camellia96 Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Hi there, I am a long time bird lover but a recent turn of events has prompted me to join your forum. About me: I am a licensed veterinary technician and have worked with tons of birds of all kinds. I have also worked with lots of different animals from raptors to elephants. I am currently owned by a rescued Timneh african grey who is 10yrs old and a plucker, a breeding pair of princess of whales parakeets and a flock of finches including gouldians, owls, and parsons. I have also fostered everything from quakers to amazons. I have two cats, crested geckos, gargoyle geckos and a doberman mix dog. The reason that I have turned to your forum is that my dog who just turned 1yr old has developed a very severe allergy to corn. It is so bad that just the smell of corn sends her into an allergic reaction. As you probably know, most of the pelleted bird diets have the first ingredient as corn. If she spends just a few minutes in the bird room her face swells up like a balloon. I have been desperately searching for a pelleted bird food that does not contain corn. I have only found one available. It is Roudybush rice diet. I ordered a bag and so far my Tag wants nothing to do with the stuff. I was looking into possible home made bird recipes when I found the post about chop on here. I am no stranger to the idea of chop but while watching the video and seeing the dry ingredients that were added. I got to thinking. What if I crush up some of the rice pellets and put them in the chop. Maybe this way I can get them to eat the new rice diet. I was also thinking that maybe if I put the corn based pellets (Roudybush) into the chop that the liquid from the veggies in the chop will keep the dust down and reduce the risk of allergic reaction when my dog is in the room with the birds. I'm going to try making a couple of batches today. One with the rice pellet and one with the corn pellets. Wish me luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snoepgoed123 Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 welcome to the forum! Kinda excited to have a vet tech on board! One brand of pellets that are good are TOPS (totally organic pellets) and they have no corn in them whatsoever... Harrisons does, but the corn is pretty far down the list. I would still be risky with using pellets with corn because if your guys are anything like my CAG they will love throwing their food.... and I know dogs tend to be living vacuum cleaners, so I would be worried that she might hoover up the food. once again welcome to the forums and post some pictures!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camellia96 Posted February 24, 2012 Author Share Posted February 24, 2012 Thanks! I have not heard of TOPS. Going to check that one out right now. Do you happen to know if there is enough calcium in it for greys? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWIX Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 It's nice to have a vet in the forums, please keep visiting. Welcome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aerial.2000 Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 welcome to the thread you will find great advice here for sure ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Welcome good to meet you and the fuzzy scaley feathered gang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aerial.2000 Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 It's nice to have a vet in the forums, please keep visiting. Welcome those pics of you and your flock are really nice ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Hello Camellia and welcome to our family, my you have quite the collection of pets and I know they keep you very busy but happy. Thats unusual for your dog to be that allergic to corn but it does present a problem when feeding pellets as it is an ingredient in most pelleted mixes out there but you may have solved your own problem by adapting a chop recipe to include the rice pellets, your bird may very well eat that mixture and get the pellets along with other good stuff, be sure to let us know how it goes if you try this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray P Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Hi camellia and welcome to you and and all your birds to the grey forum. Looks like you have a large flock to take care of. Good to have you on board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snoepgoed123 Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 I just saw you asked about calcium, TOPS doesn't have calcium, so you would need to supplement, I just supplement with veggies that have enough calcium. Though my guy is still a baby, so I'm still figuring everything out as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 To add a little calcium to a grey's diet offer a small sliver of cheddar cheese a couple times a week, my grey and conure both love it and react accordingly when the package is removed from the fridge, its the one food item they eat without dropping a single crumb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bran Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Hi! I am from Seattle as well! Welcome aboard! cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camellia96 Posted March 8, 2012 Author Share Posted March 8, 2012 Thanks for all the warm welcomes and advice. So far my Tag will not touch the chop. He is very picky. After several attempts I was able to get him to eat the Roudybush rice diet. The rest of the flock are ok with the TOPs pellets and love the chop. I tried tasting both pellets and have to say that the roudybush rice pellets tastes better than the TOPs pellets. TOPs tastes like rabbit food because it has a lot of alfalfa in it. The corn based foods (harrison's and zupreem) definitely taste better than the rice based foods. Ok so maybe I am weird but I do taste all of my birds foods. On a side note since the food change my Tag is growing in a ton more feathers than he usually does. Not sure why but I'm thrilled to see that he is getting close to being fully feathered now. And the dog who has caused all this change is getting worse so now I'm back to square one as far as her allergies go Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aerial.2000 Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 is there an allergy medicine you can put your dobie on ?? lil puppy benedryl or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bran Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Thanks for all the warm welcomes and advice. So far my Tag will not touch the chop. He is very picky. After several attempts I was able to get him to eat the Roudybush rice diet. The rest of the flock are ok with the TOPs pellets and love the chop. I tried tasting both pellets and have to say that the roudybush rice pellets tastes better than the TOPs pellets. TOPs tastes like rabbit food because it has a lot of alfalfa in it. The corn based foods (harrison's and zupreem) definitely taste better than the rice based foods. Ok so maybe I am weird but I do taste all of my birds foods. On a side note since the food change my Tag is growing in a ton more feathers than he usually does. Not sure why but I'm thrilled to see that he is getting close to being fully feathered now. And the dog who has caused all this change is getting worse so now I'm back to square one as far as her allergies go My TAG Dexter used to be the pickiest bird I had ever met, meanwhile my CAG Cooper is a pig and will devour his chop. After some sound advice from a few people on here, and trying different ways of introducing it to him, he now awaits his special breakfast every am. They will pick and choose what they like out of it, but there is always great stuff attached to the things that are healthy for them, like the quinoa, wheat germ, amaranth, etc. that sticks to the carrots that they seem to love. This way they don't know that they are eating healthy. I call it sneaky, and now Dexter will try new things, and is healthy as ever. I think the chop concept works at including different ways of getting a balanced diet, and true quality and continuity of care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 To add a little calcium to a grey's diet offer a small sliver of cheddar cheese a couple times a week, my grey and conure both love it and react accordingly when the package is removed from the fridge, its the one food item they eat without dropping a single crumb. I'll have to give that a try! Thanks, Judy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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