Hi

 

I am looking at putting Coco onto a better diet (my about 8 week old very cute budgie). I have read that he/she should be eating 30% seed 30%pellets 30%fruit n veg and the rest treats. I am currently feeding Trill and some carrott lettuce mixed in (tonight we are trying bok choy too).

 

I have heard that Harrisons is very healthy for them . I have found a vet that sells Harrisons on line - but only the fine or ground stuff, not super fine. Is the ground stuff classed as pellett? What one would you recommend, or is there another brand or product that will cover the "pellett" part of his diet. Particularly one that may be found in SA somewhere!

 

Also how would you recommend feeding the Harrisons stuff to him (if this is the recommended way to go). It says on the website to feed only 1 1/2 to 2 tspns a day. Would this be mixed in with seed/veg? This doesn't seem like it could equal 30% of his diet, I know he eats a whole bunch more than 2 tsps of seed a day!

 

Sorry for so many questions, I want to start him out as healthy as possible :oliveb:

My honest opinion ...is...natural is best. I know a lot of our overseas member are using pellets, But I only use good quality seed and fresh vegies for my birds. A pellet is a processed item and noone will ever convince me its best for a budgie. I have tried them with youngsters and older budgies and it seems to be a food that is played with in their beak rather than eaten, and an expensive way to give them a "play food" that is then discarded.

Lettuce, by the way is a pretty useless vegetable for a bird...better for them are the darker leaf vegies like bok choy, pak choy, silver beet, spinach etc. Mine also love corn, carrot, and beetroot.

Edited February 6, 200817 yr by KAZ

My honest opinion ...is...natural is best. I know a lot of our overseas member are using pellets, But I only use good quality seed and fresh vegies for my birds. A pellet is a processed item and noone will ever convince me its best for a budgie. I have tried them with youngsters and older budgies and it seems to be a food that is played with in their beak rather than eaten, and an expensive way to give them a "play food" that is then discarded.

Lettuce, by the way is a pretty useless vegetable for a bird...better for them are the darker leaf vegies like bok choy, pak choy, silver beet, spinach etc. Mine also love corn, carrot, and beetroot.

 

Thanks Kaz. What in your opinion is a good quality seed?

My honest opinion ...is...natural is best. I know a lot of our overseas member are using pellets, But I only use good quality seed and fresh vegies for my birds. A pellet is a processed item and noone will ever convince me its best for a budgie. I have tried them with youngsters and older budgies and it seems to be a food that is played with in their beak rather than eaten, and an expensive way to give them a "play food" that is then discarded.

Lettuce, by the way is a pretty useless vegetable for a bird...better for them are the darker leaf vegies like bok choy, pak choy, silver beet, spinach etc. Mine also love corn, carrot, and beetroot.

 

Thanks Kaz. What in your opinion is a good quality seed?

Sorry Tam, but with hundreds of budgies at my place, I buy the best quality seed in bulk from a merchant. My guess is your are buying supermarket seed. The ones that come to mind available in the supermarkets are TRILL and LOVITTS. I would never feed a budgie any of the PLAIN BRAND generic seed in our supermarkets...it looks terrible.

My honest opinion ...is...natural is best. I know a lot of our overseas member are using pellets, But I only use good quality seed and fresh vegies for my birds. A pellet is a processed item and noone will ever convince me its best for a budgie. I have tried them with youngsters and older budgies and it seems to be a food that is played with in their beak rather than eaten, and an expensive way to give them a "play food" that is then discarded.

Lettuce, by the way is a pretty useless vegetable for a bird...better for them are the darker leaf vegies like bok choy, pak choy, silver beet, spinach etc. Mine also love corn, carrot, and beetroot.

 

Thanks Kaz. What in your opinion is a good quality seed?

Sorry Tam, but with hundreds of budgies at my place, I buy the best quality seed in bulk from a merchant. My guess is your are buying supermarket seed. The ones that come to mind available in the supermarkets are TRILL and LOVITTS. I would never feed a budgie any of the PLAIN BRAND generic seed in our supermarkets...it looks terrible.

 

Cheers, and how do you feed your birds corn? Is it raw on the cob, in pieces?? I would like to try it.

Cheers, and how do you feed your birds corn? Is it raw on the cob, in pieces?? I would like to try it.

When in season the birds get fresh corn on the cob at least twice a week, especially the youngsters. You can defrost frozen corn for them..even the mix of corn and baby peas defrosted is good.

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When in season the birds get fresh corn on the cob at least twice a week, especially the youngsters. You can defrost frozen corn for them..even the mix of corn and baby peas defrosted is good.

 

What a great idea :oliveb: ! I was wondering whether I could use frozen veg when I run out of fresh. Do you mash it up - or do they pick? I dont' want him to choke!

When in season the birds get fresh corn on the cob at least twice a week, especially the youngsters. You can defrost frozen corn for them..even the mix of corn and baby peas defrosted is good.

 

What a great idea :oliveb: ! I was wondering whether I could use frozen veg when I run out of fresh. Do you mash it up - or do they pick? I dont' want him to choke!

You dont need to mash the corn

Trill makes a very good budgie mix, i buy the 1kg box rather than the larger 2kg box as the mix is more varied and cleaner.

 

I've tried including pellets in my budgies diets, but i just can't see that they're all they're made out to be. The two brands i have tried are Vetafarm which is easy to find and inexpensive (about $8 a bag) and Harrisons which is a major pain in the butt to find and costs a fortune ($20 for a bag). Harrisons is a very high quality pellet though, so if you want to try it i would recommend that brand. If you get the fine you'll more than likely need to crush them with a rolling pin, the mash would be fine. :oliveb: For the price though, i would rather leave the pellets and make sure they're getting lots of fresh food.

Are those budgie noodle things classified as pellets?

 

I bought them one day (the disgustingly green food) and Sherbet just picks at it, then flings it away, she hasn't eaten it yet..

Edited February 6, 200817 yr by Missy

I've never even seen budgie noodle things. :oliveb: Do they have a different name?

I've never even seen budgie noodle things. Do they have a different name?

I havent seen budgie noodle things either :oliveb:

Their correct name is "Birdie Noodles"

 

They come in 3 colours l think, yellow, orange and green.

 

They kind of feel like a corn-flake, but more flakey and with more air in them, they are really light.

 

Heres a photo:

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/mist...xx/Image100.jpg

 

 

 

It looks kind of dodgy - l am pleased that sherbet doesn't actually eat it, she just destroys it by pecking at it and spitting it out.

 

I do have two other photos, but photobucket was being slow, so l only got one uploaded.

Edited February 6, 200817 yr by KAZ
photo too large

Their correct name is "Birdie Noodles"

 

They come in 3 colours l think, yellow, orange and green.

 

They kind of feel like a corn-flake, but more flakey and with more air in them, they are really light.

 

Heres a photo:

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/mist...xx/Image100.jpg

 

 

 

It looks kind of dodgy - l am pleased that sherbet doesn't actually eat it, she just destroys it by pecking at it and spitting it out.

 

I do have two other photos, but photobucket was being slow, so l only got one uploaded.

Never seen them before...interesting. I would wonder about the colouring,,,,,additives or natural ?

Edited February 6, 200817 yr by KAZ

I avoid anything with artificial colors. I'm with Kaz, natural is best. I free-feed my budgies Harrison's Mash. They really like it, they won't eat the small pellets (fine, superfine) anymore. The fine is too large for a budgie in my opinion anyway. I don't know what types of seeds you can get, but I use Volkman. It is preserved naturally with orange oil, and the bag smells great when you open it. The ingredient list is short also, which is good. If you haven't tried offering a cooked diet of grains and veggies, try that also. Birdie Bread is a great treat for them, and also a good way to 'hide' anything you want them to eat but that they won't usually touch. :devil:

Never seen them before...interesting. I would wonder about the colouring,,,,,additives or natural ?

 

Sorry about the photo being too big, l completely forgot to resize it I was just about to head off to bed when l uploaded it.

 

The ingredient list is:

 

Corn Flour, Rice Flour, Oat Flour, Salt, Malt Extract, Vitamin B-1, Vitamin B-2, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D-2 Supplement, Folic Acid, Niacin, Artificial Colors, Artificial Flavours.

 

http://www.pennplax.com/ - thats the website. The company is in america, manufactors in china.

Trill makes a very good budgie mix, i buy the 1kg box rather than the larger 2kg box as the mix is more varied and cleaner. I've tried including pellets in my budgies diets, but i just can't see that they're all they're made out to be. The two brands i have tried are Vetafarm which is easy to find and inexpensive (about $8 a bag) and Harrisons which is a major pain in the butt to find and costs a fortune ($20 for a bag). Harrisons is a very high quality pellet though, so if you want to try it i would recommend that brand. If you get the fine you'll more than likely need to crush them with a rolling pin, the mash would be fine. For the price though, i would rather leave the pellets and make sure they're getting lots of fresh food.

Thank you for the advice. Good to hear that Trill is okay! The website is out of Harrisons until about March anyway, so I will see how I go with fresh fruit and veggies.

If you haven't tried offering a cooked diet of grains and veggies, try that also. Birdie Bread is a great treat for them, and also a good way to 'hide' anything you want them to eat but that they won't usually touch. :devil:

Thanks Rainbow, what do you mean by cooked diet of grains and veggies? - sounds tastey ! What do you cook up and how do you serve it, if you don't mind me asking?

I agree natural is best, Australian native tree's like Bottle brush & Eucalyptus along with fresh fruit is great to supplemrnt their diets. Just think what would they eat in the wild, thats my theory.

I'm a natural feeder too.

I go though 10kg of TRILL NUTRAVIT each fortnight. - has added vitamin A, D, C, E etc

I mix the budgie and cockatiel mix together (because i have both in my avairy) and they get all sorts of goodies from the mixture of different seeds .

 

I also feed corn on the cob, Apples, Carrots, Snow peas and Broccoli twice weekly, and baby spinach (as a treat)

If you haven't tried offering a cooked diet of grains and veggies, try that also. Birdie Bread is a great treat for them, and also a good way to 'hide' anything you want them to eat but that they won't usually touch. :devil:

Thanks Rainbow, what do you mean by cooked diet of grains and veggies? - sounds tastey :budgiedance: ! What do you cook up and how do you serve it, if you don't mind me asking?

 

I take the easy way and feed Beak Appetit. It has everything in it already, you just add water and cook. There are 7 or 8 different flavors, but my birds have a preference for the little bird flavor. Here is a link, it's the last one on the page. They will eat all of them, but prefer the Veggie Delight. If you've never fed a cooked diet before, expect to waste a lot of it before they actually realize it is food! Mine actually prefer this to all other foods, dry seeds included, and usually get some twice daily (breakfast and dinner). If you'd rather make it yourself, you can use any grain you'd eat, couscous, brown rice, noodles, etc. and mix in whatever cooked veggies you feel like (avoid onion, raw is toxic and it's a toss up whether cooked is safe or not). A frozen mix is fine thawed. Occasionally I will give a taste (a noodle or two) of macaroni and cheese, or spaghetti with a tiny bit of marinara sauce. :budgiedance: Actually, Skittles likes whatever she can scarf from your plate, LOL. She will fly over, do a quick landing on the side of the plate, and check out what you have.

If you haven't tried offering a cooked diet of grains and veggies, try that also. Birdie Bread is a great treat for them, and also a good way to 'hide' anything you want them to eat but that they won't usually touch. :devil:

Thanks Rainbow, what do you mean by cooked diet of grains and veggies? - sounds tastey ! What do you cook up and how do you serve it, if you don't mind me asking?

 

I take the easy way and feed Beak Appetit. It has everything in it already, you just add water and cook. There are 7 or 8 different flavors, but my birds have a preference for the little bird flavor. Here is a link, it's the last one on the page. They will eat all of them, but prefer the Veggie Delight. If you've never fed a cooked diet before, expect to waste a lot of it before they actually realize it is food! Mine actually prefer this to all other foods, dry seeds included, and usually get some twice daily (breakfast and dinner). If you'd rather make it yourself, you can use any grain you'd eat, couscous, brown rice, noodles, etc. and mix in whatever cooked veggies you feel like (avoid onion, raw is toxic and it's a toss up whether cooked is safe or not). A frozen mix is fine thawed. Occasionally I will give a taste (a noodle or two) of macaroni and cheese, or spaghetti with a tiny bit of marinara sauce. Actually, Skittles likes whatever she can scarf from your plate, (Laughing out loud). She will fly over, do a quick landing on the side of the plate, and check out what you have.

l also feed my budgies beak appetit, they really like the veggie delight one. at first they wouldn't touch it but l kept on giving them it everyday, now they love it

For those of us in AUSTRALIA its really hard to access things readily available to others in the USA like Beak Appetit. If we can get these same things the price is usually horrendous

Egg and biscuit mix is also very good. You can add the left over powder from feeding pellets to the mixture as well. It makes a lovely mash, that my fids just adore.