Hi

 

This has come up recently on different forums, and I was wondering what everyone else thought about feeding tuna fish in water once in a while? Does anyone feed this to their budgies and if so, how often? I have read in a number of different holistic bird sites, that it is a good thing to feed for protein.

 

Anyone?

great question, I am sure others with experience will respond.

 

I did a little searching myself because I never thought of it. From what I read it is okay to feed them waterpacked, some budgies eat tuna sandwiches with their owners (I read that on a forum), the 1 concern I saw was that fish does contain mercury and some metals and too much may not be good for them in large amounts.

I would avoid the tuna because of the mercury. Many prefer to feed thoroughly-cooked chicken every now and then but it's not necessary. A pelleted diet will provide all the protein a budgie needs but too much protein can lead to renal failure. If you're feeding pellets you should be fine without supplementing it in other ways. If not, you can give your budgie protein from sources other than meat. Legumes (beans, lentils, peas, etc.) are a good source.

Sounds kinda weird to me, like we say at the Wildlife Shelter, you can't find bread in the wild so that is not a suitable food to feed birds that you find. I mean, I have fed my breeding pair (that I don't want to breed) egg and cottage cheese when they had babies but Tuna, why would even wild budgies have exposure to Tuna? But if it works, great!!

Well, in the wild they eat the odd insect. what I do is when I bring in a branch for them, I leave the odd ant on. If they eat it, great, if they don't - well eventually I find it to kill it

I'm not sure if tuna is okay to give to a budgie but I do know that I think you'll find that tinned tuna has very little mercury in it as the canning proccess seems to alter the levels of mercury it is not like the fresh steaks that contain high, unsafe levels (not gospel but today tonight did extensive testing and came up with that result and since then tests have been done by numerous poeple/organisations etc. to prove this correct) They say all those big oily fish including shark contain high levels of mercury but that canned tuna is safe.

The only other point is that I beleive animals are adapting as we speak and human beings have and will continue to force these animals out of their natural habitats and away from their "natural diets"..for example at the Native ARC we have lots of possums that are found in peoples backyards eating dog food...this is certainly not their natural diet but the animals are adapting to survive in our ever changing world and they will do whatever it takes to survive....we give the possums fruit and all the good foods but we also give them peanut butter on bread! How many of you knew that possums are absolutely addicted to roses...yes roses.....we also give them roses to munch....how many rose bushes do you find in the australian bush.......NONE but that doesn't mean they are unhealthy and harmful to possums, they absolutely adore them......keeping animals in captivity we can never provide them with all that nature can but it's just lucky that animals are extremely adaptable and that allows us to help them......just my thoughts

At the ARC (Native Animal Rescue Center) we give the aviary birds bread once in a while it doesn't hurt...as they say everything in moderation on the other hand we DON"T give the Kangaroos citris fruits (oranges etc.) because they would halm them so I suppose it is the individual situation...

Yes, you make do with what you can, we also feed opposums dog food at the Wildlife Shelter. But tuna still sounds pretty weird for budgies. But then as I mentioned before, I once worked with a lady that had a budgie who had a vocabulary of 50 words, lived 15 years and his favourite was roast beef dinner or take out Chinese food! :glare:

tuna is also canned in salt - not a good combination. i would avoid it. there is no need to offer it, as eterri said you can offer legumes as a protein source instead.