Budgie food?

[Emio123456789]

So my budgies just ran out of food and I need to get them more but their old food wasn't very good so I want a new healthy food. Now I know new food should be slowly introduced but I've been so busy lately I didn't even realize how much I had left. Now I have an allergy to tree nuts so nut free food would be best but I am prepared to wear gloves and stuff when filling up their food if it means their on a healthier diet. My birds have not been introduced to pellets yet but they are eating fresh veggies and occasionally sprouted seeds . also any tips on introducing budgies to pellets?

 

[noodles123]

You could try presenting them in the morning when they are most hungry and remove other options temporarily..Over time, they may decide to try them....I mix some healthier seeds in with my U2s food because I think she would starve if I didn't...If they prefer softer food, you could try wetting the pellets a bit, but if you do this, you will have to throw them out after an hour or so and wash/dry the dish...The Zupreem fruit blend isn't perfect, but often times, pickier birds will eat it more easily than other pellet varieties.

 

[EllenD]

With Budgies you need to go very slowly introducing a totally new "staple" food to them, meaning the main food that they eat all day long (pellets or seed-mix), because they typically won't just start eating pellets. That being said, it's extremely important that the seed-mix you're feeding your Budgies is a healthy, varied, low-fat seed-mix that is totally free of sunflower seeds, ANY NUTS (especially no peanuts), and NO CORN at all! These types of food, sunflower seeds, all nuts, and corn should only be considered TREATS to a captive, pet bird and not at all a part of their regular daily diet. The reason is that pet/captive birds don't fly miles and miles every day like the wild birds do, so all of that fat in the nuts, junky seeds like sunflower seeds, and then all Corn (which has no nutritional value at all) just builds-up in their liver, and they develop Fatty Liver Disease very quickly. The main reason that Budgies are thought of as "throw-away" parrots, or not parrots at all, and that they usually die as pets between 5-10 years old is because they are typically fed a junky, high-fat seed-mix from a grocery store, Walmart, etc., and they die of Fatty Liver Disease, Diabetes, Obesity, etc.

My very first Budgie lived to by 18, just shy of 19. And I did this by feeding him a high-quality, healthy, low-fat, varied seed-mix as their "staple" that also had a correctly-sized pellet in it as well, along with plenty of dark, leafy greens and fresh veggies, with very occasional fresh fruit as a treat (too much sugar in fruit, turns into fat) and a millet spray as a treat once every two weeks or so.

****So instead of wanting to just switch them over to a healthy pellet all of a sudden, as you'll most-likely just end-up changing right back to the seed-mix within a few days of them not eating the pellets, what I recommend that you do immediately, right now, is go out to your local pet store and choose a healthy, low-fat Budgie seed-mix that is "fortified" with vitamins (will provide the same vitamin content as a pellet will), as well as containing a Probiotic (or you should buy a separate Probiotic supplement to add once daily to their seed-mix), that is free of all sunflower seeds, nuts, and corn, and that will start them on the road to a healthy diet....And also make sure that you have plenty of fresh, dark-leafy greens, as Budgies love them. There aren't quite as many brands that make healthy seed-mixes for Budgies as their are that make them for larger birds, but they are out there. If you've been buying their seed-mix at Walmart, Target, etc., or at a Grocery Store, that needs to stop now. Those are exactly the types of seed-mixes I'm talking about that will kill them young for sure. The nice thing about Budgies is that while they have a hard time switching from seed-mix to pellets, they don't have any trouble at all switching from one seed-mix to another.

***In 32 years of owning Budgies (I was 6 when I got my first one, bred and hand-raised by my mother) I've tried many, many high-quality, healthy seed-mixes made for Budgies. Unfortunately you can't feed Budgies a seed-mix made for larger parrots such as Cockatiels or Conures, because the seeds/legumes/grains/etc. are too large for the Budgies to eat all at once, they have to pick at them, and that tends to discourage them from eating it. So you have to buy a high-quality seed-mix that is made for Budgies size-wise, and that lowers your choices tremendously...However, there are a couple brands that make fantastic high-quality, fortified Budgie seed-mixes...And believe it or not, Kaytee is one of the best...FOR BUDGIES. I am not a fan of Kaytee's seed-mixes or pellets for larger birds, but when it comes to Budgies (and for that matter Canaries and Finches), Kaytee makes a HUGE variety of different types of seed-mixes, as well as a healthy seed/pellet combo food. Kaytee has many different "Families" of bird food, and it's all about choosing the healthy ones. For example, Kaytee sells a line of foods called "Fiesta", which is nothing but junky seed-mix. That is to be avoided. They also make a line that is all Egg-based, and this is meant for breeder Budgies who need the extra calories, fat, and Calcium of Egg-Food...So you want to avoid that...However, they make a line of foods called "Kaytee Exact" which contains no sunflower seeds, nuts, or corn, and that is fortified with vitamins and minerals, Probiotics, etc. It's low-fat, high protein, and is also the line of their food that includes a mix that is both seed-mix and Budgie-sized pellets, which is something you could eventually try to switch them over to, since it contains both they are more-likely to switch over...The other line of Kaytee Budgie foods that is good besides the "Kaytee Exact" line is the "Kaytee Forti-Diet" line. Again, these are low-fat, high protein, and fortified with vitamins and minerals, probiotics, etc., but they don't contain any pellets, it's just healthy seed-mix. Those are the only 2 Kaytee lines of food for Budgies that I would EVER buy...

***Besides Kaytee, the other really great, high-quality Budgie foods out their include Zupreem Natural for Budgies (fortified), Zupreem Sensible Seed for Budgies, Roudybush Daily Maintenance for Budgies, Tropimix for Budgies, any of the Volkman Budgie seed-mixes, Higgins Vita Seed for Budgies (really great food), Ecotrition for Budgies, and VitaKraft for Budgies...most of these are available at any Petco. They are going to be more expensive than any of the crappy seed-mix you can buy at Walmart, Target, or any grocery stores, etc., but they are well worth it, and any Pellet is going to cost you the same as any of these high-quality seed-mixes, so either way you're going to have to spend more per month...

***After you switch them over to a high-quality seed-mix and fresh, dark, leafy greens and fresh veggie diet, and they've been on it for a while and are used to it and eating it regularly, then the best way to get Budgies to start eating pellets is to start slowly incorporating a healthy, Budgie-size pellet into their seed mix. You cant just take away their seed-mix and give them pellets, and honestly I'm a parrot owner who feeds pellets as my bird's main "staple" and they have them all day long, but they also get a small amount of a high-quality, low-fat seed-mix every single day as well, because their GI Tracts and their minds are both designed to naturally and innately eat seeds, grains, and legumes. So taking away seeds all-together is not good either in my opinion. With my Budgies, they eat a 50/50 mix of pellets and seed-mix together, and they love it. And they get Qwiko Avian Probiotic powder sprinkled onto their food once every day, first thing in the morning, as their only extra supplement. And they are all happy, healthy, and thriving.