Hi Everyone! I'm New And Look Forward To Learning Lots Fm You&

[Janet Grace 0]

HI!

 

I just registered. My name's JG. I have four budgies at the moment.

 

Long story short, I spent the earlier part of this year crying over budgies I'd purchased at a big name pet store (remain nameless) which came with salmonella - something I now know is common w budgies purchased fm those types of places.

 

MANY hundreds in vet bills later, with nothing but an empty cage to show for it, I did a lot of reading up on everything budgie and two months ago purchased two hens, two cocks from a reputable source.

 

I'm about to purchase a flight cage for them and do have a few questions regarding diet, space and breeding.

 

1). I just ordered "Harrisons" for their diet which right now consists of: liquid vitamins, ecotrition and encore brand seed, broccolli. I have not had luck with the fresh foods I've offered them, boiled eggs, bananas, pasta, rice, beans, peas, strawberrys, etc.

 

Right now, these guys seem to be seed addicts (I'll be changing that) .. I had a pet store owner tell me that I should offer them millet every day. I just looked at her and did not answer. ((( Yes, and I'll give my children McDonalds every day as well ... NOT! ))) My question is: Are there any "tricks of the trade" I can use to get my peeps to even TRY fresh foods? i hung pasta from the cage and had to remove it hours later, they just stared at it.

 

2). I am about to order a flight cage for them and don't have much room. My house is a tiny cottage.

One cage is 20 (w) x 20 (d) x 32 (h), the other is 30 (w) x 18 (d) x 36 (h) {a.k.a. HUGE} meant for breeding as well.

 

My questions are:

 

a). I want these guys to be happy, perhaps have one clutch - I am NOT interested in breeding, per se. I don't mind their having one or two clutches, which I'll give away to proper families, but I don't want them to die from overbreeding -- right now two are in love and the other two do not like each other.

 

Will the smaller cage deter them from breeding?

 

. Will they breed regardless of the cage size

 

c). Do they need special quarters to breed or will they breed if I do not include a nesting box?

 

d). Do I need to split up the hens from the cocks to deter breeding?

 

I appreciate your expertise. Please let me know your thoughts.

 

Thank you,

 

JG

[robyn 0]

HI!

 

I just registered. My name's JG. I have four budgies at the moment.

 

Long story short, I spent the earlier part of this year crying over budgies I'd purchased at a big name pet store (remain nameless) which came with salmonella - something I now know is common w budgies purchased fm those types of places.

 

MANY hundreds in vet bills later, with nothing but an empty cage to show for it, I did a lot of reading up on everything budgie and two months ago purchased two hens, two cocks from a reputable source.

 

I'm about to purchase a flight cage for them and do have a few questions regarding diet, space and breeding.

 

1). I just ordered "Harrisons" for their diet which right now consists of: liquid vitamins, ecotrition and encore brand seed, broccolli. I have not had luck with the fresh foods I've offered them, boiled eggs, bananas, pasta, rice, beans, peas, strawberrys, etc. first check safe food list, before, trying any new food. Under f.a.q. section. Don't know the "Harrisons" in oz. if they are on normal diet should not need a lot of additives. Add Calcium/Iodine bells or cuttlefish & shell grit.

 

Right now, these guys seem to be seed addicts (I'll be changing that) .. I had a pet store owner tell me that I should offer them millet every day. I just looked at her and did not answer. ((( Yes, and I'll give my children McDonalds every day as well ... NOT! ))) My question is: Are there any "tricks of the trade" I can use to get my peeps to even TRY fresh foods? i hung pasta from the cage and had to remove it hours later, they just stared at it. It takes repeated attempts to get them to try new things, little and often is the key. Most seed mix would include millet anyway.

 

2). I am about to order a flight cage for them and don't have much room. My house is a tiny cottage.

One cage is 20 (w) x 20 (d) x 32 (h), the other is 30 (w) x 18 (d) x 36 (h) {a.k.a. HUGE} meant for breeding as well. In inches cm? wider rather than taller is best

 

My questions are:

 

a). I want these guys to be happy, perhaps have one clutch - I am NOT interested in breeding, per se. I don't mind their having one or two clutches, which I'll give away to proper families, but I don't want them to die from overbreeding -- right now two are in love and the other two do not like each other.

 

Will the smaller cage deter them from breeding?

 

. Will they breed regardless of the cage size They will not breed if you don't add a nest box. If you don't want to have chicks don't add a nest box to cage.

 

c). Do they need special quarters to breed or will they breed if I do not include a nesting box? see above

 

d). Do I need to split up the hens from the cocks to deter breeding? no, they may mate but as above without nest box no chicks. If a hen lays on cage floor e.g just remove eggs.

 

I appreciate your expertise. Please let me know your thoughts.

 

Thank you,

 

JG

Hope this helps a bit. JG. Welcome to bbc. reading is the key to learning about everything on budgies. You should find anything you need to know in one section or another on here. Then it falls into place as you try your hand at breeding. Good luck, keep posting for answers if you get stumped on an issue. (We all do at some point)

[paulie 0]

My experience so far has shown me that birds that have ample food are more willing to nibble and explore other food stuffs, and a bird that isn't getting what it normally looks for it will be reluctant to try new food as they don't initially recognise it as such.

 

[Birdlove 0]

My budgie seemed to take forever to try veggies. At first I tried chopping up carrots and other veggies but he wouldn't touch them. Then I tried clipping small peices of kale in his cage near a favorite perch. Eventually curiosity got the better of him and he nibbled the kale; then it didn't take long for him to try other green leafy things like lettuce (now he wont eat kale but he loves lettuce..) He's tame so when I introduced other veggies I would eat them with him watching, and he usually can't resist trying something I put in my mouth, so in that way I've got him to like carrot and ocasianally other veggies. If your budgies aren't tame it still might work to eat new foods with them watching; when you don't die they think "well it must not be poisonous and it must be food"...

 

Also, just choose a one food item in one shape/size and offer it every day and eventually they'll probably get interested and nibble it. My budgie tends to like green leafy things more than other veggies and ive read about other budgies having similar tastes. It probably has something to do with the fact that wild budgies eat grass seeds and sometimes they also eat the grass plants; they never really eat veggies or fruits in the wild.

 

Putting peices of vegetables in the food bowl might also work...

 

Good luck and be patient!

[Janet Grace 0]

Thank you so much everyone for your replies.

 

These guys are my loves, so I read up on their breed every single day. There is plenty out there and as teacher, I enjoy gathering, learning, and exploring new things. Thank you again and again. Best to all. JG

[budgetminded 0]

Very late on this topic and perhaps you will never see the posting. I've had good luck with a "mash" approach recipe: boiled sweet potato; cooked quinoa; al dente seven-grain cereal; cilantro and then just a tiny amount of mixed seeds. Make small balls and roll them in some rolled seven-grain-type cereal (raw). As the seed-addicts dig through the potato for the seeds, they can't help but discover other things. Vary the recipe with proven, safe additional veggies. The balls are freezable. Also, don't let your birds buffalo you by refusing to eat; eventually they will rethink their boycott (and will be healthier for it.) Mine sure love fresh cilantro. Interestingly, they prefer the stems to the leaves and chew out the "pulp" leaving the outer skin of the stems. They return for the leaves much later. Watching not only what they eat but HOW they eat has taught me a lot.

[WYSIWYG 0]

I'll leave others to address cages and breeding issues but what I'm doing at the moment with some success to introduce fresh foods is to offer small bundles of herbs and safe grasses, greens etc as items to destroy and shred. While initially they were used as little more than chew toys or being moved around to get the cage to how he wants it, he's slowly transitioning to, "Ohhh... and it's edible!" in little nibbles. I am placing the herbs and grasses around the foodbowl, alongside perches as if they were hideyspots and 'bush' like perching areas - basically mimicking as much as possible a natural setting which might make them enticing to chew on. While he does have seed in a dish, he has a number of gumnuts he's got to shove out of the way along with bits of fresh food which he inevitably gets a small taste of when shoving aside. I think it's very much harder when the birds have come from a source where they predominantly ate seeds because their parents have not taught them at early ages that food can come in many different ways or in the way of fresh food specifically. I've been lucky in that my other parrots were weaned onto a variety of fresh foods so I've never had to deal with this before. Hopefully persistence prevails though!

[Finnie 0]

You've been given a lot of good advice, and I'm sure that in the time between starting this thread and now, you've been able to learn what you needed, or done without. I just want to address the following in case anybody reads it and gets a wrong idea.

 

Also, don't let your birds buffalo you by refusing to eat; eventually they will rethink their boycott (and will be healthier for it.)

 

I'm not sure what budgetminded meant by that statement, but I would caution anybody who wants to make changes to their budgie's diet to keep watch over whether their bird is getting enough to eat. Budgies CAN and WILL starve themselves to death if they don't recognize a new food and are not given the old food they are used to.

 

This is often in the context of switching a bird over from a seed diet to a pellet diet. Make absolutely SURE that the bird will eat the pellets, and eat enough of them, before you remove their supply of customary seed.

 

It may take a budgie days or weeks to get up the nerve or the curiosity to try a new and unfamiliar food. It would only take a day or two for them to starve to death if their regular food is withheld.

 

There is no such thing as "when they get hungry enough, they will eat it" like you can do with a dog or cat. A budgie just won't figure it out.