Posted by pipkinpoppy on Mon, 04/30/2007 - 08:19 :: Budgerigars
I just have a few questions to ask about feeding budgies, so here goes...
1. Is it nessessery for budgies to have fresh fruit EVERY day?
2. Do i neeed grit?
3. Which is best - a cuttle bone or a mineral block?
Posted by kim on Mon, 04/30/2007 - 19:31.
1. You should have any parrot on as healthy a diet as you can. Budgies are in the wild grain, seed, grass & fruit eaters, so yes your budgies should have a good variety of both fruit & veg, leafy greens & sprouts. You can add pellets for the nutritional balance & of course some seed. Everything in moderation & you should have a healthy budgie.

2. Grit is debatable. Some countries grit is frowned apon. Is Australia it is widely used with no ill effects. Read this:
http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww58eii.htm
& then decide for yourself. If you choose grit for your budgie theusual best one is oyster & charcol grit & when ever used never over do it. Just a tiny bit weekly is enough.

3. You can try both on your budgie. Your budgie will only eat when it needs to & the amount so don't be suprised to see either last for years.
______________________________________________________________________
Kim
Cricket (tiel)
Eddie (eclectus)
Squash (sun conure)
Australia
Posted by karen on Mon, 04/30/2007 - 19:43.
1. Not fresh fruit necessarily, but they should ideally be getting fresh foods daily. Veggies, greens, sprouts are much more important than fruit. The problem is that adult budgies who have only ever eaten seed may not know and recognize that other things are food. It can be very hard to get adult budgies off an all-seed diet.
There are various things to try, such as sprouting their seeds, or clipping fresh leafy greens in the cage.
I think the easiest least wasteful thing to start with is to prepare some fresh food that you can freeze in servings. One simple thing is to chop up some raw broccoli finely in the food processor and then add in a small amount of some additions of cooked grains or pasta or carrots or other chopped veggies. Broccoli works well because the little buds look seedlike to budgies. Freeze in daily portions (ice cube trays work well - store in a bag once frozen). Then every day you can remove their seed dish after they've eaten a little in the morning and later give them a dish with about half seed and half veggies mixed together for the day. Then let them have a dish of just seed again in the evening and see how hungry they seem. Eventually, they will start picking through the seed-veggie mix more and more and not be especially interested in the evening seed dish. Then you can start offering a more varied diet, mixing more different veggies and grains and legumes... there are a variety of different parrot mash diet recipes. Add less and less seeds to it until you are sure they're really eating it and not just picking out seeds. Then it's up to you whether you go back to leaving a dish of seeds all day or not. Once they realize fresh food is good, they will probably eat it on their own, so as long as they are eating their fresh food too and not overweight, they can have their seeds available too.
2. Budgies don't need grit. If you want, offering them a few grains now and then won't do any harm. They shouldn't be offered a dish of grit, since sick birds may overeat grit and cause an impaction.
3. If you can find one, use a mineral block with iodine. Budgies are prone to iodine deficiencies. Since your two are males that should be all they need. A mineral block alone should provide plenty of calcium for them. Cuttlebones are just for calcium.

Karen
Chico (conure) and Pippin (budgie)
WI