Hi everyone

Is it okay to feed my budgie pellets

give it veggies everyday and millet seeds once a week?

Thanks

There are huge debates about seed vs pellets.

Neither is wrong nor right.

 

Personally i don't feed pellets. I prefer to feed seed and vegetables.

What seed blend are you giving your birds as you havent said ?

 

PS I dont use pellets either.

Read this: Pellets v's Seed

OUr FAQ section in the Food and Nutrition Section is chocked full of information PLUS there is a sub-topic for recipes...run there and read you will find so many interesting things and it will clear up all your questions .

Not only others, but my vet told me to go onto pellets. How else do we stop fatty liver and other things like that in budgies?! I am paranoid about feeding my budgie seed except for training etc.

The fact that im having trouble weaning my new boy onto pellets is causing me distress.

Jwancia....Its a vet thing. They see so many sick birds who have just seed diets. We, on here, feed a great variety of things to our birds. If you dont now you will as you learn from others on here. The fatty liver thing the vets use as part of the paranoia is primarily based onm birds that have a plain and bland diet. A lot of people think they are doing their birds a favour by buying plain brand seed and giving them water to wash it down. A lot of vets these days jump on their soap box and try and promote the use of pellets instead of seed. They say that pellets are a complete diet for a bird and that they dont need seed. I tend to diagree with this completely. Just as I would not feed my dogs an all dry food and my cats an all dry food, my budgies get the best of everything EXCEPT pellets.

My birds do not just live on a basic seed diet. They get the best of seed, soft food, soaked seed, greens and vegies. They get native branches, gum, peppermint tree, and hibiscus. They dont much like fruit so I stopped with that apart from occasional citrus to pick at.

The key is variety but keeping their basic diet the same and adding in the extra things.

I liken the use of pellets to us human beings living on a diet of polony, balony, fritz or whatever you want to call that "luncheon meat ". A whole pile of stuff cooked up and extruded and served as a complete food. Who knows whats in it ? Polony apparently has all the rubbish meat in it but we feed it to our kids.

Pellets means a bird has to retrain the way it eats....AND we have to have faith in it really being "good for the birds" without truly knowing that to bve true. Natural is best always and to try and emulate the variety a budgerigar would have access to in the wild is the better path to take, I am certain of that.

With regard to promotion of pellets it seems to be a mass marketing thing in the USA and beginning now here with vets. It seems to me to be a knee jerk reaction by vets because of the people who have fed their birds nothing but the most basic of cheap crappy seeds and then suffering the birds illhealth due to that.

You will never convince me that vets ( like doctors and dentists etc ) dont get some form of BENEFITS ( freebies ) by promoting such companies or products.

Edited September 26, 200816 yr by KAZ

Thats funny, cause you see I would feed my dog and cat purely dry food (with the occational bone etc). Did we go to uni for years and years as a nutritionist to know what our animals need? No? Well then what gives us the right to decide how much of what nutrient our animal needs. for example: dog food, eukanuba, hills, royal cannin etc. They have staff that did go to uni for years and years and all the food is scientifically made to include the right amounts of everything for our animals!.

 

I understand that companies will do the wrong thing for a buck (supermarket brand dog foods such as pal and chum etc). Others are genuine (hills eukanuba royal cannin etc). In the wild dogs would only live for aprox 5 years. Now they are living longer than ever (16 years for my cavalier king charles spaniel). Does this example not also apply to birds.

 

If there is a pellet out there that is genuine, shouldnt we be feeding it to our birds. If they have done all the research of what they need and whats best for them, then shouldnt we feed it to them ?!?

 

I also understand that there is not one pellet for every pellet, they have different needs! Hence the need for different pellets too.

This is the pellet that I use:

http://www.drmacs.com/

 

Thats my 2 cents. Hope i havent caused to much of a stir/

But at the same time you have to remember alot of this isn't based on research. Many vets say "take this food and use it it's the best" because they're paid to or because it's the "trend" at the time. How dull of a life you would have as a bird to eat pellets and only pellets when clearly they don't like them and they're bland. Humans can live off diet supplements if they needed, but really when push comes to shove and it comes down to it what kind of life does that leave us with? Taking away the enjoyments in life (which have not being proved on a complete adequate diet to be worse than pellets) leaves us with no life. You'll have an animal which does not live to eat, it eats to live and doesn't enjoy a moment of it.

Thats funny, cause you see I would feed my dog and cat purely dry food (with the occational bone etc). Did we go to uni for years and years as a nutritionist to know what our animals need? No? Well then what gives us the right to decide how much of what nutrient our animal needs. for example: dog food, eukanuba, hills, royal cannin etc. They have staff that did go to uni for years and years and all the food is scientifically made to include the right amounts of everything for our animals!.

 

I understand that companies will do the wrong thing for a buck (supermarket brand dog foods such as pal and chum etc). Others are genuine (hills eukanuba royal cannin etc). In the wild dogs would only live for aprox 5 years. Now they are living longer than ever (16 years for my cavalier king charles spaniel). Does this example not also apply to birds.

 

If there is a pellet out there that is genuine, shouldnt we be feeding it to our birds. If they have done all the research of what they need and whats best for them, then shouldnt we feed it to them ?!?

 

I also understand that there is not one pellet for every pellet, they have different needs! Hence the need for different pellets too.

This is the pellet that I use:

http://www.drmacs.com/

 

Thats my 2 cents. Hope i havent caused to much of a stir/

NOONE has to have a uni degree to use common sense. And I will never accept from someone who does that they know whats best for my animals.

A budgerigar in the wild eats everything they can, all different seeds, grasses, soil, bugs and all textures and tastes under the sun.

To make a budgie eat pellets as far as I am concerned is a control issue. We have them trapped in our cages and aviaries where they cannot choose their own food. To offer them choices from a larger menu is the way to go. To decide for them whats best for them, put it all in a machine and press out pellets and give them that Poor budgie is all I can say. People these days like convenience and those are the types of people you will convince that pellets are best. The thinking and active bird owners amongst us offer all things to their birds each day....we seek out and gather seeding grasses, branches, leaves and flowers, vegetables, fruits, a wide variety of seeds. The bird owner that does that is providing a better diet than ANY PELLET ever will.

The pellet argument works for those who cannot be bothered to serve or organise the variety, It works for those who believe that Joe Bloggs down the road who took a uni degree and studied and told them pellets was best....well, Joe said so and he studied so it must be true.

Common sense prevails.

Would you like everything that some uni professor decided that was best for your diet...mashed up and extruded through machinery and dried and served in a bowl...to be all you would be told you could eat for the rest of your life ? Or at very least the main meal for you for the rest of your life ?

Anyone ever tried to eat a bowl of bran for breakfast ?? You see the ads on TV and they are showing people that are pretending to love the taste and enjoy it...even kids !! and we know that to be a lie. Throw a small handful of sultanas over it and the kids will go mad over it. NOT !!

For happy budgies and healthy budgies mine will always be offered the widest variety of food available to me for them with no thought spared for what it takes to get it for them.......

 

BEFORE PELLETS ever become a part of their diet.

 

 

Here is what my birds got for their meals today...........

The premium bird seed blend with added japanese millet.

Soft food with egg, grated carrot, sliced greens, wholemeal bread, calcivet, vitamin b12

Soaked seed with budgie premium blend, triticale wheat, mung beans, hulled oats and hulled sunflower.

Bok choy and english spinach.

Last thing they all get a little branch from the hibiscus trees out back....in two more days they will get their peppermint tree branches.

Seeding grasses are picked for the ones in breeder cabinets and any feeding chicks also have a little tray of whole powdered egg to use as they enter the nestbox to feed their chicks.

Edited September 26, 200816 yr by KAZ

Not only others, but my vet told me to go onto pellets. How else do we stop fatty liver and other things like that in budgies?! I am paranoid about feeding my budgie seed except for training etc.

The fact that im having trouble weaning my new boy onto pellets is causing me distress.

 

Feed a balanced diet of seed, fruit/veggies and native branches... Pellets do not solve everything. It is very presumptuous to assume only budgies feed seed suffer from these aliments. Before I knew any better, my family had a budgie who lived for years on seed, water and apples. He NEVER had such problems.

 

Now that I know better, my birds get a varied diet, and allowing them to forage through their seed mix, fresh fruit/veggies and natural branches is not only good for their health, it's also very beneficial to their wellbeing... it keeps them busy and lets them behave somewhat like their wild 'brothers and sisters'

Edited September 26, 200816 yr by maesie
Added more

I feel like a Christian scientist thinking about the God vs Evolution debate.

 

How torn...!

Another fact, not one of the top show breeders you'll ever come across feed pellets and with birds going in price up to $10,000 they definatly would be taking the best care of them they can.

I feel like a Christian scientist thinking about the God vs Evolution debate. How torn...!

Wisdom comes with age and experience and listening to all points of view. Mix in a little ( NO, a lot of ) common sense and some lateral thinking and you will find the way. Feeding and observing your birds will also tell you right from wrong.

Thats funny, cause you see I would feed my dog and cat purely dry food (with the occational bone etc).

I feel really very sorry for your dog and cat..............pooing for them must be like passing concrete.

Not at all Kaz, my dogs both eat a mainly dryfood diet. Not only do they LOVE their dinner but I have tried feeding a good home made dog food and atleast one ended up with stomach problems. I have no issue with feeding them a mainly dry food diet.

 

We had a vet talk at our budgie club last night. He was saying that the majority of fatty liver problems are simply due to a bland high fat diet and inactivity. A bird which is fed a good varied diet and is allowed space to exercise should be much less prone to it. He also referred to a studied which found that wild parrots consumed up to 80 different species of plants a day!

That talk you had sounds interesting

 

 

and I have also come to the conclusion my pets eat better than we do

Edited September 26, 200816 yr by KAZ

thanks melbournebudgies! Dry food really is better for them!

thanks melbournebudgies! Dry food really is better for them!

:P

Edited September 26, 200816 yr by KAZ

I disagree, just because they like it does not mean it has all required nutrional needs in it. I mean I love lasagne, but I couldn't live off it

Yes of course, but it's nice if they like it too

 

I feed my dogs the food that they thrive best on. My kelpie gets Coprice working dog formula and my Basset gets Eukanuba. Plus I give them whole raw eggs as treats and chicken mince. I get LOTS of comments about how healthy they look, how good their weight is and how shiny their coats are.

Well that part I agree on, it is nice if they enjoy, I just find there's alot more sources out there they enjoy more than dry food

 

Whole raw eggs are great for them, my kelpie x loves them, swallows them whole as I crack them to her The Pom is not quite so quick but will lick it up still

I've not heard of pellets before, but could you not go half way? A few pellets mixed in with some seed with some fresh fruit and veggies and leaves etc? At least then they have choice and range!!!

 

I don't believe any animal should be confined to one food. They need variety. Although i am definitely not saying that an all dry food diet is bad for them. Out cats get a whole range of canned fish pet food every night for dinner, and biscuits to snack on during the day. BUT, my black and white cat Syra will not touch canned food. She will ONLY eat biscuits. She won't even eat meat from my plate or anything!!!!! I can't force her to eat it and I'm not going to starve her until she does. If she was really lacking in something she would eat the fish. If she felt horrible and sick she would eat the fish. Just because they are animals doesn't mean they are stupid. If they are lacking in something, they'll have it. They know when they're hungry and thirsty don't they?

Edited October 13, 200816 yr by maesie
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