I am almost out of pellets. I was using Roudybush maintenance pellets and also "Pretty bird" small bird pellets. The second one says it contains genetically modified maize and soya (that I didn't see until I bought it online). The birds like them. Not sure how much they love Roudybush (I mix them with seeds) but I guess it's OK.
I was wondering if I should try something different. Recommendations?

while I was reading Harisson's recommendations for switching, I've got a question... is it not good to offer your bird a variety of stuff to eat? I mix sometimes in the same bowl their seed mix and Roudybush pellets, and sprinkle Pretty Bird pellets on the top... while everywhere it's "switching to"

There's a lot of hysteria about GMO in the "alternative" community, but in reality it looks like it's as safe as any other kind of food. There isn't even a sensible reason to think that it's somehow more dangerous than plants that mutated naturally. The biggest producer of genetically modified seeds is Monsanto (a U.S. corporation) and it's not unreasonable to think that they might have enough political clout to cover up some inconvenient facts here in the US. But there's no reason to think that they could influence the European Union and the World Health Organization, and both of these major organizations have concluded that GMO is as safe as conventional crops.

Personally I would rather have GMO than some of the other methods that are being used to produce new seed varieties, since it's carefully controlled and safety-tested and they know exactly what was changed about the plant. There's a "natural" technique called mutagenesis where they bombard plants with toxic chemicals or radiation to produce unknown, uncontrolled genetic changes, and if they get something out of this that they like they start selling the seeds to farmers. This is one of the techniques that's used to produce new varieties of organic produce.

BTW there's no evidence that organic is better or worse than conventionally grown crops. Major studies show that the nutritional content is basically the same. Organic may have slightly more antioxidants and conventional may have slightly more protein, but the differences aren't significant. They both have about the same level of pesticide residue and fecal contamination. Conventional has slightly more pesticide residue and organic has slightly more fecal contamination (which transmits fun stuff like salmonella and e. coli). But once again the differences aren't significant, and the pesticide residues will normally be well within the safe range. Studies have shown that 99.9% of the toxic chemicals in produce were produced by the plant itself, and eating organic won't save you from that stuff.

BTW organic does NOT mean pesticide-free. They just can't use synthetic pesticides. There are "natural" pesticides that are approved for use on organic crops and some of them are nastier than synthetic pesticides. There are some small farmers who don't use pesticides at all, but larger-scale organic farmers usually do use pesticides.

Pellet manufacturers usually want you to switch your birds to a diet that consists almost entirely of pellets, since they'll make more money that way. Personally I'm not keen on switching a bird to pellets, but rather expanding the diet to include pellets along with other healthy foods.

do you work in health-food industry, Carolyn?
For some reasons Harisson tells me that everybody needs to start with HIgh potency food for 6-8 months, and then go to a different pellets of their brand... I bet they would say that birds can ONLY eat their high potency food for half a year and nothing else... that sounds a little fishy to me.
Anyway I am getting a free sample from them soon

No, I don't, but bird nutrition is one of my interests and all kinds of subjects come up when people get together on a forum to talk about it.

Harrison's recommendation to use high potency for several months has never made sense to me. Nutritionally it's pretty much the same as their handfeeding formula, and I've never seen anyone recommend that you feed handfeeding formula to a healthy adult bird for months on end. I think the general idea is that it will help make up for past vitamin/mineral deficiencies, but there's too much fat and protein in it for ordinary use. I would just give them the regular pellets and only use the high potency for special occasions like when they're breeding.

BTW Nutriberries are the "pellet" that's easiest to get birds to eat. They're nutritionally equivalent to pellets but the ingredients haven't been ground up as fine, so they look like seed balls.

Every bird I've had over the years, I've tried on pellets and not one wold eat them... even the wild birds didn't eat them... all a gimmick I recon' a good mix of fresh and seed, keeps all of mine healthy...

My budgies get a 50/50 mix of seeds and nutribird B18.
My canaries get a 50/50 mix of seeds and nutribird C19 (which is also available for the zebra finches)
My zebra finches I give a seedmix for exotic birds

I also provide Céde eggfood for the specific breeds (canary/budgie)

The Cockatiels are still on all seeds but I'm planning on adding nutribird G14 soon and gradualy increase till I'm at about 50/50 dosage.

Among other nasty problems, GMO's have led to factory farms that produce huge mono crops. Honeybee's are dying as a result.
GMO's led to widespread use of Roundup which is carcinogenic and contributes to colony collapse in honey bees. Small farmers are being pushed out by the huge factory farms. I have to question that GMO's are widely accepted in Europe. I believe the only place they are actually widely accepted is here in America by the factory farms and the influence they have on our market. Organic gardening produces foods that are chemical free, taste like real food and are good for the earth and we humans and our pets. Finally, I really don't believe this is an appropriate topic for this forum. Especially when none of us are authorities and yet could possibly influence others in the care of our birds.
P.S I have considered myself to be part of the "alternative community" for most of my life.

Factory farms and monoculture crops have been around for decades, long before GMO existed. That's due to the cost efficiency of large-scale production, not due to any particular type of plant seed, pesticide, fertilizer or whatever.

Organic GARDENING can produce chemical-free food when it's your own garden and you have complete control over what happens to it. Large-scale organic farming is a different matter, it looks very similar to large-scale conventional farming complete with pesticides, herbicides, monoculture crops and seeds that have been tampered with. It's not quite the same type of chemicals and altered seeds that conventional farming uses, but they have the same end result - dead bugs, dead weeds, and nice produce.

There's a technique called cisgenic engineering which is OK to use with organic farming. It's genetic engineering using genes from the same species or closely related species. "True" GMO is transgenic engineering which used genes from unrelated species. Not a whole lot of difference between them really, and it's easy to find articles from the organic community complaining about it, for example http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2014/05/d ... Xb330Y8WtB

No one knows for sure why honeybees are dying but it seems to be due to a combination of factors. Pesticides/herbicides are one of these factors but Roundup is pretty far down on the list of suspects - it may or may not be part of the problem. It's one of the least toxic herbicides that there is, which is why it's so popular. When it hits the soil it breaks down quickly into harmless compounds, and it doesn't harm anything but the plant that it's been applied to, with a couple of exceptions. It would NOT be a good idea to be out in the middle of the field breathing it in and collecting it on your skin while it's being sprayed, because such a high level of direct exposure isn't good. A surfactant in Roundup (not the active ingredient which is glyphosate) can cause problems for aquatic life so something else needs to be used in the immediate vicinity of bodies of water. There's an alternate form of Roundup called Liberty that doesn't contain this surfactant and can be used near water.

Roundup works by inhibiting a specific enzyme in plants. Humans and animals don't have this enzyme so Roundup doesn't bother them. "Roundup-ready" plants have been genetically engineered so they continue to function normally even when sprayed with Roundup.

The only problem with Roundup that seems to be reasonably well documented is its impact on the monarch butterfly population. It doesn't harm the butterflies directly, but the use of Roundup has dramatically reduced the population of the butterfly's host plant (milkweed) on the edge of farm fields. People are being encouraged to plant milkweed in their yards to support the butterflies. I planted milkweed in my yard to attract butterflies long before any of this hit the news, and I'm many miles away from any farm fields. The butterflies really do like it too. I don't know how many monarchs I get (Tucson isn't exactly on their migration route) but there are lots of other species that come.