Hi. Currently I've been feeding my budgie Petco's house brand parakeet seed. I know this is not the best out there. Does anyone know of a really good brand of budgie seed available in the USA?

 

thanks

Hi, There isn't a best seed in the normal sense Seed sellers all buy their seed in bulk from the importers. The difference

is in the mix. Budgies can be raised healthily on a 50/50 mix of canary & millet with a good mix off vegetables & fruits.

Many keepers believe a fancy mix in an expensive packet is the way. You pays your money & takes your choice...B.J/.

Anyone else? A reputable brand of budgie seed?

 

BJ, my budgie won't touch canary grassseed. If I gave him millet/canary grass he'd only eat the millet.

I'd try asking on a USA forum. Brands are different in each country. If you don't mix your own and are looking for supermarket brands, Trill is good in the UK and Australia. Versele Laga in the UK. Not sure if these are available in the US.

 

I found this below from an American owner. I have no idea about these brands myself, so you'll have to look into them. You want one with a good mix of canary and a range of different millet seeds. Look on the pack. It should say it contains something like: Canary, French Millet, Japanese Millet, Panicum millet, hulled oats (grouts) and maybe niger seeds. Some may also have iodine and other mineral supplementation. I know Trill does.

 

"The best dry seed mixes though are in my opinion and research Dr. Harvey's Best Parakeet Seed and Goldenfeast Basic Parakeet Plus. I also like Totally Organics for soaking and sprouting, with plenty of supplementation. Other ones that I would recommend are Noah's Kingdom's Parakeet Seed Mix and New England Bird Farm Parakeet Mix. These in my opinion are the highest quality, but I would also consider Kaylor's Rainforest mix (only the rainforest, not the others) or Volkman Avian Science (not the featherglow or any other).

Oh, thanks stace. I didn't think of that... I'll do some research on the internet.

I use golden feast brand for my budgie. It is all natural.

you want to avoid budgie seed packages that contain dyed seeds in them.

You might try sending an email to your bird's breeder and asking her...

 

 

Or I will just tell you now.

 

I would get a mix made for finches. Any of the brands that Petco or Petsmart sells should be fine. If you compare the labels of the parakeet mix you are currently getting side by side in the store with one of their finch mixes, you will find that the finch mix has more varieties of seeds. It will have all the same seeds the budgie mix has plus more types of millet, and things like flax, niger, rape seed, or whatever.

 

And the finch mix will be missing the fillers and additives and other junk that are in the parakeet mix that you don't need. That's because the parakeet mixes usually have pellets in them. So there will be ingredients like corn gluten in the parakeet mix, and a lot of vitamin additives and preservatives, which are all the ingredients in the pellets.

 

Parakeet mixes also tend to have dried fruit and other stuff in them, and I found that my birds just pushed all that aside, so it was wasted. They didn't eat the pellet part, either. I've found that if you want to feed your birds pellets, it's better to buy them separately and feed them separately, since the ones mixed in with the seeds just get wasted. So it's kind of like you are throwing half the bag of seed away, because half of it isn't even seed.

 

But remember, when you want to switch Allen's seed, do it gradually. Keep giving him his old seed like always, but add a separate dish with some of the new seed. Then watch to see if he digs into the new seed, or ignores it. If he digs right in, then he will switch easily, and you can just phase out the old seed fairly quickly. If he doesn't touch the new seed, then you have to switch him more gradually, by mixing a little of the new in with the old. And then over a week or so, gradually increase how much new you mix in, until the old seed becomes just a small part of the total.