Eating seed only.

[Jaime]

My 2 budgies will only eat seed.

So far I have tried corn, grapes, lettuce, broccoli, egg and biscuit, apple, grass (and probably a few more things I can't think of right now) but they refuse do try any of it.

I had one of those seed / honey treat bells that they ate, but since replacing it they won't touch the new one.

I also have cuttlefish thingy's and two bell shaped things which I *think* are calcium and iodine ( 1 is pink and 1 is white) but they aren't interested in them either.

Anyway, I'm worried that this isn't providing a varied and balanced diet for them. They have only been living with us for a month and are young (not long out of the nest when we got them) so should I keep offering varied foods or is it possible that they will only be seed munchers?

I feel bad for them cause seed is rather boring, and it also doesn't allow me to bribe them with anything for bonding / training.

Is it ok if they are just eating seed? Are there any negatives from just eating seed?

[Angie]

Keep tring. It can take months for birds to try new foods. Eat in front of them. Offer them some of your food. Let them join you at meals. If you can. Try coating the food with seeds.
Be patient.

[ronsig]

I have the same problem! I don't understand it because one of my birds was found outside. She must have been eating grasses to survive.
I offer branches from fruit trees, grasses, grated carrots, apple, they don't go near it. After two years, they tried tender red and green lettuce, and they like it!!! I thought they would try other things.... But they can tell that it isn't the lettuce they like, and they will not even try anything else.
I crush blueberries into the food, and sometimes I see blue beaks...but other than that...I haven't been successful either. You can try rolling apple slices in seeds and mixing soft fruit or grated carrots with seeds.

The seed mixture mine get is fortified with vitamins. They do have mineral blocks in their cage, and I also give a supplement.

Honey treats are not good for budgies, because they are too sweet. You could bake your own.
However, most budgies will do anything for millet, and that is something that works here as a bribe.

If your seed mixture is fortified or if you offer a supplement, I think your budgies will be ok. After all, they come from Australia, from the dry areas where they don't get much green stuff.....:p
Keep trying, but don't go crazy:rolleyes:

Sigrid:budgie: :budge:

[Bea]

All seed is really bad for them, even if it's got vitamins and other stuff added to it. I would suggest choosing 1 type of veggie and just putting a little bit in the cage EVERY day until they try it. :) Could take weeks or months but in the end, getting them to eat veggies every day as well as their seed is absolutely vital. An all seed diet can lead to obesity, tumours, and other health problems (in the long run, it's not going to happen overnight).

In the meantime (while they're being fussy butts) you can help them to get the best out of their seed by measuring the seed in their food cup/s. Each budgie needs only 2 teaspoons of seed per day. Measuring the seed will mean that to get their fill, they have to eat all the seed varieties in the mix and not just the yummy oats and millet. :p

Some good veggies to start with are dark leafy veggies (dark lettuce, bok choy, spinach, etc). Try offering it in different ways too. Some will prefer it chopped/grated will others will prefer a big leaf hanging in the cage (mine prefer big leaves/chunks). You can also wet it and then roll it in seeds. This will make seeds stick to it and then your budgies might pick the seeds off and get a taste for the veggie. :D

You also mentioned the seed sticks, they're like chocolate for your budgies. So limit them to once every month or two if you really want to feed them those (mine get them on special occasions such as their birthdays and christmas). Have you tried feeding them spray millet as a treat? I'm yet to meet a budgie who turns their beak up at spray millet and it's a brilliant training treat.

[Jaime]

Thanks for the suggestions!
I will try rolling some lettuce in seeds tomorrow to see if that will encourage them.

I seem pretty safe with the treat bells. They ate the first one but the second one hasn't been touched, and I'll get some millet sprays tomorrow as well. Seems that everyone agrees that they are too good to resist.

Will also try different serving suggestions - grated/shredded/chunks.

Now if I could only get them to be tidy when they eat their seed....

[animalrie]

I have a similar problem, but my birds will bite the new food and drop it on the cage floor, whether its lettuce, fruits, or even pellets! :(

[Keet1976]

Mine is pretty picky and really only likes his seed and millet.

Some one the forums have suggest baby food veggies and fruit. Put a little baby food and mix it with their seed. Mine actually ate some of that trying to get his seed, but I made that the only food available for most of the day.

Also if you get all the little broccoli tops and mix those in with seed they will eat those cuz they look like seed.

I have also switched to using seed, pellets and an egg supplement. I only offer the seed at certaint times during the day so that he does eat the pellet and egg supplement.

[Bea]

Now if I could only get them to be tidy when they eat their seed....

Measuring might keep things cleaner. I measure my guys seed and there's never any seed mess around the cage. This is because the seed is at the bottom of the seed cup and they don't jump through kicking it everywhere.

[Donna]

Hey Bea,

While we're on the subject of measuring out the seed for the day, what do you suggest for a cage that has 2-4 Budgies in it? I have 8 Budgies, so I have 4 in one cage, and 2 in the other 2 cages. What happens when there are certain Budgies that are little "piggies" and they eat so often that maybe the other one (s) don't get to eat as much?

Would you just measure out 4 tsp. of seed for 2 Budgies for the day and hope that they both get to eat enough? I have one or two Budgies that will eat all day if I let them and they tend to HOG the seed sometimes. It's ridiculous how much seed I'm starting to go through.

I do love the fact that if I only put a small amount of seed in the bottom of the food dish, they won't be spilling it because they will savor every bite and hopefully they won't walk through the seed and kick it out. I think most people aren't aware of how little seed their Budgies need. Most people probably think that they need to fill the hanging container completely full, and that's nonsense. I would ask why the cage companies make the seed dishes so large, but I am pretty sure I know why. They make money off seed because they know that most people aren't aware of how little seed a Budgie needs, and people end up overfilling the containers and go through much more seed than is necessary.

Donna

[Bea]

Would you just measure out 4 tsp. of seed for 2 Budgies for the day and hope that they both get to eat enough? I have one or two Budgies that will eat all day if I let them and they tend to HOG the seed sometimes. It's ridiculous how much seed I'm starting to go through.

Donna


Absolutely. I think we all know that my Ozzie is a big fat piggy. My boys have two food dishes, 2 tsp in each. They both maintain a stable weight, despite the fact that Oz seems to be at the seed bowl much more frequently than Blinks. :p

[Donna]

Thanks Bea, for the quick response. I guess I was just afraid that one Budgie would hog all of the seed and the others would not get their share. Even though I have 2 seed dishes in the cage with 4 Budgies, I just don't want one or two Budgies eating the share of the other Budgies, and then the other two starve.

My Budgies are going to have a rude awakening when I CUT their food supply down, ha! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: (That's 8 eeeks, for 8 Budgies!!!!) I've been way overfeeding them.

Donna

[Jaime]

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated!

I bought some millet today and within 30 seconds of it being in their cage Puppet and Bandit were eating like starved budgies.

When they came out of their cage onto their play gym they got stuck into it again, and it's the first time they have eaten ANYTHING while out of their cage.

I'm hoping now that they realise that they can have nice treats out of their cage they will relax a bit and try some other stuff.

Oh, and very exciting for me, today is the first day that Bandit hasn't bitten me!!! Maybe she just had a millet high LOL

[ronsig]

Millet really works for most budgies. :)
Mine have to work for theirs...no such thing as "free millet" here any more. You can bribe them to do just about anything....:p
I tried the broccoli - zero interest:ohno:
But I will keep offering healthy stuff....

Sigrid :budgie: :budge:

[BabycakesKristen]

I'm having a similar problem as well. Banana my male budgie is looking a bit larger than I really think he should... (He's giving me the eye as we speak because he knows I'm talking about him...) It's really difficult to get both of my budgies to eat any fruits or vegetables what so ever.

The only veggie that I've found to be successful are celery leaves. Banana loves celery leaves but won't ever touch the mixed veggie bowls I will offer him, even when it has millet on top and inside of it to entice him.

Keet1976, what a great idea to include broccoli tops inside of the seed mixture!! I actually think that might prove to be successful for my budgies. I will have to try that in the near future, considering I just bought broccoli a few hours ago. :)

[BabycakesKristen]

I just noticed how your budgies went crazy for millet and I wanted to warn you not to give your budgie too much millet during the week. I would recommend one sprig of millet a week for a single budgie. Millet is the culpret in my Banana's weight gain and it's better to limit their millet intake early so they don't expect it all the time. Just a word of advice :)

[Cheetah]

I'm going through this battle right now. Every day, I offer veggies, and every day I return to remove the bowl and nothing has been touched. >-.-<

I just bought a mirror and stuck it in front of the veggie bowl, as was suggested to me, so we'll see if that works. I'll try anything!!

Today, I was also thinking of giving my budgie (who I have decided to call Rain) little pieces of millet while outside of the cage, so that is a good idea. If it's just bits of the sprig, I won't overfeed either. >^_^<

[Jaime]

No worries with over eating of the millet. It is now used for bribing purposes only LOL.
Puppet gets a bit if he stays on my son's shoulder for a while and as for Bandit...well, I stand at arms length away from their play gym holding it and she gets to eat some as long as she doesn't try to fly away. I have to hold it at the very tip and she will very cautiously nibble the other end.

I still can't get really close to her but when I'm there you can almost see the debate going on in her head "hmmm, do I stay for millet or make the mad budgie dash for under the table"

Not really any luck on the vege side of things yet, although Puppet did go *near* the bowl with broccoli in it.

Between kids and budgies I feel like a broken record..." Jordan, eat your vegies. Bella, eat your vegies. Puppet and Bandit, eat your vegies." LOL

Getting there slowly though :)