How is a Pellet made ?

[lovemyGreys]

As many members feed a pellet based diet i thought a little background knowledge on how they were made would be useful to us all.

 

 

 

Pellets are processed by two different Methods

 

.Method one is the compression or pelleted method.

 

All ingredients are finely ground up, with minerals & vitamins being added. This is then heated via steam roughly to a temperature of 180%F.The protein & starch in the ingredients become sticky when heated which allows the mix to be compressed & holds the pellet together.

There is very little nutritional loss in this method due to the low heat.This method does kill of some bacteria, but both good & bad will still be present.By using the pelleted method the end results contain a lower fat content & may have a lower caloric density.This just means that a bird can consume on average 20- 30 % more pelleted food than the extruded food.Pellets made by this method will have a denser & heavier feel & look.

 

Method two is the expansion or extruded method.

 

As in method one the ingredients are finely chopped with the addition of vitamins & minerals to which water is added & cooked under pressure to temperatures over 300%.This produces a gruel like mix which goes into a mould.when this gruel mix comes into contact with the air it expands to form a pellet.

These pellets may come in different shapes & sizes & sometimes dyes are added for colour enhancement.This method uses a very high heat therefore killing any bacteria,but higher temperatures can also destroy some of the vitamin & mineral content.Pellets made this way will be lighter in colour & less dense in appearance.Extruded pellets are more concentrated so the bird will eat less than the compression/pelleted method pellet.

[Talon]

Excellent thread Tracy! Wow! You've really brought some very good information here to us. Keep up the good work! Karma for you!! :cheer:

[judygram]

Tracy, that is some very good information to know, thanks for sharing these facts with us, most of us don't know how the pellets are made, but now we do.

[Guest Monique]

Great information!! Thanks!