I have just read some posts here, and you talk about feeding pellets to your birds.

I feed Trill, but i used to feed a high quality food, with fruit, nuts, etc in it, but my vet told me it was too rich, so i swapped back to Trill.

The breeder who i got Graham from, gave me canary seed to give to him, for a few weeks, while he was young. He hurt his wing, so off to the vets and lo and behold the vet says it too HOT, so we switched back to trill.

I am not new to having a budgie, but boy! people do get you confused whats best.

So these pellets , what type are they, and do you feel they are better than Trill.

I give Graham the normal variety of fruit, millet, veg, etc, and ive just threaded him a popcorn string(got that idea off a parrot site)

I do feel he needs to fatten up a little more, his front is a little thin to me, so also whats good for that.

Poor little chap, as he always has to climb everywhere, he seems to always have feathers sticking out where he has caught them, and at the moment hes lost his tail, so he looks beraggled and stumpy.

I feed Pandora seed along with raw veggies and fruits. I don't think anyone really knows what's best for budgies... I've heard people saying nothing but seed, people saying nothing but pellets, people saying half seed and half pellet, more pellet than seed, more seed than pellet...

 

In the wild they eat seeds, so that's what I give Pandora. I try to give her plenty of opprotunities to work off any excess energy she may have gotten from the seed so that she doesn't fatten up. I haven't heard of any studies saying that a seed-based diet shortens a budgie's life like it does with the larger parrots, so...

An all seed diet can kill your budgie. An all pellet diet can kill your budgie.

 

The most important thing to remember is *variety*. They need pellets, seed, fruits, veggies... give them as much variety as possible. It's true, we don't know what the perfect budgie diet is but we do now know that an all seed diet is pretty much a slow death by malnutrition. We also know that all pellets is not at all ideal for budgies.

 

Try and get your budgie to eat as much variety as possible. It's tough to do sometimes, just keep persisting.

Graham gets the variety, but i was just wondering if the pellets were better than seed, or at least Trill. Also it must save worrying about the shucks.

Graham gets the variety, but i was just wondering if the pellets were better than seed, or at least Trill. Also it must save worrying about the shucks.

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apart from that it would be pretty boring just to have seed eh! perhaps ill go get some, and mix in a bit, see what he likes best

Edited August 9, 200520 yr by Rainbow

It is well-documented that an all-seed diet will shorten your bird's life, and also sets them up for a host of physical problems before they die. The seeds birds eat in the wild are vastly more nutritious than what you buy in a bag, hence all the additives. Since I can't feed my birds as well as what they would eat if they were wild, I give them as much variety as possible. Yes, it takes awhile for them to accept different types of food if you don't start them on it from day one. Pellets are more nutritious than seeds, but obviously don't fit every type of birds nutritional requirements. I don't think anyone even really knows what that is. Some studies show the protein levels in pellets are too high for budgies and other birds, others say different. I don't know exactly what ratio of pellets to seeds to give, so I give it my best shot. It's not anywhere close to 100% of their diet.

I think a mix of pellets and seeds would be the best diet base. Of course, both the seeds and pellets have to be fresh and high quality. You have to remember to feed your bird fresh greens and veggies and fruits too.

Most definitely! I think they should probably make up about half the diet, what do you think?

 

((whispers))

Guess what? Mine ate plums and apple last night, a few of them ate sprouted seeds this morning, and most all of them chowed down on the Beak Appetit for dinner.

 

((huge grin))

I'm so proud of them.

What is Beak Apetit? I've heard about itin a few places. Where to buy? Just bought more Avi-cakes (Which my birds LOVE) and bought some of the nutri-berries from LaFeber's as well. So far, I like the variety of flavors, sizes, shapes, textures offered by LaFeber's. It's affordable, readily available, and my birds get quite a work out by eating it. Supposed to imitate having to "work" for food in the wild. They haven't had the nutri-berries yet (I got fruit, they also offer veggie and HOT flavors) but so far they love the LaFeber's products. At least they're getting some variety & exercise.

Good luck, everyone, with good diets.

Beak Appetit is a cooked diet that consists of different grains and vegetables. It took close to a month before mine would eat it, but now they like it. A few of my birds will now eat it instead of the few seeds I sprinkled on top to get them to try it. Sneaky, huh? You can get it at PetsMart, or if you ever buy online Drs. Foster and Smith carries it too. If your birds don't eat it at first, it's pretty good - you can eat it so it's not wasted...unless your birds are like mine and just walked around in it first....

 

Here's a link to their website if you want to read about it.

Thanks Rainbow, i did not realise that company did so much good stuff. Ive had one of those grass tubs, but it did not even get a nibble. I should have another go, but the easy cook foods look really good. We are trying an egg mix at the moment, but Graham does like his eggs hard boiled

It took awhile before mine would go near the grass tub too. Then one day, they just got brave. I don't know any other way to explain it. Same thing with the Beak Appetit. They make 6 different flavors of the cookable grains, and so far I've tried 4 of them. My birds eat them all. I don't even have to sprinkle seeds on top anymore, but I do anyway since I've restricted their seed intake. I've also tried the veggie heaven, they won't eat it by itself yet, but if I mix it in with the Beak Appetit they will eat some like that. I'm going to try the other two types too, and will let you know how they eat them. I think they will eventually eat them all - it is just getting them over that stubborn part of refusing to try new foods that is hard. But the funny thing is, now that my birds have finally tried the Beak Appetit, they will eat most anything I put in front of them now, even a little fruit. I even bought some egg food, and I sprinkled some on the Beak Appetit today and they ate it. LOL...what a sneaky bird mommy...