According to the books in the Netherlands the European Budgies are fed with seeds from South America via Africa to Japan. But hardly anything from their native country Australia.

Can you tell me what the Budgies eat in the bush and keep fit with it? Can we get that natural food somewhere?

Hans, netherlands

They eat a lot of grasses, a lot of which have seeds on them. They also eat grevillea leaves, bottlebrush leaves etc. As they eat these things they will eat the odd insect. Great source of protein for them. Not sure what else. Someone will be able to tell you.

This is something parrot owners everywhere wish they knew. We have a general idea of what they eat but can't know for sure. They're nomadic and they fly so they're difficult to research (and I'm not sure how many people are even interested enough to research). At this point in time, the best diet we can offer is a varied one. I've posted a good recipe for a seed mix in the diet and health section if you want to check that out. Make sure they get plenty of healthy veggies, legumes, sprouts, etc.

 

It would be great to offer a natural diet for them but right now, that isn't possible. Not only because we don't know enough about what they eat (how much, how often, etc.) but those foods aren't readily available to us. You can still have a very healthy budgie though, just offer a varied diet.

Hi Hans, one of my budgies favorite grasses come from africa(african love grass) as do an awful lot of the grasses and weeds that are taking over our 'natural bush'....as I study Conservation and Land Management we see lots of weeds that are choking the life out of our native plants, that in turn will effect our native animals (including budgies) because alot of them of course depend on flora to survive...however our native animals have adapted to survive eating all the new plants and weeds that have been introduced(not without fatalities I'm sure)I think it is exactly the same as budgies adapting to the cold where you live except in our case it was the plants and weeds being bought here in your case the bird did the travelling.

I agree with eterri on that the best diet we can possibly give is a varied one allowing them to get the best out of the foods offered.

Being nomadic budgies get the best of the foods available as when it runs out ...they just move on to the next feeding ground (always around water)

There are people out there who observe and study budgies but they are here in Australia and that doesn't seem to help the rest of the world. At my local university library there is heaps of books and just general studies about all kinds of Australian birds and animals including budgies...again very helpful for people in Australia....useless for people who aren't :nest: