Ask Lafeber

Follow up to: hvad about the ones which has manly seed in the diet

Hello. (Own cockatiels and budgies)
You answered my last question that you need to make sure the there is a sufficient amount of amino acids like lysine and methionine in the diet.
I give pallets and some fresh veggies sometime IF they want it, and normally not som much. Give eggs, Deadlines, vitamin, they have 3 type mineral stones as well. Plus give then a mix whiteout sunflower seeds, and mix a lot different beneficial extra seeds in the daily seeds. Like chia, foino paddy, paddy rise, pigima green and more.
Keep them away from human food.

But what more can we do?
As a bird owner, it is hard to find, the golden road.
Even more when, my birds don’t wants to eat vegetables. I want to do it right, give them the best life I can. But especially my budgies dont want to eat vegetables. What is the best way, to make sure, that they get the important: amino acids (lysine and methionine)??

Hope that make sense ❤️

Hi Katharina,

Pellets should e the main diet – 80%, with the other foods you mentioned only making up 20% of the daily diet. The pellets are nutritionally balanced, the seeds are not. Seeds are fun to eat, but they do not have the nutrients the birds need. They are OK as a small amount of the diet, or as a treat. Of course they prefer seeds, but they should be fed what they need. If a child is allowed to eat only what they prefer, they will eat candy all day. So you have to decide what is best for the birds and only give them what is best. Eggs should be fed very sparingly, and they really do not need them unless they are breeding. If your birds are very active & eat a mostly pellet diet, then a very small offering of cooked eggs once or twice a week is fine. Exercise is just as important as a nutritious diet. So provide them with toys to keep them busy and large cages so they can exercise. And stop offering the seeds as the main diet.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda