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From: ooblick@intercon.uucp (Mikki Barry)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Bird diets
Message-ID: <1295@intercon.UUCP>
Date: 21 Jul 89 15:34:30 GMT
References: <6514@cloud9.Stratus.COM> <1292@intercon.UUCP>
Sender: news@intercon.UUCP
Reply-To: ooblick@intercon.uucp (Mikki Barry)
Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation
Lines: 35


In article <6514@cloud9.Stratus.COM>, mm@cloud9.Stratus.COM (Mike Mahler) writes:
> Give me a year with some Nekton, FRESH fruits and vegetables and seed
>     and I'm sure my birds would look just as healthy AND their stool would
>     be NORMAL for a bird.  Brown stools are not normal for everyday
>     excretions and brown runny stools are what you get with pellets.

My nape's stools are red and quite firm (kellogs pellets do this) while
my wild caught cockatoo who prefers purina has green firm stools.  My
weaning baby cockatoo who eats mostly science diet as well as fruits and
vegetables has greenish brown firm stools.  When first feeding birds fresh
fruits and vegetables, you very well might get runny stools regardless
of whether the base diet is seed or pellets.

I pay my avian vet well for her opinions.  Especially since my nape was in
very sorry shape when I bought him.  He was a first bird and I knew very
very little about what to look for.  When he was cultured, the nape had
multiple avian bacterial infections and was very malnourished.  He had 
been receiving seeds and nekton exclusively.  I'm not saying that he has
improved solely because he is on a pelleted diet.  However, since my wild
cockatoo had been on seeds, nekton, and fresh fruits and vegetables (which
he had been fed for a year before I bought him) and is now on pellets and
has undergone considerable improvements in appearance, I *can* say that I'm
glad I switched him over.

On the other hand, a breeder that I admire very much feeds her babies
kellogs fortified seeds (no sunflower mix) as well as fruits and veggies
(and nekton) and also has beautiful birds.  She says that a good fortified
seed mix (usually fortified with pellets and pellet powder like the kellogs
seeds are) will give birds good nutrition.  Probably quite a bit has to do
with exactly what is in the seeds, and what mix of seeds to other foods
you give.

Mikki Barry
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