Planning on Changing the Birds' Food

Yesterday I was reading ingredients on the various food my pets get. I do this every now and then to make sure the food hasn't changed and to make sure bad things haven't been added. All checked out good except the Roudybush (and the guinea pig food, but I already knew that there were things in it I don't like).

I have to admit that I hadn't really looked that closely at the ingredient list for the Roudybush pellets. I knew it was a decent food, but I also knew it wasn't the best food. I had heard it was better than Zupreem, and I still think it is. I don't like how Zupreem has added sugar. Lenore was already on Roudybush when I got him, and Digby also decided to eat the Roudybush. I was happy to get Digby eating pellets, so I didn't want to be too picky with her pellets.

But, after looking at the Roudybush ingredients, I want to put the birds on something else. Here is a list of ingredients:

Ground Corn, Ground Wheat, Soy Meal, Soy Oil, Calcium Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Salt, DL-Methionine, L-Arginine, Niacin, Mixed Tocopherols, Rosemary Extract, Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid, Lecithin, Silicon Dioxide (carrier for liquid antioxidants), Alpha Tocopherol Acetate (source of Vitamin E), Ascorbic Acid, Manganese Sulfate, Yucca shidigera Extract, Hydrated Sodium Calcium Aluminosilicate, Dried Yeast, Biotin, Calcium Pantothenate, Zinc Oxide, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin A Acetate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Vitamin K), Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Cyanocobalamin (source of Vitamin B12), Sodium Selenite (on Calcium Carbonate), Propionic Acid, Ammonium Hydroxide, Acetic Acid, Sorbic Acid, Tartaric Acid, and Natural Apple Flavoring.
(Taken from the Petsmart website because for some reason it's not listed on the Roudybush website...that kind of bothers me)

I don't even know what half of those things are. Sure, I could write the chemical formula for a lot of those things, but that doesn't mean I know what it's for or why the heck it's in my birds' food. I also don't like the fact that two of the first four ingredients are soy. The soy meal bothers me more than the soy oil.

Soy is pretty controversial for people to eat, and it isn't completely known what it can do to parrots. In humans, it can cause early sexual maturity, can cause prepubescent boys to have problems because of its high estrogen content, can cause or contribute to thyroid problems, and other things. It can potentially have the same or similar effects on birds.

So, I began looking at other pellets. Zupreem has soy, Harrison's has soy, Pretty Bird has soy (they got clever and labeled it as "soya oil", yeah, you're not tricking me), Hagen Tropican has soy, and Lafeber's pellets have soy. In all my searching, I found only one brand that doesn't have soy. That brand is Totally Organic Pellets.

I'm pretty sure that I'll be switching the birds to Totally Organic Pellets. Even if it weren't for the soy thing, I really like the ingredients used in the Totally Organic Pellets. The ingredients are:

Rice, hulled millet, barley, alfalfa leaf, sunflower seed hulled, sesame seeds unhulled, quinoa whole, buckwheat hulled, dandelion leaf powder, carrot powder, spinach leaf powder, purple dulse, kelp, rose hips powder, rose hips crushed, orange peel powder, lemon peel powder, rosemary whole leaf, cayenne ground, crushed red chili peppers, nettle leaf.
(Taken from the Totally Organics website)

I know what every single one of those ingredients is, except purple dulse (Google results: a flower that is used in a powdered form). It costs a bit more than Roudybush. Not a lot more, but it's about 60 cents more per pound (if buying the 10 pound bag). I will also have to buy it online. I think it will be worth the extra costs though.

The only trick will be getting Digby to eat it.