For some reason my budgies dont eat vegetables or fruite they only eat seeds or spray millet i also added cuttle bone and mineral block but i heard when they breed they need veges and fruite what is the best way to get them to eat veges before they breed ????

Great question and it's good that you're trying to find out more info... Budgies actually need fresh vegies/greens every day - whether they're breeding or not. Sounds like yours are pretty fussy little guys and girls. Perhaps a few ideas could be to -

 

- cook a silverbeet/spinach leaf (the big long dark green ones) in the microwave (with water) for ~4min. After cooling for 5-10min (caution - stems can be hot), place in cage. Now it's softer for budgies to get their beak into it, so this may help with uptake

 

- try grating some mixed carrots/greens/broccoli into small pieces in a similar bowl to the one that they currently use for seed. Small pieces may be better and the bowl may trigger them to realise it's food

 

- If no luck - perhaps leave the seed out for an hour or so (ONLY a short time as birds can starve!) to get them hungry, then put in a seed bowl full of vegies and a few vegie bits in the bars. Make sure you put it in when they are watching you. This will "motivate" them to pick and then they may get to realise that it's food and it tastes quite nice.

 

But remember to return the seeds within no longer than 2hrs or so, as birds need regular food, due to their active metabolism (so be very careful with this approach)

 

Also don't do it if they have babies, as babies could starve in even a shorter time.

 

Also some questions to help you find out issues could be:

 

- Are they scared or it or just disinterested?

- Do they know it's food? How could you show them it's a food?

- Have you tried the standards most budgies like? (eg. peel carrot shoved between bars, spinach and broccoli - often many don't take to fruits)

 

Also note that lettuce has little nutritional value. Spinach and dark greens are better..

 

Also bear in mind that budgies should also get at least some seed AND pellets for improved nutrition, as seeds alone are akin to us eating some low nutrition food each day and nothing else. If can be tricky to convert them though, perhaps do a google search for "budgies" and "pellets" on the internet. This should bring you up to speed... :parrot:

 

Best of luck with it..

 

Turbs.

Very good post Turbs, if that doesn't work, you could always try to make the vegetables (and fruit, although vegetables are better) more like a toy thingee, this worked for me for some of my birds but takes a lot of time to make, kabobs! Just thread a selection of vegetables on a bamboo skewer and secure it inside the cage on both ends, and hopefully they will investigate and taste! Perserverance is what you need to do. They may not always love what you give them but hopefully they will like SOMETHING! :greenb:

There are already a lot of good ideas here. Perserverence is key and be creative too. One thing I've done is sprinkled a few seeds on top of the veggies. They'll go after the seeds and then learn the veggies are food too and they're nothing to be afraid of.

At first my budgies won't go near 'THE GREEN EVIL STUFF OF DEATH' but curiousity gets the better of them. Have a set 'new food area' and use it. My birds go for baby spinach, whole wheat pasta, green beans, rice, chilli..

 

Right now i'm trying to introduce them to carrot by they don't like the ORANGE STUFF OF DEATH yet.

What I have found is when you grate up everything add millet or seed and mix it into the mixture. At first they will eat around it but when I did this for 2 weeks straight Pretty started to eat his veggies. Then you can add new things. Make sure you add colors as I didn't just greens and then he wouldn't touch anything that wasn't green (Laughing out loud).

My birds all love those small seeding grasses that grow wild (just make sure you pick them from somewhere safe - no pestcides etc.) I have a small corner of my yard behind a shed that no one is allowed to mow (my budgie garden). So that would be good to start with, mine love anything green, although they have just started to eat carrot and in the last week corn on the cob which they love! Be patient and keep offering, they will eventually come around.

thanks alot everybody for your help i will try using the methods hopefully they will be not scared of the veges anymoreeee

use small pieces that are smaller them and you can also hang them on the or put say brocolli inbetween the bars. I found that the first food mine loved were kale but again mix up the colors I didn't and find I have green veggie lovers vs a variety which I am working on .