Help getting budgies to eat veggies.

[SimplyBirdLover]

Hi, as quite a few of you know I have 2 budgies and now, a cockatiel. I have had both of my budgies for almost 5 months now and I have successfully converted them onto pellets in that time. I am now trying for fruits and veggies. They have always been offered but my budgies have never touched them. Thankfully the cockatiel I just recently got is already used to eating fresh foods as well as cooked foods. I just can't seem to get my budgies to even taste the fruits or vegetables. They look at them but once they realize that it isn't seeds or pellets they walk away and ignore them like they're not even in the bowl. I've tried the method of placing a plate with fresh fruits and veggies on it at the bottom of the cage, I've tried to cut them up, dice them, slice them, I've even tried to blend them into a mush and mix them with their seeds just so they would get the taste but nothing has worked and they still barely even look at anything but seeds and pellets. I'm at least relieved since they eat pellets now and I feel like I don't need to worry as much as before but they still need their fresh foods as well. If there are any methods that I don't have listed please let me know and if I haven't already I will try it. Also if you have any tips or tricks it would be greatly appreciated if you could tell me because I'm very worried about their health.

 

[SimplyBirdLover]

Alsooo, I forgot to mention that they eat roudybush pellets!

 

[itzjbean]

Try making bird bread. Most birds go absolutely nuts for it and you can incorporate fruits and veggies into it. You can also try offering fresh fruits and veggies but shredded up with a cheese grater. The smaller the pieces, the better!

 

[Flboy]

You can also try shredding the veggies and sprinkle on the pellets.

 

[SilverSage]

Start with sprouts. Sprouting their regular seed is the simplest method of getting seed junkies to love fresh food!


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[GaleriaGila]

My bird loves his Harrison's now, but to get him converted, my avian vet suggested putting pellets out all day, and putting seeds (his old diet) out for two 15-minute periods a day. That would sustain him but leave him hungry enough to try new stuff. I presume the same technique could be used to get him to eat other healthy stuff. You wouldn't have to be THAT strict... maybe just take the pellets away for a few hours at a time?

 

[Notdumasilook]

On the bright side you did a fine job getting them to graduate to pellets!!. That is fantastic in itself and I think you can relax a bit on worrying about even a richer diet, and this is based on what I have learned over the years about cockatiels (and budgie) diets. Their normal habitats in the wild did not offer a whole lot and they evolved a digestive system that can squeeze out nutrients much better than some other species. Seems I recall reading that you can actually go overboard with too rich a diet it can do more harm than good. Again I am not an authority but just relaying the info I got and went by with my cockatiels over the years and thought I'd share this so maybe you don't sweat their diets that much. Certainly I don't mean to say not to offer mare variation.. just methinks its a lil less worry with your birds. Good luck!

 

[SimplyBirdLover]

Do you have a link to a good recipe by chance? I would really appreciate it since a lot of them that I see don't look like they'd be too healthy for the birds.

 

[SimplyBirdLover]

I completely forgot to say that they go insane for sprouts! That is why I find it so weird that they wont eat any other fresh foods!