#pellets

As those who follow me know, I work at an animal shelter and have a certified 3-year apprenticeship as a vet nurse and now 3 years experience working with Bunnies.

Now. The reason for this Post are two recent drop offs. Bax and Indisor, lop eared siamese bunnies, no age known, Pellet fed their whole life.

Pellet. And Mealworm.

The vet of the previous owners told them to feed their bunnies with dried Mealworms. They did so, almost exclusively for several years, until Bax started developing bladder, kidney and teeth Problems. They dropped the bunnies off with a 3kg bag of dried Mealworms, seeds, Kernels and dry, colorful Pellets.

Bunny owners of Tumblr and beyond, I now plead to you, do the proper resesrch. Don’t feed your bunnies the way Bax and Isidor had to live.

Okay so - Hi! I've actually thought about this subject alot. And ive been meaning to post this! Plus, w the blasters thing, Ive been surrounded by the firearm industry for a while (tho i aint no expert) so...I hope you don't mind me yapping. Cause I love this post and I love headcanons about just all the awful ways Blakk and late-stage capitalism was killing Slugterra. 

THE ORIGINAL WONDERFUL POST, GO GIVE IT A LIKE/REBLOG:

I find that a lot of Slugterra is commentary on our modern day lives, and that includes Blakk's portrayal as a plague that's spreading to every living thing on the planet. One doesn't have to mention to their friend how the short videos on every platform is driving them insane, or how every necessity of life is run by a few rich evil people, in every conversation; it's assumed in every conflict. The Slugball ep has become a lowkey favorite of mine because it explores this so well. He's everywhere. It's why the Gang is awful at recruitment; it's why they camp so often; it's why they are so excited, then destroyed, by master Shanai's death, and twists betrayal; it's why slugterra as a show even works, because without blakk, a ton of actual adults might be stepping up to take responsibility for people's safety. But the heroes become mall cops, paid to serve; the politicians work on compromise instead of regulation of his industry building. It's grim. Every kid in Slugterra isn't growing up wanting to be a traveling slinger vigilante-ing forever. It takes a certain soul to sign up for that, and luckily or not, Eli is one of the rare people to be taught to want this lifestyle from a very young age. Point is, the entire concept of the show doesn’t work unless you as the viewer understand these concepts. Blakk’s episodes dont work unless many caverns are indited/complicit. The gang’s adventures dont work if theres some type of overarching security organization that the people trust to get rid of particularly bad villains for them. Eli’s love for slugs being seen as odd cannot work without the assumption by the viewer, then, that most people dont treat slugs this equally. I find that alot of modern shows spell out alot of these things, in narration or particular scenes, but the viewer doesnt need that. Slugterra respects our intelligence, and i love that about it. And the best part, is that while its not spell out, it IS explored narratively - lumino ores ep, deadweel cavern’s ep, stalagmite-17’s ep, the beast forge eps, blakk building this empire in the flashbacks, the obvious narrative tension between twist thinking blakk wants to use her vs. blakk actually wanting her out of his way (aka im not stealing an empire im BUILDING one myself, im done taking over gangs and chess pieces), and so on. Nearly every ep explores 1) some effect blakk’s had on the caverns, 2) the shanes effect on the caverns, or 3) how bad people operate their villanous schemes in their slugterran environments (as a fish pirate intent on material wealth, as a childish isolated nerd, as a traumatized college student, as men who like shooting blasters and dont care what for, as semi-smart men who will jump on any bandwagon if they think it’s the winning team). Thats the whole show. Heres slugterra, wow its wacky. This wacky place created certain conditions that led to this really bad thing, for ex. slave mine cavern and its gang. Figure out by context clues how this happened and enjoy how younger folks who want good to triumph in the face of evil beat them. Or dont beat them. They actually arent victorious sometimes. It’s a fun show due to this storytelling! 

So, you're correct about accessories! But i dont think slugterra would allow itself to be run by one company making them. This is, like, the ONE time i refuse to think a monopoly could work. In fact, i think, unlike real life, blasters have been standardized to a point theres only one type of blaster shell still widely used. Not to mention, there proof that all the shells are interchangable in the show itself. Firearms used to be like what you are describing, with certain parts for certain models. But usually, especially if its under the same brand, you can get away with interchanging parts, because making firearms manufacturally complicated is dangerous, because you do not want people mishandling them, or cleaning them incorrectly, or breaking them, or worst of all, not understanding how to make them fire. Believe it or not, firearms are made to be idiot proof, and the more safety’s and simple limitations the better. We are past the era of having to rely solely on locking firearm triggers, yay! Still do it tho, kids. Its reliable :)

and when it comes to the ammo part...yeah that was one of the first things to be patented. Buying only certain shells from certain retailers is annoying and will push people to make their own ammo (VERY BAD VERY ILLEGAL). Its costly and creates a dangerous situation if you put in the wrong shell, or a badly-made shell (DONT MAKE THEM). There are so many times in the show when every slinger with every type of blaster imaginable - long bore (pronto) pistol (Eli and trixie) shotgun (kord) wrist (Junjie) etc constantly use each others shells and slugs interchangeably. It's actually a lot more standard than real life, cause in real life you need life size charts to explain all the different types of slugs one can buy (and yes, ‘slugs’ are a type of ammo irl! They’re known for big kick-back and loudness and low-accuracy but very high speed and range. “Slugging” a round is a real slang term). Different types for for different firearms, for accuracy, for recoil, for range, for legality where you live, for purpose, for price...kinda endless. You can make your own but its VERY ILLEGAL and DEF SHOULDNT BE DONE and i TOTALLY DONT KNOW ANYONE WHO MAKES THEM. Blaster shells just aren't like that, I don't think. Especially due to the velocity needed to get 100 miles an hour out of a crystallized energy source, instead of the firearm standard of a hammer-trigger mini explosion? They found a good shell dimension blueprint and they all followed it. I actually think Blakk has very little control over the mech and blaster industries in terms of production. It's reselling? Absolutely! We saw that with Barton and spinks! The dealers are where corporate greed shine. But Blakk doesn't manufacture those, he doesnt literately run the blaster factories. He tried it w the beast forge just for the heart ghouling, but after that, he only looked at blasters and mechs as things to destroy. He manufactures trains and ghouls, to control/ruin those industries instead. After all, they are the industry rivals OF blasters and mechs.

Anyways, you do not want to live in a world, especially a modern one, where certain blasters need certain shell gear to fire. It would mean that blasters become less a tool the average person has for occasional slugfire that needs little to no maintenance (mainly its just feeding the slugs and not damaging the weapon) and more something the average person needs to constantly buy new shells for. The average person irl can give it up, the average slugterran probs would be far less willing, cause their pets like transforming and they have jobs that need slugfire, whether for the powers or their protection on the roads (like in ep 1). And a great many people have given up marksmanship because 25 cents a bullet is just too high a cost, and because of constant maintenance needed (please for the love of whatever deities you love, please read the firearm cleaning user manuals, please, PLEASE). Thats why im proud to work at a place that supplies ammo and gear to students for free with the yearly membership! Maybe in the cities this upkeep would be fine, but it’d be a real big problem in rural/poor slugterra. But regardless, unlike most places in the world, i think the vast majority of people down there have a blaster and rely on the reuse and and standardization of this equipment. Im not saying this non-standardization would start civilizational collapse, but i am saying that uprisings and revolutions have began over far less daily-life matters of cultural and practical importance. And hell, even junjie’s eastern tech shells and blasters were compatible! There might literately just be one type of shell that Works and every other type attempted just Doesn’t. Kinda like how every civilization has tried the Curved Bore and every civilization has realized it will Never Work. hence every barrel is straight. Similarly, never have more than a few barrels (most ive seen is 3 but thats rare/an antique style). You will be burned, you will be burned with LEAD, in a possible EXPLOSION, the recoil dislocating at least one arm. Physics dont change depending on continent. (btw, this is why the gattler didn’t have multiple barrels, and instead, one big one in the middle, I think. Still tho, that giant thing must get hot FAST).

But don’t worry - theres always blasters that are better at some things and worse than others. Plenty of corporate greed opportunities. Barton and spinks type shops have a real law-depends-on-the-owner feel too, in certain places, partially due to the corporate environment/monopoly they hold, tho thats more financial dealings than manufacturing cheats; and most firearms are grandfathered, and many, many people would not like, say, a change in the manufacturing of their blasters’ shells, making their family heirloom/work tools unusable. This is far more excusable when a person can own 600+ firearms, which i can legally say i know a few of those, but in a world where u only need one, mostly, and their forever-tech, id be hella pissed if i was forced to one company my whole marksman life, and fucked if that company decides to change their patents. And in a world with blakk, they would try to do this, if it was possible! but they never did. Blakk never made a fuss about it in the show, which tells me the standardizations is a foregone conclusion.

Love this analysis. There's alot of real-world examples of the public knowing how awful a person is and, for many personal and/or stupid reasons, not caring. Slugterra and the surface really aren't that different, and it's terrifying conceptually. Blakks been around for decades. How many places has he mingled in, how many good people have partnered with him, helping his image? Hell, mario bravado didn’t even turn down blakk for morale reasons, he was just a hot shot. I love this show.

THAT I can agree with - I kinda wish we saw him try to gain public support more often. Most of the time, in the show, he stepped on the gas in terms of his evilness. Cause like, oh shit, a shanes arrived, u know? He got to be all precise and careful and slow the past few years, and before that, will Shane slowed down progress. But throughout the show, he's bolting towards his goals. Maybe in some flashbacks with will Shane we could have seen him gain support, or at least respect amongst peers. At the same time tho, i remember ep 2; where in his first talk with Eli, a) Blakk actively sugarcoats their rivalry and b)the gang says Blakk's the last one to see him alive...but otherwise can't point out much noticeably bad about his reputation. That's the most important thing about the man Trixie could inform Eli of before Blakk met up with their group. Gosh, that whole first interaction is fascinating. I absolutely think Blakk pretended he and Will were friends publically(and were they actually???). "I owe my life to him in fact" genuinely haunts me. So yeah he can put on a polite facade, though maybe polites not the word, more like, impartial. "Apolitical". Like a ceo of a company in 2013 pretending they have no political ideology for the sake of shareholders, like a CEO of a train company who totally just wanted to lay track and the worldwide political consequences of such power were a natural part of the business and not the goal in the first place. And people like peace, people get complacent. Cause there's always Shane's, there's always people trying to make the world better, so surely, the world is becoming a better place, and we're all very chill and civil rights and gay pride and all that stuff will never be political again! We dont have to defend those anymore cause we won! Yay! But no one is truly apolitical, especially not the CEO's. Maybe alot of people knew that, but saw Thad presenting himself so neutrally they thought it wasn't all that important in the long run. Hes sympathetic, hes just a guy. He wouldn’t break his neutrality. He’s having a great time. Unless a shane or something comes around he might just lounge like this forever! Only committing small acts of evil!

And on a random note, just something ive noticed lately - we all (yeah i do this sometimes too) have Lord of the Rings standards for all of our media. If the show didn’t explore something, thats a flaw on the show. If a character doesn’t follow the path we want from them, that matches our conception of them, its a flaw of the show. If we do not receive a base level of exposition or explicit lore, its a flaw of the show. If there’s no big boss fight where all the good guys learn their lessons and all the bad guys make sense and earn their final endings, its a flaw of the show. But like….i dont think so. I think we judge slugterra too harshly sometimes, because its not trying to be lord of the rings, it tells its story in a very different way, and i think thats not a negative!

I think we need to get better at considering why these decisions were made, and the good it does to the show. I didnt expect Blakk’s character changes late s2 and in GfB and onward, but after thinking about it, I utterly adore it; the worst people alive in the real world, after all, are like him. Petty and rich and assholes despite an upbringing that could have led them down a better path. Its my opinion that this was the more complex route for blakk’s character - falling deeper into greed over time, into his feud with the shanes, less focused on goals and more on wielding power of every form available, less on business and more on vengeance in RotE. Its easy to make a sympathetic villain, its harder and more meaningful in the year of assholes running the world 2026 to create a villain that is at times evil, at times nonsensical, at times emotional, and most of all, stuck in traditionally harmful mannerisms of power and greed that keeps dunking them deeper into world-destroying tendencies. I freaking love canonic Blakk. AND fanon Blakk. We all have our preferences but i really dont think he was a bad or uninteresting villain for any point in the show. Like fuck, the scene with him NOT killing eli? He’s not sympathetic but boy do i wonder where that rage brings him. AND, its a great foil for eli, who (also mostly in the later seasons) has the opposite of ambition. trying very very hard to make his friends and allies dreams come true (helping junjie, training tad, negotiating with SC) and not necessarily being selfless, but rather, lowkey giving up on getting anything he’d personally want, and forcing himself to be fine with that. 

Every New Year, the night sky bursts into brilliant colors, captivating everyone with dazzling fireworks.

The magic behind these spectacular displays comes from minerals carefully packed inside each firework.

Common metals like copper are mixed with other chemicals to form “metal salts,” which are packed into pellets called “stars,” along with gunpowder inside the firework shell.

When the firework explodes, the intense heat, sometimes over 2,000°C, excites the electrons in the metal atoms. As these electrons return to their normal state, they release energy as bright, colorful light.

The specific color depends on the metal used.

There's been a significant rise in the expectation of transparency between pet food manufacturers and the general public. Dog food manufacturers, for example; have AAFCO, feeding trials, and an array of nutrient digestibility charts, base nutrient expectations, and sanitary guidelines to follow which a lot of brands then openly share with the public. These standards help pet parents make more active choices in what they feed their pets, tailor their pets diet to meet their individual needs, trust that their food meets a base line of nutrition, and that the food was produced in a sanitary manner. The dog food industry is far from perfect and even these regulations have their flaws and the tests aren't without fault but it is a good base for us to compare to when we're trying to sort out what we want from other pet food manufacturers. In this case I'm focusing on parrot pellet manufacturers.

I had a few different goals heading in to this.

I wanted to see how transparent pellet manufacturers would be with sharing information that is common to ask dog food manufacturers (information is not confidential, revealing formulas, secrets, etc.)

The availability of nutrient analysis charts (breakdowns of how much of each nutrient is in their pellets)

What standards parrot food manufacturers held themselves to

If any feeding trials were performed on their pellets

And to preface this with my own bias, I am pro-pellet, I currently feed pellets.

Before we get too deep in to this let's break things down a bit.

As it stands there really aren't any regulating bodies above parrot food manufacturers as far as I could find. There doesn't seem to be much of any standards when it comes to their sanitization or product quality, the best you get is the FDA/ CFIA which basically just make sure a food isn't outright toxic. As it stands there haven't been enough studies done on parrot nutrition for there to be a governing body stating what the minimum nutrient requirements are for parrot food, we simply do not actually know what those requirements are yet so there cannot be a set standard for it. This unfortunately leaves us open to a lot of problems, if there's no nutritional requirements and no standardized testing then we're really just putting a lot of trust in to a company that wants to turn a profit. We're hoping that the food that says it's nutritionally complete is what it says with no evidence to show for it, and no science to confirm it.

So with that said no parrot food can actually claim to be "100% nutritionally complete", we do not know what nutritionally complete looks like for parrots, there is no science to back up those claims.

So I set out and emailed every parrot pellet manufacturer I could think of and asked them the some questions.

"Does your company do feeding trials? If so, is that data available to the public anywhere?"

"Do you have a nutrient profile available?"

Feeding trials are very simply a test where you feed a set of animals exclusively one diet and then monitor them to see if the food is capable of providing the base essential nutrients needed to live. Usually they do blood work, urine and fecal alongside regular physical exams to monitor things like nutritional deficiency, ailments, and nutrient digestibility. This helps show that a food is capable of providing what the target animal needs to survive without causing health problems and provides vital information on what amount of vitamins/ minerals in the produced food are actually being digested and absorbed. These tests are common among well-known dog food companies and most are more than willing to share that data to give their consumers peace of mind with easy transparency.

And let me tell you I am beyond disappointed at what happened when I asked parrot food manufacturers the exact same thing.

TOPs: No nutrient profile listed on the website, does have a detailed breakdown of why every single ingredient was added though. Happily discloses that parrot nutritional science doesn't have all the data to claim any food as 100% nutritionally complete and advises for the feeding of fresh foods in addition to their food, didn't specify exactly how much of each to maintain optimal nutrition.

I emailed them three times and never got a response back from any of them.

Harrisons: Does say you can feed 20% vegetables by weight while the pellet should be 75%, has an easily available nutrient analysis on their website.

also emailed three times with no response back.

Caitec: no nutritional analysis listed on their main website, website did not state how they want their product to be fed, product packaging states that veggies should be a treat/ addition and lists the pellet as a "complete diet".

emailed three times with no response back.

Lafeber: Primarily promotes mixed seed and pellet formulas, doesn't state any risks of parrot's selective consumption (study on that problem), does promote the feeding of fresh produce in conjunction with their formulas at 20% of the diet, no nutrient analysis on their website.

emailed three times with no response back.

Zupreem (Compana Pet Brands): did respond back but they phrased their response in a way to dance around the subject, after some pushing they confirmed they do not do feeding trials. Encourages use of fresh foods with their formula, at least 60% pelleted diet recommended. Had an extremely small nutrient profile that just skipped over the important nutrient requirements like the Ca:Ph. I asked for a nutrient profile which they did not want to provide but were able to tell me that the naturals pellets have 0.59% calcium

Roudybush: Says fresh foods can be fed but "as a minor part of the diet", does say that science doesn't have enough information to make a product tailored to each species of bird, did make changes to their formula recently to remove menadione in favour of alfalfa due to it's potential toxicity. does seem to be evolving as science progresses. Ingredients list wasn't listed on the website, nor was a nutrient profile.

did not reply to any emails.

Tropican (HARI): I was hopeful for this one by the way their website boasts about their feeding trials and research. So so hopeful.

Talks about doing feeding trials openly on their website, recommends 70% pellet to 30% fresh foods (by caloric content not weight) but mentioned that their birds eat 100% pellets. Easily accessible albeit basic nutrient profile but it covers the main things.

After my email Mr. Hagen actually ended up calling me and what I was hoping would be a motivating call ended up being very hostile. Whenever I asked questions about data or results of a feeding trial I was immediately shut down, the topic was changed, I was interrupted mid-sentence over and over again. I was able to get small tidbits of info that were as vague as "we've fed multiple generations of birds on this food" and "we do annual weigh-ins". He would casually mention data from a study he had done but then dart away if I asked for the name of the study so I could read it later. It was an extremely off-putting phone call. Completely unwilling to say how many birds were in a trial, how many years the trial went on for, if there was bloodwork or nutrient digestibility charts, nothing at all. He also casually mentioned that once the birds are old enough they get sold to stores which was very unnerving to me.

So I guess they maybe do legitimate feeding trials but they will under no circumstances offer that data to the public? I don't know. They wouldn’t provide any published articles or data to actually prove that the trials exist and I will definitely not be contacting them again to find out. They suggested I was trying to steal their formula and lying about my identity. I'm not going to try to get a simple answer out of them again.

Mazuri: recommends 20% fresh foods 75% pellets, nutrient profile available on the website.

did not reply to any emails.

Pretty Bird: Does not do feeding trials, prompt to reply, at least knew what a feeding trial was. Couldn't find feeding recommendations on the website, no nutrient profile aside from the generic guaranteed analysis having a few add-ons but still skipping on the important nutrients you'd want to know about.

Kaytee: Did not know what a Feeding Trial was. Thought I wanted samples and offered me a coupon. I had to explain to this animal food manufacturer what a feeding trial was. Unsurprisingly they do not do feeding trials. Website had no listing of a nutrient analysis. Recommended 70-90% pellets to some fresh foods. In their own published article they went over how damaging seed diets are for parrots but then they also sell seed-only diets with the ingredients they were specifically bashing in their own article. When I asked for a nutrient profile this is what I was given:

"Nutrient levels are calculated based on ingredient data, feed compendium tables and direct diet analysis. Actual levels may vary slightly due to ingredient and analytical variation."

Kaytee exact naturals cockatiel pellet:

"0.4% Calcium 0.2% Available Phosphorus (non-phytate P) 0.1% Magnesium 120 ppm Zinc 140 ppm Iron 700 IU/kg Vitamin D3"

and that's just extremely limited information. I'm glad they were willing to provide something but in comparison to some of the others it's just not a lot of data.

Psittacus: advises for the use of grit in parrots, recommends 100% pellets but says you can feed a minimum of 70% to make room for fresh foods. Their response to feeding trails was really vague: "our products have been evaluated and tested in our centre as well as collaborating centres. This information is for internal use and it is not published anywhere". Wouldn't say what tests were done or elaborate further than that in any way. I then inquired for a detailed nutrient analysis chart saying that Mia's calcium has been a bit of a struggle (since it has been), curious if their brand may have more calcium than the ones Im using now to help her out to which they replied with "our food contains the calcium levels appropriate for him/her". (you literally cannot say that, you haven't run tests on my bird, you haven't worked with my vet regarding my bird, you cannot guarantee a blanket statement like that.). They did offer me a link to this catalogue which has more detailed info on their pellets production and a more thorough nutrient analysis chart.

I am shocked by the responses I received. I am disappointed in parrot food manufacturers. I am frustrated with parrot food regulations.

I knew I wouldn't get much out of these emails since the standards for parrot food are so low but the amount of companies that just pretended not to get my emails or didn't even know what a feeding trial was is ridiculous. The amount of companies that were making claims that science can't back up, or making claims that science actually disagrees with is astounding.