Harrisons

dido

dido

Regular Member
I have always fed high potency to Alfie as was the recomendation from Harrisons. Today I was looking on their site and African grey wasn't mentioned on that particular food so I emailed them and now it seems greys should be on lifetime. I hadn't heard this so thought I would flag it up incase I'm not the only one behind the times on this.
 
It's quite ambiguous on both the UK and US websites, because one paragraph said AGs should be fed for approx 6 months on HP coarse, then switched to Lifetime. Then elsewhere it advises that they can be kept on the HP indefinitely, BUT with the caveat of vet checks to ensure suitability. Good job you double checked @dido :thumbsup:
 
MJGB - MikeJenGaryBeckyBoo said:
It's quite ambiguous on both the UK and US websites, because one paragraph said AGs should be fed for approx 6 months on HP coarse, then switched to Lifetime. Then elsewhere it advises that they can be kept on the HP indefinitely, BUT with the caveat of vet checks to ensure suitability. Good job you double checked @dido :thumbsup:
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Well I get mine from my avian vet so I'm surprised he hasn't said anything about it. I suppose the reception staff just order it . I will mention it to them tho. I will try to get the email on here. Not too good at technical stuff tho. Maybe Alfie won't get so fruity with his toys on lifetime .lol
 
I wonder if the change occurred because I noticed that alot of keepers use red plam oil on there pellets most days, this would lead to weight gain, as the high potency is already high in fat.

Watch your bird closely as some birds suffer with polyuric reaction on the adult lifetime pellets.
 
What's a polyuric reaction @DanAndMarley - more of it and more often?

With pellets I guess it's how much is fed and what other foods are also incorporated each day. I bet none of us feeds the same?
 
Harrisons is apparently aware that polyuria - excess urine in the faeces - can result in some parrot species.
I'm told they recommend "organic grey millet" if the situation arises, as a supplement to pellets - this would seem to confirm that additional fat in the diet is required. It also implies an explanation why the Lifetime mix would be more likely to result in polyuria than the High Potency variety.
 
Lozhinge said:
Harrisons is apparently aware that polyuria - excess urine in the faeces - can result in some parrot species.
I'm told they recommend "organic grey millet" if the situation arises, as a supplement to pellets - this would seem to confirm that additional fat in the diet is required. It also implies an explanation why the Lifetime mix would be more likely to result in polyuria than the High Potency variety.
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That's good that they have acknowledged the issue, that's the first time I have heard this. I know that Mark Hagen knew of the issue years ago and they addressed it in there own diet design.

How long ago did Harrison's acknowledge it?
 
It must of been quite recent, as I have most of their published handbooks, and have never seen them acknowledging it. The only time I have seen about organic grey millet, is adding a tea spoon in for budgies and cocktails to up the fat content in their diet.
 
DanAndMarley said:
That's good that they have acknowledged the issue, that's the first time I have heard this. I know that Mark Hagen knew of the issue years ago and they addressed it in there own diet design.

How long ago did Harrison's acknowledge it?
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Harrison's has not acknowledged the issue directly - that will teach me not to properly vet information I use. Instead, Harrisons attributes ployuria to increased fruit/veg consumption. The source I looked at conflated the two issues.

The grey millet recommendation apparently comes from customer service responses made to customers and is not a recommendation that was widely released. These date back ten years or more.

So, the situation is not as cut/dried as I first thought. Apologies for the inaccuracy of my initial post (in my defence, I did use the word "apparently" as I hadn't dug through the source material, I only used the summary someone provided).
 
plumsmum said:
We forgive @Lozhinge :)

I think that it could be hard to determine re polyuria, if your bird(s) are eating a good amount of fresh veggies.
Is it something that just happens no sweat or more? @DanAndMarley
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At the risk of making my own mistake, rather than repeating someone else's :lol:

... with budgies, you can easily tell veggie-base poops from those resulting from polyuria, or diarrhoea, or some other kidney dysfunction. Polyuria manifests as excessive clear fluid - urine - accompanying an otherwise normal looking dropping (the dropping is likely to be smaller than usual but it'll look OK).

Other causes for watery droppings will result in looseness, frothing or other abnormal features. And you could have polyuria occurring alongside these other features.

Veggie droppings on the other hand should be well-formed but softer and perhaps greener than usual (or another colour in the case of sweet potato, for instance).
 
My goodness i seem to have opened a can of worms here. On the food subject can I feed purple sprouting brocoli. Brocoli seems to be in short supply around my area for some reason apart from purple.
 
plumsmum said:
We forgive @Lozhinge :)

I think that it could be hard to determine re polyuria, if your bird(s) are eating a good amount of fresh veggies.
Is it something that just happens no sweat or more? @DanAndMarley
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Polyuria from eating fruit and vegetables is very sort term lived, up to a couple of hours after consumption. That's to do with the normal water consumption and extra water in the fruits and vegetables.
 
@dido good grief plant of the devil comes in disguises these days!! Yeah they can have it if they want it.... The purple colour is due to it having higher antioxidants in it (anthocyanins).
As for the can of worms .... Set them free! :lmao:
I used to love the random chats we had on here even those weird ones about things like biofilms lol
 
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