budgie diet

[budgielove]

i have a few questions about their diet and also how i am going to get them to eat their veggies.

what is the best way to serve vegetable to budgies? i have tried carrots, zuchini, sprouts, broccoli, and romaine lettuce. they seemed to like the zuchini but only when it was chopped into tiny chunks. also they ate some of the sprouts but i don't know if they liked them all that much. they wouldn't touch the carrot, broccoli, or lettuce. should i give them their vegetables in the morning before i give them seed, or later in the day after they have eaten all of their seed? what other vegetables should i try? how can i get them to like eating vegetables? is it necessary to give them fruits, because i have read that there is not very much nutrition in them and they contain lots of sugars? i have tried to give them apple, but they didn't care for that very much.

right now i feed them twice a day and they get one small treat every day at the same time when i have my training/taming sessions with them. once a week i give them a yummier treat like honey millet or a honey seed bar. they have a cuttlebone in their cage all of the time. am i doing this right? they seem healthy, but i am concerned that they aren't eating their veggies. am i feeding them too much seed and too many treats?

also: is it okay to give them veggie cheese or veggie sausage or something like that for protein and calcium without the meat and dairy? i eat these things alot and i have lots of extra i could give them if it would help supplement their diet, but i haven't tried it yet because i don't know if they can have soy products or if it is even necessary.

any thoughts on all this? i would appreciate your advice on this. thanks!

erin

[Bea]

Firstly, i would cut out ALL treats except training treats. I never feed honey seed treats simly because there's nothing benificial about them. Sometimes i give my budgies a little bit of a millet spray but not too often.

Fruit - no, you don't need to feed them fruit. I would say that veggies are more important.

With the veggies - just keep trying, that's the key. One day your budgies will probably decide to try things they've already turned their beaks up at. I wouldn't bother too much about getting them to eat lettuce. Try things like endive, snow pea sprouts, and bok choy. And try presenting anything you offer in loads of different ways. (e.g. carrot - sticks, grated, cooked, finely chopped) My budgies prefer carrot sticks to any of the others. Also, if you wet the broccoli then roll it in a bit of seed to poke some seed in amongst the buds they may try to pick out the seeds and get a taste for the broccoli.

Protien - i would avoid the veggie cheese and sausage. Budgies can get protien from legumes (lentils, beans), mashed hard boiled egg (nothing else added) or if you don't want to cook something you can buy egg and biscuit mix from the pet shop. My birds get that as part of their daily diet. Better still would be added pellets to their diet as pellets are a great source of protien for them. :)

[budgielove]

thanks bea! i will definately cut out the treat then (i only gave it to them twice and it was a week in between each time so i doubt they will care much anyway).

are pellets a supplement or are they like a meal unto themselves? the seed mix i have has something that looks like pellets mixed in but they don't eat these. should i buy pellets seperately? how will i get them to eat them?

that's a great idea about the broccoli! i am going to try that. i read in a parakeet book that you can try to mix chopped vegetables with a little bit of vegetable baby food and that they might like that and start liking their veggies. i was thinking of trying that also with shredded carrots and mashed carrot baby food. is this a bad idea? they seem to like their food finely chopped, which was how i was serving the zuchini and they were just eating it up like they loved it.

another question: i read that you can sprout their mixed seed and you can feed it to them and it will have added or different nutrients and this can be good for them. how do you get the seeds to sprout and is it worth the trouble?

thanks!

;)

erin

[Bea]

Many people believe that pellets should replace seeds in a budgies diet but i don't, what i do with my birds is make a sort of layered dish type thing with seeds, egg and biscuit and pellets. So for Blinkie and Ozzie i put about 2 teaspoons seed each, i teaspoon of egg and biscuit sprinkled over that and then 1-2 teaspoons of pellets sprinkled over that. :) They have to eat through the pellets to get to the seed that way. You're lucky in that you're in America so you'll have access to the good pellets. The best brand is Harrisons, it's all organic and made from human grade foods. There are also good brands like Zupreem and Roudybush. Don't buy colourful pellets because they use artificial colours and stuff to make them colourful. Avoid the brand Kaytee as i've heard they use ethoxyquin which is very harmful to birds. Check the ingredients of any pellets you buy for this but the brands i listed are good ones.

Baby food is a great idea! Just check the ingredients to make sure there's nothing in it except the fruit/veggies and maybe vitamins. Get organic baby food if you can - that would be even better. My budgies will eat baby food just on it's own, they love it.

Sprouted seeds are GREAT for them and i was thinking of writing an article about them for the site but wasn't sure if anyone would be interested. I might do that now. You'll most likely find that the seed mix they're eating isn't great for sprouting - especially if it has pellets or grit in it. I buy wheatgrass seeds from the health food shop to sprout. It's super easy and doesn't take long, most birds love sprouted seeds.

[pal0m1n0]

What about Lafeber? (I think I spelled it incorrectly)

[Bea]

I'm not sure because i can't actually get any of these brands. Do you use Lafeber? If you do you can check the ingredients for ethoxyquin. As long as it's made from natural ingredients and doesn't seem to have lots of artificial preservatives and colourings you should be ok.

[pal0m1n0]

No, I don't, but I was thinking about it. There literature makes it sound equivalent to Harrison's (not organic though) and it is available in the pet store. I would like to get them on pellets, but at the moment they seem a lot more interested in eating people food than their seeds. Their people food is outside the cage and seeds are in. Maybe that has something to do with it.

[budgiesmum1953]

Thank you Erin for starting this thread. I have kept budgies for years on and off but things are moving so quickly with their feeding that I wanted to get all the info possible before looking for a new sweetie. I tried raw veggies for Harry on numerous occasions before he became ill and he just wasn't interested, seems he liked all the wrong things, fruits such as apple, orange, grapes also lettuce. Thank you Bea for the very informative reply as there are so many different ideas in there on how to get them to eat what is good for them, also the baby food I had never thought of that! Sprouted seeds I now know what to use as I did think this might have meant sprouted Trill, but now know to look for Wheatgrass. Also I am pretty sure that when we were taking Harry to the vets that I saw Harrisons on the shelves there.
Jan. XXX.

[budgielove]

thanks for all the ideas bea! i tried the broccoli thing and it worked. i will keep trying and we will see if they start liking it more. i will also look into finding some seed to sprout here in my town. there is a health food shop around the corner and they probably have some there.

i also wanted to let you guys know that i tried the baby food thing and it totally worked! well, with carrots anyway. i mixed some organic all-natural carrot baby food with shredded carrots and just a bit of seed to get them interested. daisy didn't really care for it much but star just dove in!

the only downside was that star got baby food all over her face and now her face is stained orange! all the way from the top of her head to her chest! it is the funniest thing! i'm sure it will come out but she sure does look funny! so go ahead and try it if you are prepared to have a messy looking budgie! haha!

:p

erin

[Bea]

Do you love when they get covered in food!! <3 I think it's the cutest thing!

[budgielove]

Do you love when they get covered in food!! <3 I think it's the cutest thing!


haha! yeah it is adorable! i wish i could take a picture. daisy is still cleaning the mess off of her face now as we speak!

:p

erin

[pal0m1n0]

It is also surprising just how far they can toss their food as well. :)