Do nutri-berries completely replace a seed diet or would the cockatiel require seed too? (as well as fresh food of course)

No, nutriberries are to replace pellets, not seed. So you would use them in conjunction with seed and fresh foods.

I had a look on Amazon and it was £26 ($40?) for a 4lb tub. This seems pretty outrageously expensive, is that the general sort of price they are? I can't imagine it lasting too long either, a 4lb tub. That wasn't including shipping either.

Yes, this is normal. A 4lb tub is actually good, its a lot bigger than you're thinking. Nutriberries are little balls of seeds, so there's a lot of balls in a 4lb tub.

When i was looking i mostly saw ones that were advertised for parrots, are these suitable for cockatiels or do you need to get a cockatiel specific one?

This part I don't know, I don't feed them.

How much would you need to feed them a day? Would it work out as feeding them less than seed?

I belive its one or two balls a day per tiel, so you're not feeding them a whole lot. But remember, this is a long with seed, you aren't taking the seed out of the diet.

 

A 4lb tub lasts my two birds about 6 months, so it's actually not a bad price. I would get the cockatiel-specific ones, since the ones for the larger birds will be designed with different dietary needs in mind.

 

Idea behind nutriberrys is you can feed them along with a seed diet and get much better nutrition for your bird, so longer, healther lifetime.

Pure seed diets or pure pellet diets tend to not be as good.

Nutriberrys tend to be tolerated pretty well by most birds. Can even crush them and slip them in with their regular seeds.

 

It's a good thing i asked about the amount to feed, cos i would probably grossly over feed my bird by filling his bowl up with them everyday lol!

Yeah 4lb sounds like a lot if it's only one or two a day then. I was thinking of the 2lb bag of seed and how long that lasts him and trying to equate it. :blush:

So would the nutriberries be crumbled into the seed or given separately?

Edit - just seen Ghost's answer, must have posted at the same time as me lol

 

Wowzers, postage appears to be the same price again, so it would be about £50 ($85ish?)

I think i shall look around and see if i can find something similar. Thanks for the advice guys, perhaps i'll find a supplier in a pet shop somewhere.

Actually, i'll try the place that i currently get Smokeys and Bob's food from, maybe they can order them in.

 

Nutriberries are primarily available in the US/Canada. They're sometimes available in other places as a special import item but the price is outrageously high.

Nutriberries are made by the Lafeber Company which has contact info at http://lafebercares.com/contact-lafeber-for-premium-pet-bird-food-bird-care-resources/ My recommendation for Nutriberry-deprived people in other countries is to write to them telling how much you would like to buy their product if only it was available at a reasonable price. If enough people do this, maybe they will set up manufacturing and/or distribution in places like Europe and Australia and then Nutriberries will be easier to get.

 

Good thinking!

I think i will email them

Edit - i just emailed them and basically said that i'd heard about the great nutritional value of nutri-berries and that they had come highly recommended on a well known cockatiel forum but unfortunately i can only get them online where they are out of my price range and asked them if there was any plans for exporting nutri-berries for sale in countries like the UK and Australia.

That's pretty much the gist, i signed it from "Louise *insert last name* and Smokey the cockatiel" lol.

 

That sounds good...you may even get some free samples too.

 

I'll let yous know if i get a reply

 

You could also try to make your own.
http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=6958&page=3

 

Homemade nutriberries don't have the complete nutrition that's in real Nutriberries. Real Nutriberries are nutritionally equivalent to pellets; the homemade version is a nice treat for your birds but it isn't a good substitute for pellets.

 

I was thinking that too tielfan.

I did try the recipe up there and ended up having to throw out my baking tin cos i didn't line it and i must have made it wrong cos it didn't turn out well lol.

 

Hi

Just joined, so this is my first post.

i'm in the UK as well and got Nutri-berries online at Northern Parrots.

They sell a 340g tub of the original Nutri-berries for £7.99. I just got an order from them last week (the Nutri-berries and Zupreem Natural cockatiel pellets) and it arrived the next day.

I already buy the Zupreem pellets for my cockatiel but have never tried her with the Nutri-berries, however after reading the reviews on this forum I thought I'd give them a try. I crushed one up and mixed it with her seed mix and pellets (also crushed as its the only way she takes them) and, while its still early days, shes definitely picking at the Nutri-berries.

 

Thanks that web site is ace and prices aren't too bad! I've also had issues sourcing nutriberries and decent toys locally, i may just stick with these guys

 

Wow thanks for the link!

I did notice though that all their pics of nutri-berries seem to have parrots on, are they suitable for cockatiels too?

 

Yes, they are fine for tiels. If you click on 'Bird Types' in the description, it list cockatiels among those that they're suitable for.

 

Thank you! I shall order some when i get paid

 

The "Original" size will probably work best for cockatiels. Even that one looks like it has some medium-size chunks in it that aren't in the cockatiel-size nutriberries and might be hard for a tiel to handle. But most of the parrot nutriberry looks like the same small bits that are in the cockatiel size.

 

Could they still be crumbled into the normal seed mix he gets every day?

 

Yes, you can crumble them up. If you go to http://www.northernparrots.com/lafeber-nutri-berries-original-complete-parrot-food-prod57610a/ and mouse over the picture of the parrot nutriberries you'll get a picture that's almost life size.

If you do the same thing at http://www.petsolutions.com/C/Cockatiel-Lovebird-Food/I/Cockatiel-Nutri-Berries.aspx you'll see the cockatiel size for comparison.

 

Ah i see

Thanks for answering all my questions guys! I think i may get the smaller parrot ones and crumble them up then