract), calcium carbonate, sugar, tomato powder, oat groats, ground flaxseed, alfalfa nutrient concentrate, L-lysine, yeast extract, DL-methionine, salt, choline chloride, carotene, biotin, vitamin E supplement, niacin, calcium L-ascorbyl-2-monophosphate, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, d-calcium pantothenate, vitamin B12 supplement, beta-carotene, copper sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, inositol, folic acid, vitamin A supplement, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, vitamin D3 supplement.


Guaranteed Analysis: Crude protein 21.0% (min), Crude fat 11.0% (min), Crude fibre 3.5% (max), Moisture 9.0% (max), Salt 0.20% (min), Salt 0.30% (max), Calcium 1.1% (min), Phosphorus 0.7% (min), Vitamin A 6,500 IU/lb (min), Vitamin D3 225 IU/lb (min), Vitamin E 80 IU/lb (min), Vitamin K 0.9 mg/lb (min)
 
There's nothing wrong with cockatiels eating seeds, just get them a better quality mix. Cockatiels are naturally granivores so it's fine. They will be more keen on veggies than fruit although maybe they will find some fruit that they like. If you want to add some pellets to their diet you can try the Beaphar ones, or Harrison's, but seeds should be the majority of the diet along with veg. Mine never touched the tropimix and the bubble gum smell was pretty off putting to be honest!

Nutriberries were well received too.
 
There's nothing wrong with cockatiels eating seeds, just get them a better quality mix. Cockatiels are naturally granivores so it's fine. They will be more keen on veggies than fruit although maybe they will find some fruit that they like. If you want to add some pellets to their diet you can try the Beaphar ones, or Harrison's, but seeds should be the majority of the diet along with veg. Mine never touched the tropimix and the bubble gum smell was pretty off putting to be honest!

Nutriberries were well received too.
Thank you!
I can’t stand the smell of them either what seed mix would you recommend? I have just read so much how seeds are bad and it should be a pellet diet that I worry. Mine literally will not touch any fruit or veg, they won’t even go near it to chuck it out of the bowl, even if I put their seed in with it, they just won’t go to the bowl until I empty it and refill with what they like.
I just fear they’ve got a really poor diet, but also don’t want to give them new things and they starve themselves.
 
There are some things you can do, like grating a broccoli floret with the smallest side of a grater so it looks like little green seeds. My cockatiel used to go nuts over these little cress pots they sell in supermarkets, you can also buy salad trays (these living salad things they sell in supermarkets), give it a little rinse and put it in the cage, or wherever it is they hang out. Any veggies you can clip to the cage bars or wedge in you can do too. I find that veggies are better accepted that way rather than in a bowl. If it looks fun enough to check out and try that's half the battle. Also anything YOU eat is premium, so you can very visibly pretend to munch on something then 'carelessly' put it somewhere and walk away.
Any mix you get try to get one with no or few sunflower seeds, Tidymix has an ungodly amount so stay away from that, even if it looks really good. Their soaking pulse mixes and other treats are fine though.
 
Hagen are a good company but I cannot stand the smell of those pellets and I don’t like the methionine additive, or colourants.
Great advice from Stinkie here :thumbsup:
 
Hagen are a good company but I cannot stand the smell of those pellets and I don’t like the methionine additive, or colourants.
Great advice from Stinkie here :thumbsup:
The smell is horrible! Would you agree that seeds are ok for cockatiels? Even ones that are so fussy and won’t touch veg/ fruit? And if so which seed would you recommend?
Thanks :)
 
There are some things you can do, like grating a broccoli floret with the smallest side of a grater so it looks like little green seeds. My cockatiel used to go nuts over these little cress pots they sell in supermarkets, you can also buy salad trays (these living salad things they sell in supermarkets), give it a little rinse and put it in the cage, or wherever it is they hang out. Any veggies you can clip to the cage bars or wedge in you can do too. I find that veggies are better accepted that way rather than in a bowl. If it looks fun enough to check out and try that's half the battle. Also anything YOU eat is premium, so you can very visibly pretend to munch on something then 'carelessly' put it somewhere and walk away.
Any mix you get try to get one with no or few sunflower seeds, Tidymix has an ungodly amount so stay away from that, even if it looks really good. Their soaking pulse mixes and other treats are fine though.
Thank you for your help.
I’ll have a look into some better seeds and will get them without sunflower seeds. I’ll definitely keep trying with the veg and use your ideas- I keep thinking that the more I try, then one day they must want to try a bit but so far it’s just not happening!
 
Thank you!
I can’t stand the smell of them either what seed mix would you recommend? I have just read so much how seeds are bad and it should be a pellet diet that I worry. Mine literally will not touch any fruit or veg, they won’t even go near it to chuck it out of the bowl, even if I put their seed in with it, they just won’t go to the bowl until I empty it and refill with what they like.
I just fear they’ve got a really poor diet, but also don’t want to give them new things and they starve themselves.

The problem with seed only diets and pellet only diets is that seeds can be too fatty (hence the as few sunflowers as possible) and can damage the liver, and pellets are too nutrient dense and can wreck the kidneys, so you need balance, and on top of that you also need to feed some fresh greens. I personally see pellets as a vessel for vitamins etc, other people here won't feed pellets but sprinkle vitamin powder on food, it's the same thing really.
Those little salad cress pots from the supermarket worked amazing with my cockatiel because you can make noise crinkling the plastic container and mine loved that. When he ate the cress he loved throwing the container around and chasing it. You can also use one of those birdy kebab skewer thingies and stick some veggies in there they can peck at, realistically you only need one of them to try it and the other one will soon follow.
 
The problem with seed only diets and pellet only diets is that seeds can be too fatty (hence the as few sunflowers as possible) and can damage the liver, and pellets are too nutrient dense and can wreck the kidneys, so you need balance, and on top of that you also need to feed some fresh greens. I personally see pellets as a vessel for vitamins etc, other people here won't feed pellets but sprinkle vitamin powder on food, it's the same thing really.
Those little salad cress pots from the supermarket worked amazing with my cockatiel because you can make noise crinkling the plastic container and mine loved that. When he ate the cress he loved throwing the container around and chasing it. You can also use one of those birdy kebab skewer thingies and stick some veggies in there they can peck at, realistically you only need one of them to try it and the other one will soon follow.
Thats what I’m hoping. I adopted a amazon parrot 3 weeks ago and they come to the food bowl to eat when he is eating so I’m hoping that they will start to try some fruit and veg when they see that he is eating his as he is quite good at eating (although he’s not a massive lover of veg ). All I can do is carry on trying and as you say, try and make it as adventurous as possible as at the minute I just put it in their bowl- maybe they’re bored of seeing it in their bowl.
Thanks again for your help.
 
Back
Top Bottom