This is something I've been thinking about quite a bit and, coincidentally, an extremely knowledgeable lady from another community wrote about this subject tonight. The gist of it is that feeding fruits and veggies doesn't mean apples and carrots and lettuce every now and then. It's more about feeding the more nutritious varieties.

 

I really enjoyed reading this, hope you will too.

 

Here's the write-up.

Edited October 1, 200519 yr by eterri

Pretty comprehensive Eterri! Any chance of getting permission to use it for a pinned topic? Or could you rewrite it specific to budgies?

 

My budgies tend not to like fruit anyway, although I was looking forward to feeding them lots of grapes off of my vines this season, I usually have too many for even my always hungry kids to eat!

 

I can see the sense in feeding healthy foods, and not necesarily what they like - just like with us. Personally I hate green vegetables, but I know I have to eat them. One can not live on corn on the cob alone (such a shame that!) I think the absolute best diet for budgies is as close as what they would get in the wild, so lots of the weeds they would eat in the wild would have to be good. Although I would like to stress to people to only take out of your own garden, as you are sure these have not been sprayed at all.

I agree with everything you said, Lin. We can't know 100% what they would eat in the wild but we've got a good idea and I do feel that feeding as close to that as possible is the best way to go.

 

Growing your own stuff is also a really really good idea! No worries of what was sprayed where.

 

I hate most veggies. Well, I hate the ones that are best for you and love the ones that are "bad." Green stuff...guh. I made broccoli the other night and literally FORCED myself to eat it. I gagged a few times...

 

What I'd like to do is write up something budgie-specific to pin and get a lot of input from everyone here. Maybe even a poll, I'm not sure. The author of that write-up keeps larger parrots and conures so while it still definitely applies, I'd love to try to and get up a general guide to feeding just budgies.

Please do, Terri. Because budgies can be so hard to get to eat fresh foods, most of us start with lettuce. And then stick with it! It's important that people know once they are eating fresh foods, they must vary it. In fact, that's just as important for birds as people - variety! Too much of any one thing is bad for you.

Very true.

 

I don't think anyone knows for sure all the specifics but I'll try to find as much information as possible and then make it less um...boring. (Laughing out loud). I have to admit that just as I force myself to eat green food, I force myself to read things that start going all scientific on me. :(Laughing out loud):

 

But yeah. Maybe we could have a list of acceptable foods and then rate each food for it's nutritional value... I'll see what I can do.

Your an angel Terri :angel1:

Aww why thank you!

 

(Or maybe I just have WAY too much time on my hands?)

No, way, way, way more patience than me! I don't have the patience to wade through heaps of information, work out which is right or not, and then write it out for others to understand! You do!

Really interesting, I'll save it to my favourites and try some new things out with my birds

very good eterri

 

i liked that. carrot and brocolli are the main staple part of the veggie diet i feed, but i do occasionally give other fruit and veggies aswell. now i will know which ones to look out for and which ones to use as 'treats'.

 

it would be brilliant if you could write up it in a list form and have it as a sticky. :glare:

 

essential fresh food with reasons for each veggie.

not so healthy fresh food with reasons for each veggie/fruit

food to avoid

 

something like that? easy to glance over and understand.

Yes, I think a list would be the best way to go...something a person can go back to and glance at rather than having to read a whole novel just to jog their memory!

 

It would be nice to have a reference section in general now that I think about it. But I guess the stickies in each forum kind of achieve that.

Gosh I never knew you shouldnt feet spinach mine LOVE it, they hate brocoli though. Im doing good with carrot they like that but prefer spinach.

 

I would like a sticked list if you could as it seems Im feeding completely the wrng stuff!

I'm going to try and have that by this weekend. Depending on how easy/hard it is to gather up the info.

Thanks Terri I would for one appreciate it.

 

I would have thought the baked squash and sweet potato might be a bit fattening and thats one thing Ive to watch with Candy!

I'm no veggie expert (working on it, being vegetarian and all (Laughing out loud)) but I think those would be more starchy than anything? I can't remember what context it was talked about in the article, was it the glop? She has has a fatty macaw though so I'm sure she wouldn't feed him anything too fattening. :glare:

 

Something tells me this will take longer than a week.

Edited October 3, 200519 yr by eterri

Hehe looks hard work but I bet we will all have healthier happier birds and whats better than that eh?

Nothing's better than healthy happy birdies.

 

Oddly enough, I look forward to this kind of stuff. I just wish I had more time in the day.

That was a good article. Boomberry, you can feed spinach (mine love it too and the babies were practically raised on it) but not every day as it does contain a lot of oxalic acid which might cause problems if ingested excessively. But not only for birds, for people too, so if you feed spinach I wouldn't quit. It contains a lot of vitamin c and iron, as well as other nutrients that are good for you. The article suggested not ever feeding it unless you grow it yourself, but I get my bird's veggies and fruits from the organic food store so I am pretty confident it is okay. I've never tried sweet potatoes, that will be my next purchase! Usually they get purple and green kale, red-leaf lettuce, baby carrots, broccoli, spinach, green and red peppers (not a favorite), apples, plums, banana, parsley and carrot tops (for baths, LOL). I used to feed grapes until chirpy posted the story about the person that lost all their parrots from feeding bad grapes. They didn't really eat them much anyway so no big loss for me. It's probably still not enough variety.

Edited October 3, 200519 yr by Rainbow

I guy organic spinach and organic broccoli oh and my carrots and tops are organice because my Dad grows them for me. I also offer apple, melon and corn sometimes. I will be getting squash tonight hehe. Oh its pumpkin season I guess that will be okay its a type of squash. I will be buying kale tonight too although they werent keen last time.

And don't forget about the cooked mixes, they add a little more variety. Mine get beak appetit regularly now but I'm hoping to try them on crazy corn too. http://www.crazycorn.com

 

I also mix in a little baby food (usually one of the veggie types) with their seeds so they get a little extra that way.

 

And I have yet to make birdie bread (because I hiss and spit at the word "bake"-it doesn't agree with me) but that's another great way to get variety into their diets.

Edited October 3, 200519 yr by eterri

I want to make birdie bread but all the recipes have that cornmeal stuff or Jiffy muffin mix both of which we dont get here and Im still trying to find an English version of that recipe.

 

As for Beak Appetit that went down like a lead balloon they wouldnt entertain it. I boiled them up some eggs this weekend and they ate a bit of it but much prefer the sweet dried mix stuff so I had to throw out the last of the egg today.

terri - when did your's start eating the beak appetit? Do they like all the flavors? Mine expect the stuff every morning for breakfast now!

 

Boomberry, sorry yours didn't like it. As far as changing recipes, I think you could just use a regular muffin or bread recipe (like banana nut bread, maybe?) and just add whatever veggies you wanted to it??? Substitute applesauce for sugar?? (I've never done any of my suggestions before, so you can ignore them if you want - LOL - I'm just trying to figure out a way for you to add variety. )

They started eating it a couple of weeks ago. At first I had to mix some seed in with it but now they dig in without much hesitation. The only flavor I've tried so far is Cream of Tweet. I've got just a tiny bit of it left so it'll be time to try a new flavor soon. (To make it last longer I freeze it in ice trays and then warm up as much as I need every day.)

I only tried it the once but I might give it another go - whats their favourite flavour?

 

We dont really get any corn mixes at all here, I will look at the supermarket tonight at the ready make muffin mixes see if they contain corn, if not I will try bake somethine myself from scratch - warning I arent they best bread maker in the world, it normally ends up heavier than all our birds on this site put together hehe!

Mine like them all. I like Cream of Tweet personally - don't you find it somewhat ironic they eat something called Cream of Tweet....???? LOL. Nuts for Alfredo is an instant one, they like it but it is mostly couscous and it is harder to vacuum out of the carpet.......... I use all mine up in 4 or 5 days, so don't have to freeze it.

 

Boomberry, I'm sure your a better cook than you want us to believe!