Hello guys. Hope you are well.
Ive had my english budgie for nearly two months.
When we first got him, he was eating a bit of carrot and lettuce but nothing major, those were the only two veggies he tried. Just eating and ripping it.
Now these days he wont eat any fruit and veggies that i put in his cage. I put multiple veggies around his cage as well as in his food bowl.
He usually either doesn’t go to them or he licks it and then leaves it alone.
Recently i have not been giving him seeds and millet at all (the only food he will eat) and have only been putting vegetables in his bowl.
There has been no luck.
Any advice on what i should do? Should i not feed him at all for the whole day and try to give him veggies.
I know that fruits and veg form a big part of their diet but if i give millet as a replacement (if he refuses to eat anything else) will it be detrimental towards his health?
Any help would be appreciated, thank you.
Answer:
Hi Tamara,
Fruits and veggies are a good supplement for pet birds, but should only make up 20% of their daily diet. It is more important that your bird is eating a nutritionally balanced diet such as pellets or our foraging diets. This should be at least 80% of his daily diet. The loose seed and millet you are feeding are basically treats, and he is not getting the nutrition he needs. Since he is an English Budgie, it is very important to get him off of the seed mix and millet, because they are very prone to becoming obese or developing fatty tumors. Since budgies do eat seed naturally, they will generally convert more easily to our foraging diets than to pellets. Our foraging diets are nutritionally balanced the same as a pellet, but they are not ground up. They contain fresh, whole seeds with the hulls removed, along with other ingredients to form a balanced diet. The problem with loose seed mixes is that the seed is not fresh enough to retain any natural nutrients, and any added nutrients are lost when the bird removes the hulls. I would recommend trying him on our Nutri-Berries to start with. You can crumble these and mix with his regular seed, and then gradually increase the Nutri-Berries and decrease the seed mix until he is only eating the Nutri-Berries. Then you can start offering the Nutri-Berries without crumbling them, so that he gets the natural foraging exercise they are designed for.
As for offering fruits and veggies, we actually just presented a webinar on introducing new foods to your bird. You should never try to starve him into eating anything. But you also shouldn’t give in, at least as far as converting him from his seeds to Nutri-Berries or Pellets. I’ll give you the link to the latest webinar, as well as the link to our nutrition webinars. Any bird can learn to eat healthy foods – just be consistent and don’t give up. Birds will of course eat their “junk food” if you allow them to. So it’s up to you to find what works for your bird as far as trying out new foods. Once you can get him off of the seed mix and eating a balanced diet, this is all he needs. However, fruits and veggies are a plus and give him the variety that is natural for a bird. Just know that converting him to a balanced diet should be your priority right now.
