Ask Lafeber

Nutriberry ball

My budgies are bonded but for some reason they just throw nutri berries out of the bowl and eat the seeds. Are they playing a food or do they hate nutriberries? One of my birds tasted nutriberries once.

Hi,

This is a common approach for a bird when introduced to Nutri-Berries, because they do not recognize the balls as food. The best way to entice them is to crumble the berries and add them to the regular food. Gradually mix less of their regular diet each day, until they are only eating the Nutri-Berries. Nutri-Berries are formulated the same as pellets, but they are not ground up. The seeds are fresh, human grade with the hulls removed, and they are coated with a nutritionally balanced binder. So once they are eating them well, you should stop offering the loose seed mix. The seeds in loose mixes is generally not fresh enough to have many nutrients, and any added vitamins are lost when the bird removed the hulls. Once they do eat the crumbled berries, you can start adding larger pieces and eventually the whole berries so that they get the full benefit of the foraging exercise.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda