Bourkes diet

[Babybreau]

I was just doing some research online and some sites said that a Bourke's diet should consist of a mixture of canary seeds, millet, safflower and some sunflower seeds.
Other sites said that a good parakeet seed and egg food is good.
Of course all sites said this should be supplemented with fresh fruit and veggies, specifically kale, corn, apples, and grated carrots.

Right now I feed all of my birds the same diet (they are all roughly the same size). They get a good quality cockatiel seed, Roudybush Crumble and a variety of fruits and veggies. They get millet as a treat and everyone is currently rejecting the pomegranates... even my best fresh food eater Pepper.

For those of you that DO have Bourkes and experience with Bourkes, what do you feed yours?


PS> Yes I had a Bourke before, but now I'm 2nd guessing myself and wondering if diet didn't contribute to his sudden death.

PPS> Monet is eating and drinking well. She picked all the corn out of her veggies and most of the peas. And she will chirp when I talk to her and is currently sitting happily grinding her beak.

 

[J*M*L]

Can't help you with the diet, but I love your new siggy!

 

[BraveheartDogs]

I was just doing some research online and some sites said that a Bourke's diet should consist of a mixture of canary seeds, millet, safflower and some sunflower seeds.
Other sites said that a good parakeet seed and egg food is good.
Of course all sites said this should be supplemented with fresh fruit and veggies, specifically kale, corn, apples, and grated carrots.

Right now I feed all of my birds the same diet (they are all roughly the same size). They get a good quality cockatiel seed, Roudybush Crumble and a variety of fruits and veggies. They get millet as a treat and everyone is currently rejecting the pomegranates... even my best fresh food eater Pepper.

For those of you that DO have Bourkes and experience with Bourkes, what do you feed yours?


PS> Yes I had a Bourke before, but now I'm 2nd guessing myself and wondering if diet didn't contribute to his sudden death.

PPS> Monet is eating and drinking well. She picked all the corn out of her veggies and most of the peas. And she will chirp when I talk to her and is currently sitting happily grinding her beak.

For Willow, my Rosy Bourke, I keep Lafeber parakeet pellets in there at all times. She gets fresh food in the morning which is different all the time. Sometimes the fancy soak bean mix, some veggies, an orzo pasta and veggie mix, birdie muffins, or whatever I have. And, in the afternoon she gets a little scoop of seed. I feed her what the budgies eat which is Volkman Parakeet seed. She seems to be doing great on this diet!

 

[Babybreau]

For Willow, my Rosy Bourke, I keep Lafeber parakeet pellets in there at all times. She gets fresh food in the morning which is different all the time. Sometimes the fancy soak bean mix, some veggies, an orzo pasta and veggie mix, birdie muffins, or whatever I have. And, in the afternoon she gets a little scoop of seed. I feed her what the budgies eat which is Volkman Parakeet seed. She seems to be doing great on this diet!

Monet seems to be eating lots and I'm really happy she's eaten corn and peas She happily grinds her beak after eating or drinking.
I'll monitor her and see.

I just wonder if anyone does feed them the canary seed? What's the difference?

 

[BraveheartDogs]

Monet seems to be eating lots and I'm really happy she's eaten corn and peas She happily grinds her beak after eating or drinking.
I'll monitor her and see.

I just wonder if anyone does feed them the canary seed? What's the difference?

To be honest, I think either seed would be fine. It's not the main part of her diet, you are feeding a variety which is the most important thing. I think you should be fine with whichever seeds you choose. I feed the seed that is fed to my birds close in size. My GCC gets cockatiel seed, so does my Linnie. Willow gets budgie seed. Again, I think since the seed is such a small part of her diet, you should be ok.

 

[atvchick95]

I was just doing some research online and some sites said that a Bourke's diet should consist of a mixture of canary seeds, millet, safflower and some sunflower seeds.
Other sites said that a good parakeet seed and egg food is good

The sites for parrotlets say the same thing.... so i tried the canary mix - had some canary/finch sized from when I couldn't get parakeet size and needed food. they turned it to dust So I went to parakeet size. again turned it to dust..... cockatiel size TURNS to dust..... now we're on Conure size and guess what they turn it to dust LOL

they're the only birds in the house that have nothing left over to give the birdies and Squirrels out side... they eat it all and leave the dust in their bowls but i can NOT get them to eat anything but seeds and they're not supposed to picky eaters

 

[WiscExoticsAviary]

Hello to everyone, I'm new to the board and noticed this thread due to being a little Bourke crazy or just Grass keet crazy.
Just thought that maybe i could add my own 2 cents here. As for all of our small grasskeets including Bourkes we feed a Cockatiel Mix with added canary seed. To include veggies and dark leafy greens.
It's been my experience that when someone hears that they are parakeets they assume they will do just fine on keet seed but that isn't so. All the newer grasskeets that i have gotten in the past and present seem to be or are underweight. By feeding the mix that we do we have noticed a nice weight gain along with stronger chicks and deeper colors. Also being that they are all cage bred ( for color ) and flight raised they need the extra fat and energy stores for there high activity levels.

Thanks for the time,
Jeff

 

[BraveheartDogs]

Hello to everyone, I'm new to the board and noticed this thread due to being a little Bourke crazy or just Grass keet crazy.
Just thought that maybe i could add my own 2 cents here. As for all of our small grasskeets including Bourkes we feed a Cockatiel Mix with added canary seed. To include veggies and dark leafy greens.
It's been my experience that when someone hears that they are parakeets they assume they will do just fine on keet seed but that isn't so. All the newer grasskeets that i have gotten in the past and present seem to be or are underweight. By feeding the mix that we do we have noticed a nice weight gain along with stronger chicks and deeper colors. Also being that they are all cage bred ( for color ) and flight raised they need the extra fat and energy stores for there high activity levels.

Thanks for the time,
Jeff

Hmmmm, I wonder if I should switch Willows seed to cockatiel seed instead of parakeet seed.

 

[Babybreau]

So I'm still feeding Monet the mix and she seems to be doing just fine. She's eating lots and drinking and has normal poops.
I do sometimes alternate bewtween the Roudybush crumble and Tropican/Tropimix combo depending on what I can get. Monet and Peeps have yet to be able to try the Tropican/Tropimix combo as I haven't been able to get any lately. I hope they take to that as well as my other fids
Thanks for the info Jeff. I was going on gut instinct and guess my gut was right

 

[Babybreau]

Hello to everyone, I'm new to the board and noticed this thread due to being a little Bourke crazy or just Grass keet crazy.
Just thought that maybe i could add my own 2 cents here. As for all of our small grasskeets including Bourkes we feed a Cockatiel Mix with added canary seed. To include veggies and dark leafy greens.
It's been my experience that when someone hears that they are parakeets they assume they will do just fine on keet seed but that isn't so. All the newer grasskeets that i have gotten in the past and present seem to be or are underweight. By feeding the mix that we do we have noticed a nice weight gain along with stronger chicks and deeper colors. Also being that they are all cage bred ( for color ) and flight raised they need the extra fat and energy stores for there high activity levels.

Thanks for the time,
Jeff

I would love to see pics of your bourkes sometime

 

[WiscExoticsAviary]

I do have a few, some are on the laptop and others ( better ones ) are on the pc at home. here are a few not the greatest pics though. I've added them as attachments. The first pic is of a young group of Opalines (Roseys) they show a nice dark salmon pink to them but still not the best for color (I'm a little picky) the second picture is of a Red Pastel Male ( he is no longer with us) that I had gotten with a small group from a local breeder, they thought he was a normal but with the red eyes and redish pink highlites to the body he had to be something else.( the closest example i could get was a red pastel so I still might be wrong on that one) and finally my first pair of "Rubinos" Female Rubino and a Normal Split Rubino male, they still haven't produced anything she lays eggs and he cant figure out what his job is (dork). They are in a flight now woth Opaline hens and normal split rubino males, this way they can pair off properly and still be able to produce Rubinos, Normal Splits, Roseys and rose split lutino.

We have Pale Fallows, Bronze Fallows, Cinnamons, Violet Factor, Roseys, Normal Splits.

We are primarily working to produce Lutinos, Roseys splits, Rubinos and Cinnamons. The secondary goal is to produce true pinks(cinnamon opalines) and Fallow opalines.

Jeff

 

[WiscExoticsAviary]

OOpps i down loaded a wrong pic.......there isn't a red pastel male that pic is on the pc. The second pic is of a pair of Roseys that produce offspring with no blue at all on them and where the blue would be on there forhead and wing bends is actually white.

 

[BraveheartDogs]

I do have a few, some are on the laptop and others ( better ones ) are on the pc at home. here are a few not the greatest pics though. I've added them as attachments. The first pic is of a young group of Opalines (Roseys) they show a nice dark salmon pink to them but still not the best for color (I'm a little picky) the second picture is of a Red Pastel Male ( he is no longer with us) that I had gotten with a small group from a local breeder, they thought he was a normal but with the red eyes and redish pink highlites to the body he had to be something else.( the closest example i could get was a red pastel so I still might be wrong on that one) and finally my first pair of "Rubinos" Female Rubino and a Normal Split Rubino male, they still haven't produced anything she lays eggs and he cant figure out what his job is (dork). They are in a flight now woth Opaline hens and normal split rubino males, this way they can pair off properly and still be able to produce Rubinos, Normal Splits, Roseys and rose split lutino.

We have Pale Fallows, Bronze Fallows, Cinnamons, Violet Factor, Roseys, Normal Splits.

We are primarily working to produce Lutinos, Roseys splits, Rubinos and Cinnamons. The secondary goal is to produce true pinks(cinnamon opalines) and Fallow opalines.

Jeff

Wow, they're gorgeous.

 

[southernbirds]

Beautiful. I add canary seeds to my English Budgie's crumbled up nutraberries. He also gets Zupreem pellets.

 

[Babybreau]

Jeff those are gorgeous birds!!

Sorry for the late reply - I'm the worst for checking my own threads I started!!

 

[vmorrison]

For what it's worth, canary seed is higher in protein than parakeet seed. Having bred Bourkes and Neophemas, I found that they don't do well on a diet that is too high in protein. I never used pellets, as they got their protein from the canary seed. Fruits and veggies are fine, just easy on too much protein.

 

[WiscExoticsAviary]

We do have to watch the proteins and the fat intake of the birds we raise. All of our Bourkes are flight raised and having the extra proteins and fats help keep the birds in top shape. Depending on the color of the Bourkes also dictates how they will be bred ( ie. cage or flight ) having the little extra on them coming in to the breeding season helps when the hens go to nest. And not all birds like the same type of food, so there is a little room for change in any diet.