feeding schedule for a budgie

[alicia]

no i think well my rotieen is i clean there cage every day bath them on wednesday's and yeah

[alicia]

i feed them about 2 times a week

[sirstargazer]

I plan on making sure they have food (and not just shells) every day. It's just the days when I want to let them out, I was thinking of removing the food 4 hours previous so that all the food passes through their system before letting them out (thus they have no food to poop). However, I wouldn't want to starve them so what do you think? would that be bad for them or no? :)

[Budgiekin]

Hmmmmm...I don't have a scientific answer to this one, BUT I don't think I'd be inclined to restrict their feeding even if it is only before you let them out to fly. It is best for them to eat frequently and in smaller amounts. They'd be pretty hungry after their out of cage time and would likely gorge on copious amounts of seeds or whatever other food is in their cage. That's just me.

[Bea]

i feed them about 2 times a week

They should get fresh seed 7 times a week - why are you only feeding them twice a week?:S

[sirstargazer]

it's just that i've heard that some people that let their birds fly around the house will poop less and less the longer they are out (I guess they just run out of poop). so I figured if they dont' fly back into their cage in that amount of time, as long as i'm not restricting how much they get for more than 4 hours before hand and providing food to them soon after letting them fly around a bit, it wouldn't be too bad. But I just wanted to make sure.

Does anyone have any tips concerning this?

[Bea]

I think budgies being so small need access to some form of food at all times - including when they're out for flying (whether you simply leave the cage door open or have a dish of food somewhere else for them). I have my guys out for hours at a time and i find they poop consistantly every 15-20 mins, regardless of the frequency of feeding.

[budgiesmum1953]

I have to agree with Bea about them needing some form of food at all times, especially as a budgie's metabolism is so fast, they surely need to replenish energy levels which are used up so quickly. Also I think they can judge better than us when this needs to be done as they instinctively know when they are hungry and need to eat. Also I've had budgies for most of my life and they've always flown free, the amount of poop they leave around is so tiny and also dries up so quickly it honestly isn't worth worrying about in my opinion.
Hope this helps :)
Love, Jan. XXX.

[Nancy]

You mentioned potty training. I read in a book that you can potty train a budgie. How is that done?

[sirstargazer]

I was going to use this method:
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=15&cat=1795&articleid=2997

and I suppose I can just make sure I clean up after him. ^^ I was just hoping there was another way as it isn't my house and I wouldn't want her making more of a mess more than possible.

[Nancy]

Thank you for that site. I might even try that someday but my Sugar has a long way to go before we get to that point. Good luck, it sounds like a lot of work.