Hey,

 

My budgie is still very young and he has issues with being brave enough to try most fruit, veggies and greenstuffs. The only thing ive found he will eat apart from seed and millet (which was fairly hard to get him eating in the first place) is grasses picked from a local park area, im 99% sure this area isn't sprayed and i often see other birds eating around there.

 

Are these grasses enough greenstuff? Does anyone else feed their budgie fresh grasses? I figure it is just like sprouting seeds because what he is mainly eating are the seeds that arnt fully developed yet. Are there any certain species i should be careful of? I have done botany before but i never came across any of these grasses being poisonous, yet it is so hard to find information because so little research has been done.

 

Anyway, sorry about rambling (my mind just doesnt seem to work logically). Should i make extra efforts to get him eating fruits and other veggies? or are seed, millet, iodine, cuttlefish and grasses enough??

 

Hope to hear from you all!

 

Claire

Edited October 8, 200519 yr by ClaireE

I feed mine the red seeded grasses and also the green seeded ones, if you know what I mean. They love them. Also thistles are good. Try some gum leaves, or a branch - they might eat it, or they might just roll in it, either way they seem to like them. Keep perservering with the vegetables, you'll have more success at a young age than an older bird. It can take weeks of trying though, so don't give up. Try clipping some food to the side of the cage, and also try in a bowl, some birds like it either way. Make sure all pieces are smaller than the head of the bird, makes it less frightening, and if he sees you eat it, and then you pop it in, then that might do the trick! They really need a huge variety in their diet, so a little bit of something everyday is important for them. Avocado is poisonous to birds, as is apple seeds (but not the apple) and I'm sure someone else will post what else is too!

Thanks for that. He absolutely loves the seeds, he is resolutely ignoring m at the moment in order to give his full concentration to some i collected for him this afternoon.

 

So far i have been putting fruit on a fruit kabob in his cage, he sees me chop up all the fruit, eating lots of it as i do (mmmm, yummy) but he is still a bit frightened. Ill try to make the pieces smaller though, its a good idea. He hasnt gotten fruit or veg in a bowl because i only have the one for seed, but he does eat things hanging in his cage, so i might just have to keep wasting food! The things we do for our birds!

 

Thanks

(Laughing out loud). You'll soon be a nice well trained pet for your budgie

As Lin said, they need a huge variety of foods in order to get everything they need. I wouldn't feed grasses from a park just to be on the safe side. There's no telling what might or might not be sprayed onto the grass or what wild birds may have walked over the grass.

 

Some healthy foods you can start with (that are usually easiest to get budgies to accept) are kale and broccoli. The tops of broccoli look a lot like seeds so maybe you can start there?

 

Chocolate and alcohol are also toxic to birds but you probably weren't planning on feeding those anyway. Dairy products are very difficult to digest so avoid these also.

Wheatgrass is very good for them, you can order it online (Beak Appetit makes tubs of it) or you can get it from a health food store. I'd be hesitant about using grass from the park because you never know if a dog or other animal "went" there. I'm sure you rinse them well, but something to think about. You can also sprout the seeds from the seed mixture you feed them - it's a good way to tell if the seed is fresh, since only fresh seeds will sprout. Sprouted seeds are very good for birds, so it's great yours will eat them already.

I have yet to try sprouted seeds myself so that might be something for me to try this weekend. I found a pretty good link that explains how to do it: Click!

i have tried broccoli but he refuses to go anywhere near it, along with apple and strawberries. Thanks for the great advice everyone.

I give my bird grass seeds, they love them but this is from my own back yard and a lot of it the old seed that I chuck out (then it's not wasted as I feed it to the a few day/weeks later )

 

Mine have always turned their noses up at broccoli. Try some lettuce he might see it as more of a leaf in interesting then something invading his cage. or I won my freckle over with carrot pieces with sprinkled seed over it, she went close for the seed but found out the table was yummy too.

Yeah, I've been thinking of doing something sneaky like the carrot trick, but i think maybe my baby is too smart (hehe). I tried giving him some of my banana this arvo but he just backed away like he was scared. I'm hoping that because he loves to go into my mouse's cages and eat their food, perhaps he'll get interested in their fruit. (it's the funniest thing to watch, he sits in the food bowl while they nip at his tail and he makes the funniest noises while resolutely refusing to move.)

 

By The Way, what is kale?

Edited October 9, 200519 yr by ClaireE