Hi

 

Just curious as to whether budgies can eat raw cabbage, also I know iceberg lettuce isn't nutritionally good for them but what about other types of lettuce?

 

Cheers

 

Anne Marie

Personally I don't bother with any lettuce at all. The leaves are 80% water leaving 20% any good for anything. If you want to feed leafy vegetables go with Silverbeet, English Spinch and Asian Vegies (Bok Choy, Tatsoi etc). You can't go past the Chick Weed and Sow Thistle which I grow in abundance in my vegie patch.

Personally I don't bother with any lettuce at all. The leaves are 80% water leaving 20% any good for anything. If you want to feed leafy vegetables go with Silverbeet, English Spinch and Asian Vegies (Bok Choy, Tatsoi etc). You can't go past the Chick Weed and Sow Thistle which I grow in abundance in my vegie patch.

 

I agree with all RIP has said

I was only asking as there was a time there I had left over cabbage and I was going to save it to give to the budgies but was unsure if they could eat it. Silly me googled and the responses was fairly even toward yes and no.

As for the lettuce well my kids thoroughly enjoy hand feeding all my birds with lettuce and the birds can't get enough of it, until a woman at a local pet store said that lettuce could kill them. Haven't heard that from anyone else. Anyways I just thought I'd ask cause the kids sit next to the aviary and munch away on bits of lettuce whilst poking bits through to birds trying to get out and I would hate to have to take away their bonding time.

 

Anne marie

I was only asking as there was a time there I had left over cabbage and I was going to save it to give to the budgies but was unsure if they could eat it. Silly me googled and the responses was fairly even toward yes and no.

As for the lettuce well my kids thoroughly enjoy hand feeding all my birds with lettuce and the birds can't get enough of it, until a woman at a local pet store said that lettuce could kill them. Haven't heard that from anyone else. Anyways I just thought I'd ask cause the kids sit next to the aviary and munch away on bits of lettuce whilst poking bits through to birds trying to get out and I would hate to have to take away their bonding time.

 

Anne marie

 

Lettuce will not kill your birds. Maybe that person running your local pet store should find another line of work. With a statement like that I would question anything she says. If the kids enjoy hand feeding the birds just switch them to using Silver beet etc. It will be better for them for the long term.

I have heard off this site that romanian lettuce and leaf lettuce is okay. I use it in their foraging toys as they don't usually eat the 'prizes', just let them drop.

My guys love Endives and silverbeet i just hang it up in the cage and come back a while later and its all gone

There are good nutrients in silver beet and the Chinese vegies such as bok choy. My birds love those. I agree with RIP. There is no nutritional value in lettuce for the birds.

I give my birds bok choy, spinach, beet tops, carrot tops, lemon balm, parsley, celery fronds, romaine, dandelion, thawed frozen peas, corn on the cob, chard, bean sprouts, sunflower sprouts and pea shoots to name a few.

 

Sadly, my birds eat more veggies each day than my two younger kids do!!!!

Edited June 24, 201014 yr by defieldsfamily

Don't get me wrong, my birds enjoy a variety of fruit and veggies. Their favourite would actually be apple, they'll eat this over anything else. I was just wondering about the lettuce. As I said my kids like feeding them lettuce and I wanted to make sure that this wasn't going to harm the birds. I am not that silly to think the lettuce would kill my birds otherwise they would have died ages ago. How about cabbage again it was just something I haven't given them but would a little now and then be okay for them.

 

Anne Marie

I think I would hesitate to offer cabbage incase it's too gassy for them and I do seem to recall reading an article warning against cabbage for that reason.

My bird's favourites are strawberries or carrot tops. I wouldn't feed cabbage, I have been warned it is too much water.

Thanks for the replies.

 

I think it is good to know these sorts of things as in the case of cabbage if one day you decide hey instead of giving this to the dogs I'll give it to the birds you would know whether it is actually okay for them or not.

 

So thanks again.

Thank you,for this info, was going to feed my 2 Budgies cabbage & googled whether its best to give raw or cooked but don't get a straight answer whether the cabbage should be cooked or be fed raw, so now I will not attempt to give cabbage....