Hello everyone

I've noticed that some of my budgies are becoming a little chubby, I've one who is quite big and I am worried about her. All my budgies eat mostly seed (finch and budgie mix) and a couple of times a week they get spinach (they love it), and occassionally strawberries. That is all their diet consists of. I've decided I was going to put them on a more varied diet yesterday and yes it has only been two days, but they arent really taking to it and they look quite hungry and I'm really not sure if what I am doing is the right thing. Yesterday I put a small container of guinea pig mix in each cage mixed with a few seeds and yes well they had a pick but didnt eat much. Today was the guinea pig mix (which some now eat but just the oats and some other seed looking thing -.- ) and fresh spinach, silverbeet leaves, celery, carrot and the carrot leaves, and lettuce mix (I selected the darker leaves) mixed with a few seeds so it looked more appealing to them (apparently not). And the outcome wasn't good for the vegetables either (they didn't even touch the spinach). So far Budgies: 2, New Diet: 0. I know it's only the start but I'm worried they're hungry yet also worried because I don't want to put them straight back on an 'all seed' with little vegetables. I really don't know how to create a 'balanced' diet for my birds, and I am too stubborn to let them continue on an unhealthy seed diet, with just spinach two times a week, yet they r quite stubborn (and happy) in not wanting a diet change. How on earth can I go about creating a healthy, nutritional diet for my birds, and how to get them to accept new foods and like them?...(most of my birds have been eating seed all their lives, so I think that's why I'll find it challenging to change their ways).

I really would love some advice on this.

Also this might sound silly, but would it be a good idea if i brought a calender for my birds only, (for worming dates, check overs etc etc) and made up a week to week diet for them, that way I can see how long I've been giving them different foods, or maybe change the diet around a bit each week?

 

 

 

Never ever remove their normal diet and replace with something new and strange. Put back their seeds immediately or you will have sick and starving budgies

KRISTY .... Yesterday I put a small container of guinea pig mix in each cage mixed with a few seeds and yes well they had a pick but didnt eat much.

Not surprised.....you virtually stole away their real food and gave them something strange. If you want them to try something new you add it not remove their seeds so they starve and then try the guinea pig food !

You add to their diet not replace it with new things.

KRISTY ..... maybe change the diet around a bit each week?

add extras, dont make drastic changes.

KRISTY.....I've decided I was going to put them on a more varied diet yesterday and yes it has only been two days, but they arent really taking to it and they look quite hungry and I'm really not sure if what I am doing is the right thing.

It is so much the wrong thing you have done you are jeopardising your birds health.

I know it's only the start but I'm worried they're hungry

they are starving.....budgies cant go long without seed before they get sick and die.

I don't want to put them straight back on an 'all seed' with little vegetables.

You have to or you will kill them with the way you are doing it right now.

really don't know how to create a 'balanced' diet for my birds

cruise around this forum.........we have sh*tloads of great info on this.

I am too stubborn to let them continue on an unhealthy seed diet with just spinach two times a week,

your stubbornness will assist them to an early grave. I think your problem is more about lack of exercise and flying space than it is about seed. And why spinach just twice a week. Why not various vegies daily ?

 

I am too stubborn and they r quite stubborn (and happy) in not wanting a diet change

How on earth can I go about creating a healthy, nutritional diet for my birds, and how to get them to accept new foods and like them?...(most of my birds have been eating seed all their lives, so I think that's why I'll find it challenging to change their ways).

Please check out our FAQ section on diet. Never ever make sudden changes or remove their basic diet from them or they will starve, get sick and die. It can also force a moult.

Never change it around on a daily basis. keep the seed but add the vegies.

Please advise how many budgies in what size cage and show photos as fat budgies can be because of lack of exercise or a cage too crammed to fly in.

I recall you began here on BBC with dying budgies........too many crammed into wrong size cages for the numbers and the cages were out in the middle of the yard allowing weather in. Even when you still had sick budgies you were buying more. I know things can have changed. Please advise the housing and numbers of your budgies now.

http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index.php?app=forums&module=forums&section=findpost&pid=346876

 

 

Like I said it isnt just about food but lack of exercise.

 

Someone I know had 37 budgies crammed into a cage 4ft high by 2ft by 2ft and you should have seen how fat they were !! and then she wondered why they were dying too. Stress, overcrowding etc. I went around and caught them up and transferred them to an outside aviary she had but didnt want to put them in. The cage she had all her budgies in were inside and had been inside for 2 years. Then when she put them down to breed wondered why she had chicks with rickets ( lack of clalcium ) and females going down with eggbinding.

 

So......how many do you have now and in what cages ?

Edited October 31, 201014 yr by KAZ

Different food is made/prepared for different animal... Guinea Pig food is made for Guinea pigs, not Budgies. If I were you, I'd start by putting their seed back in, you can't just supliment it with new food and expect them to adapt. So, seed back in and then I'd be offering them fruit/veggies daily. The key is to keep offering them different things and change the way you serve them. You can chop up carrot, apple, spinach and put in a bowl and then sprinkle a little seed over the top. If your budgies like spinach it could be the key to getting them to eat other veggies and fruit. You can also poke pieces of fruit and veggies through the cage bars or buy a fruit skewer and put them on it. My guys LOVE corn on the cob and Bok Choy. You've just got to keep offering them stuff and evenyually they will eat it. Just be prepared to waste some of at the start.

You could offer them some broccoli on a fruit stick. It is fun for them to play with. You could gradually add other things to the fruit stick as they get used to it.

Hi Kaz Thankyou for the reply

Before I came online and checked to see if anyone had replyied I had already given in and given them some seed, they were looking so hungry (I felt so guilty)) and going into a frenzy whenever I went near them (as if to say we are hungry!!). I'm happy to know that I was okay to give them seed again, I didn't realise it was harmful for them taking it away all together. Thankyou for explaining everything that you have it makes a lot of sense. After I read what you told me I thought to myself I'd sooner starve too rather then trying something unappealing, strange and foreign to me.

I've been doing a little surfing today through the 'food n nutrition' and there are some pretty good ideas out there .

Today at the markets I brought the vegetables I listed in my first post (silverbeet, spinach, lettuce mix, carrots and celery) I am hoping these are all okay? I gave the birds the celery leaves and the actual celery, but then I read in one of your posts that the celery gives them the runs so that went off the list. I'm also going to buy some sweet corn (another thing I found off your post ). I'll also want to give them broccoli (they've had broc b4) squash, zuchinni, bean sprouts and there is one more type of sprout, just forgot the name :s . I know the broccoli is okay, as is the bean sprouts but are the others okay?

As for the feeding of the spinach twice a week, I'm a bit lazy with it so I need to pick up my act, that's why I decided on a new diet for them two days ago, just went the wrong way about it

I had a little think, I tend to get fairly busy sometimes, so I came up with the idea of getting all these ingredients together and firstly giving them a good wash, then letting most of the water run off them. Then I want to cut them all up into different shapes, sizes etc etc, toss them all together and then put them in a fridge bag, or large quick seal bag and keep it in the fridge. That way every morning I can put some vegetable mix into a seperate container from the seed and into each cage. Would something like that work?

The only thing that I am concerned about is if I keep trying different foods over a few weeks and some of them don't take to vegetables I'm very worried that the 'all seed' is bad for them.

With the exercise I am trying to push my dad (haha as much as I can without ******* him off) to try find the time to start my aviary :( . He told me that this weekend coming he is going to clear a place in a shady part of our garden and box it so it will be ready for the cement the following week. Long story short I can not wait for my aviary, I'm so excited, and I know that the birds will have a lot of room, plenty for exercise, flying and the occassional fiesta lol.

But before the aviary gets done, I am a little concerned that some of my birds aren't exercising enough (I will post pics of my cages soon, just gotta read up on how to do it again). I have 24 birds, and out of them I'm concerned about 3, mainly one who is quite fat. I got her off a friend at the start of the year (she had very bad scaly face, as well as on her legs and around the base of her tail. But I cleared that up and there hasn't been a trace of it again). She is quite happy (has a mate) and she chirps, flaps her wings a bit and does a lot of dancing back and forwards on her perch, but she just keeps getting fatter. I took her out of the cage to check her over on friday and she is very big around the breast area, with quite a big fatty lump there. The other budgie that came with her (not her mate, another female) is fine, and she hasn't had any problems and isn't fat. I did some reading about lumps on the net and from this site and, not that I am experienced in any way, I think the fatty lump has come about because of her weight gain. I'm thinking that with more exercise and some more vegetables in her diet it will help her to lose weight. What are your thoughts on this too?

A friend of mine....the one I mentioned with the crowded cage had a fat budgie........it was as round as a tennis ball. It has lost weight since being in the aviary

 

As far as prepping the vegies ahead of time.....that good. But watch it carefully as some vegies spoil ( go off ) quicker than others.

If you have oranges or lemons or grapefruit.......cut them in half and put a half in each cage for them to chew at. Half of one lasts maybe two days in my aviaries. Put whole carrots in as well.

Post pictures.......of the set up and the fat budgie so we can advise better.

Edited October 31, 201014 yr by KAZ

Thankyou Catherine, but I have to ask, what is a fruit stick???? lol I have no idea, unless your just using a different name for it?

Thankyou also Maesie for your information it's great , By The Way the four little budgies in your picture r gorgeous

 

I have a folder that is my 'budgie information folder' and so far I've got a few papers from the vet in it, and I think it will be beneficial for me if I go back through all my posts on this site and collect as much information as I can, that way if I need to know something fast I can just look it up in the folder.

 

Yes I can imagine how fat those little ones were, poor darlings. I never realised (until you guys on here told me) that having even 19 (as I did) in what I thought was a big enough cage, would be a problem, I only knew that budgies were very social birds and so I thought it was better with more in a cage (but obviously not that many they can't even wedge past eachother). I see a lot of budgies at my local market (won't name it) that are squashed into these small, ucky cages and it makes me so angry! The more I go to the markets the worse the budgies look, I can tell by looking at them that half of them are sick (one was dead today when I went) and some of them have deformed beaks. I want to put a complaint in but I have no idea how to or where to start (but that is for a different forum, so I'll ask in the right place).

Kristy, I would give the lettuce a miss. It has little nutritional value and gives them the runs.

 

There are lots of different brands of fruit sticks for birds. You can thread fruit or vegetables onto them. There is a picture of one on this page Fruit stick Actually, I do not recommend this kind. The part which you screw on to keep the food on the stick is very small. Despite taking care, the screw of every one I have had has gone down the plug hole.

You've received some great advice here Kristy and I hope it helps you improve your budgies quality of life.

 

I know it can be difficult at times to create a varied diet for them and just giving them seed is easy. I find that when I'm preparing my breakfast, I prepare their food for the day as well. It doesn't take that much time if you're organised. I buy a 2-3 different types of greens that will last for 2-3 days before they go off (yep, this means regular shopping - I can't grow my own at the moment). This way they get something different every day and I rotate the greens they get. They have their standard seed supply, but I also give them seed treats, millet, soaked seed, seed bells occasionally, and these get rotated as well. So every day they have some food which is the same from the previous days and some that's new. They look forward to the new things.

 

Also I've found that they may not eat greens if it's presented in a certain way. Mine like some greens pegged to the side of the cage or hung on fruit sticks, or on a tray. It's trial and error until you work out what they like.

 

As KAZ said, exercise is very important. It's the same of any animal (including us!), if they have a poor diet (eg all seed), and no exercise, then they'll just get fat. I've really noticed a difference in some of my flock since they've started to fly together around the house. I had some reluctant flyers but once they found their wings, they are really happy flying around and have put on a lot of muscle in just 2-3 weeks and feel much healthier when I handle them.

 

Good luck with it all.

This one has four (two in here that are fat)

 

This one has 10

 

This one 4 (my quarantining budgies)

 

This one has 5.

 

Im really dense sometimes, it took me awhile haha but I just thought of a solution that could work. I could put my 4 quarantining birds into the brown wooden cage. Then the birds that are in the brown wooden cage now, and the four from the small cage can go into the big black one. That way there would be 9 in the black, 10 in the white (the same) and four in the wooden, and the little white one can be a spare cage. I think this would work nicely until their new home comes

This one has four (two in here that are fat)

You have a collection of tree branches which is better than dowel. BUT they go this way and that at varying levels. There is no perches that are set up so they can fly across the cage to the perch on the other side at the same level. All you have acchieved is perches that can be sat on or clambered over.

 

This one has 10

Exactly the same pertching setup as above. Same comment applies. Also feeding area under perches for droppings to go in.

 

Same again

This one 4 (my quarantining budgies)

 

This one has 5.

 

Im really dense sometimes, it took me awhile haha but I just thought of a solution that could work. I could put my 4 quarantining birds into the brown wooden cage. Then the birds that are in the brown wooden cage now, and the four from the small cage can go into the big black one. That way there would be 9 in the black, 10 in the white (the same) and four in the wooden, and the little white one can be a spare cage. I think this would work nicely until their new home comes

 

 

 

as to my comments through the post............you have done the right thing in a way by using tree branches but you havent set it up so flight across the cage is acchieved. End result is lack of decent flight exercise in the cages and thus they get fat from inactivity.

Edited November 1, 201014 yr by KAZ

A thought, I have set up my cage, as it is taller than wider as well, to be divided in half using mesh. It is working really well for me, maybe you could try something similar? So they have more flight and space?

in my avairy i have a piece of dowel running the whole width of the avairy and then another one in the corner about 15cm long, that way they can fly from one to the other. also i was told that apple seeds are toxic, just aheads up.

in my avairy i have a piece of dowel running the whole width of the avairy and then another one in the corner about 15cm long, that way they can fly from one to the other. also i was told that apple seeds are toxic, just aheads up.

 

 

15 cm long ? are you sure of that measurement ? as 15 cms is only 6 inches....very short

Okay....sorry I've taken so long to reply, been a bit busy.

The other day I went and switched all my budgies around, the 4 quarantining are now in the small brown cage, and there is 9 in the big black cage, and 10 in the white. I took most of the old branches out of the cages and replaced them with new ones, and I placed them in a way that they have to fly to get to each branch, i.e running horizontal with eachother. It's improved their movement a lot, most of them fly from branch to branch, while a couple i.e the fat one, haven't worked up the courage to yet.

But all in all theyr doing well

 

 

This is the two fat ones, the grey and white and the blue and white beside him. I've recently named him Sir Chubbalot

 

 

This is the salad I made for them, but it went funny rather quick, so I've decided to give one vege to them a day, i.e Monday Spinach, Tuesday Silverbeet, Wed Corn etc etc .