[Anya]

I was watching a BirdTricks video where they were selling their cold pressed pellets. Looking to buy some pellets for Pugsley, I heard that baby birds can't break hard pellets very well, and these supposedly crumble easy, so I thought about ordering the BirdTricks pellets. All the ingredients sounded good. No corn, peanuts, sugar, etc. But I decided to do some research anyhow. To my surprise, I found that the ingredients in the BirdTricks pellets are exactly the same as TOPS pellets. I think it is rather deceiving of BirdTricks to put their label on these pellets and act like these are fantastic pellets that they came up with. They kept on referring them as "our pellets". Someone can buy TOPS pellets and later decide to try Birdtricks pellets, not knowing they are exactly the same thing! I am not impressed with Birdtricks one bit. TOPS, either, for that matter. But because I personally think they are the healthiest pellets for my bird, I ordered TOPS Mini pellets for Pugsley. It is important to always read the labels guys!

Check out the ingredients. The are exactly the same.

BirdTricks ingredients

Alfalfa leaf*,millet*, barley*, rice*, (the following ingredients comprise no more than 5% of total volume each) sunflower seeds*, sesame seeds unhulled*, quinoa whole*, pumpkin*, buckwheat*, dandelion leaf powder*, carrot powder*, spinach leaf powder*, purple dulse*, kelp*, rose hips powder*, rose hips crushed*, orange peel powder*, lemon peel powder*, rosemary whole leaf*, cayenne ground*, crushed red chili peppers*, nettle leaf*, cinnamon*. *organic

TOPS Ingredients

Organic alfalfa, organic hulled millet, organic barley, organic rice, organic sunflower seed hulled, organic sesame seeds unhulled, organic quinoa whole, organic pumpkin, organic buckwheat hulled, organic dandelion leaf powder, organic carrot powder, organic spinach leaf powder, organic purple dulse, organic kelp, organic rose hips powder, organic rose hips crushed, organic orange peel powder, organic lemon peel powder, organic rosemary whole leaf, organic cayenne ground, organic crushed red chili peppers, organic nettle leaf, organic cinnamon.

 

[ozzie3860]

Not really surprising. Can’t see Birdtricks being a big enough operation to make their own. I have caught TOPS doing the same thing with a few of our local vets and feeder supply places.

 

[Anya]

Well. it surprised me. BirdTricks also sells toys. Those are supposed to be rebranded, as well. In the old days, they would have called BirdTricks charlatans lol It is just a ploy to make more money. BirdTricks gets a piece of the pie and so does TOPS. Some reviews on Amazon said the mini pellets were not small enough for their parrakeets, but it still is the smallest size they offer and that is why I picked them. If Pugsley doesn't take to them right away, I am going to grind them down to a fine powder and mix them in his seeds and veggies to get him used to the taste. The good thing about having a baby bird is you are working with a clean slate!

 

[ozzie3860]

Well. it surprised me. BirdTricks also sells toys. Those are supposed to be rebranded, as well. In the old days, they would have called BirdTricks charlatans lol It is just a ploy to make more money. BirdTricks gets a piece of the pie and so does TOPS. Some reviews on Amazon said the mini pellets were not small enough for their parrakeets, but it still is the smallest size they offer and that is why I picked them. If Pugsley doesn't take to them right away, I am going to grind them down to a fine powder and mix them in his seeds and veggies to get him used to the taste. The good thing about having a baby bird is you are working with a clean slate!

Maybe charlatans maybe not. Depends a bit on what is happening. I work in IT and a consultant. What that means is that while I an a computer guy I also work a lot on different industries and learned about a lot of different things about them. In this case I have worked with human food manufactures that done rebranding so I think I understand a bit of how it works. Basically a client would come to a manufacture and said we want XXX product with our name on it and our mix. Depending on how big and order and how big of a future commitment the manufacture would be willing to adjust the processes to accommodate. In this case maybe the percentages of different ingredients used, how fine the ingredients are grinded, temperatures of ingredient delivery, dry times and many more factors than we can discuss here. That is why if you went to say a Shoney's, O'Charley's, Denny's, and Hooters restaurants and ordered potato soup they would be different. Even though all those soups would have started out at the same manufacturer using the same ingredients in the same process just with slight differences in how it is handled and each of those clients would put their own label on the product and sold it as theirs. BirdTricks would have done the same.
They would have gone to the same manufacturer that TOPS uses and said we want a bird mix with these ingredients and aspects. The manufacturer would have replied with that will cost you XXX, but we have already established lines that will cost you YYY, ZZZ if you want them. BirdTricks would then have to decide if they wanted to hold their ground at the XXX cost or choice a similar one that might make them more $$$ and put their name on it. BirdTricks is pretty protective of their brand of bird welfare so I doubt they compromised too much on the mix they would put their name on.

 

[ginziputzi]

Learn something new every day. And now I want potato soup.