Need advice for budgie's diet

[Budgielover28]

I have boughttwo budgies for the first time. They are currently having grass seedlings only. I have no idea what other things could be given to them.

 

[Hankmacaw]

Welcome to AA.

@Lady Jane

 

[roxynoodle]

Lady Jane will probably be more up to date on budgie care as I haven't had any now for 20 years. But, there are pellets that are very small that budgies can eat. Mine loved fresh greens like kale. They weren't picky at all really and would eat on the table while we had dinner. They liked veggies, fruits, spaghetti, eggs. One loved orange juice and would try to dive right into the glass for it.

 

[taxidermynerd]

Budgies need a wide range of diet. A good quality pellet should be the staple. I feed Zupreem naturals, but many feed Harrison's or Roudybush. This pellet needs to be fortified, providing the nutrients your budgie needs to be healthy.

Then add in your seeds, for budgies I like to have mine on a 60/40 pellets to seeds diet. I feed my own seed mix, made of human-grade organic seeds.

Get them to eat as much veggies as you can. Many apparently like them, mine won't touch veggies with a 10 foot pole.

All this will take time, it took my budgie 8 months to eat pellets willingly. He was a tough nut to crack. Persistence is key.

@Monica has a thread with some excellent tips on converting your budgie to a healthy diet, and @Mizzely has a page on her website with a comparison of many pellet brands.

 

[Lady Jane]

Um where to start. It makes a difference where you live in order to purchase the better foods. Budgies are highly susceptible to AGY better known as avian gastric yeast. Having lost one in the past and having my current male get this horrific disease I no longer feed any corn products, especially fresh corn. In my opinion it contributes to the formation of yeast in the crop of our tiny birds.
With that being said a great percentage of bird food contains corn in one form or another. I search for a long time for a food that had no corn or flax seed and found that to be Goldenfeast. I feed the tiny pellets, seeds and various blends (Australian) exclusively. I also supplement with a Calcium/Vit D powder. It is called Cal-D-Solve.

Budgies do not like fruit so I don't even bother trying any more. They need a combination of fresh greens and yellow/orange veggies. How you present their veggies to them is important. I use different ways of doing this. I chop a few (not too many) veggies such as kale, romaine lettuce, carrots, red sweet peppers and broccoli which seems to be a buggies favorite. I have skewers for serving individual veggies or just one or two. I also hang wet greens freshly washed from the cage top with a bag clip. If you can find them organically grown Dandelion greens are very good as are beet greens. Sometimes I serve grains such as brown rice or quinoa. You can mix the cooked grains in scrambled eggs for a real treat. There are some seeds that are better than others and I buy them separately. Raw, unhulled sesame seeds have 35% calcium, chia, hemp and milk thistle.

I also make birdie bread and buy the mixes on Amazon (Mammas). To the mix I add mostly orange veggies (pumpkin )is available now and other highly nutritious items. Plus 2 tbsp. coconut oil. They both adore their birdie bread.

Once a week out of every month I put apple cider vinegar with mother in their drinking water as a way to ward off yeast. Its 2 tsp. in a quart of fresh water and refrigerate the remaining as it will last for a few days.

Since you have two budgies they are likely to take to the human food more enthusiastically than a single budgie would. Have patience with them as it takes a while to switch to a more nutritious diet. Some of the veggies may get wasted because fresh food should only stay in the cage about 2 hours. Good luck!!

 

[Lady Jane]

Here is a link to the budgie food I mentioned.

Small Beak – Goldn’obles III | Goldenfeast Direct

Australian Blend | Goldenfeast Direct

Basics Plus Conditioning Parakeet Food | Goldenfeast Direct

 

[SquawksNibbles]

It is important that your Budgies get a variety of different foods. I feed my Budgies seed, pellets, vegetables, and cooked grains - they love it all.

For pellets, I currently feed ZuPreem Naturals, though my Budgies have not been very picky when it comes to pellets - they’ve accepted other kinds like Roudybush and ZuPreem FruitBlend. There are a bunch of different pellet options, but the best pellet is the one your bird will accept.

You can feed seeds dry or you can sprout them. Sprouted seeds are great for your Budgies, and they will most likely quickly accept them because they’re already used to seeds.

Dark leafy greens, as well as orange veggies, are excellent for your birds. There are a bunch of different vegetables you can try, though. Broccoli was the first vegetable my Budgies ever tried and liked. My birds love carrots, sweet potato, peas, cauliflower, parsley, kale, mustard greens, and romaine lettuce, just to name some. Like Lady Jane said, Budgies tend to not be too big on fruit (although there may be exceptions!), and I have yet to find a fruit that my guys will actually eat. Fruit has more sugar, though, and it isn’t as important as vegetables, so I mainly just focus on veggies.

In addition, my birds love cooked grains. They really enjoy cooked quinoa, rice, and whole grain pasta. They also occasionally get boiled egg which they also love.

 

[TikiMyn]

Hi!
Welcome to the avenue
As you are in the UK(I believe?) you could also go with either Beaphar Care+ or NutriBird as those are more commonly available I believe and in my opinion good as well NutriBird does have sugar and depending on the cariety color, but my birds only ate those in the beginning. I and planning to add TOPs pellets(those don’t have vitD3 so shouldn’t be the only pellet) and caitec overnfresh bites as well for variety. I make my Own seed mix, have three commercial ones(I can look those up when I get home, one is Teurlings, one from Witte Molen, and one I am not sure) for foraging and treats, I love Parrot Paradise for their great mixes personally. I love their flower seed mix most!
My birds also get chop, I buy a large variety of vegetables(you can start with a small variety too ), dark leafy greens, red and orange veggies and Some that I know are great nutritionally have my focus. I try to include at least one veggie from Each color and a few different sorts of berries(blackberries are an all time favorite!), and Some grains. I have coocked my grains the last few times. I would like to use beans as well but haven’t gotten that down quite yet. I chop Some herbs up for them to add too, but most of the time I give those fresh(I freeze my chop). Great to know, birds can eat peppers because they don’t have heat receptors on their tongues like as humans! I do include coconut when available, but other then that I usually don’t do fruit, aside from a pear sometimes as Fëanor loves that so much. I do buy a mango sometimes, cut it up and freeze as a treat. I cut my veggies in small blocks, but depending on your birds you might have to run it through the food processor or leave larger pieces.
My birds also love birdie Bread, there are Many reciped for it on the forum
Last one I Made from Some seeds, a Tiny bit of flour(coconut), mashed sweet potatoes and all my left over veggies from the chop. You can do basically anything with it!
Getting them to eat healthy might be difficult, I Will come back on that when I am home! but here is a thread on it:
Converting Parrots to a Healthier Diet - Tips | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum
I am planning to ground up flowers and use them in my next birdie Bread too.
An awesome thing to give them is sprouts! There is a great thread about it here:
Sprouting Easy or Complicated? | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum
Some general info on sprouting .. thought it might be helpful | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum
My birds adore sprouts and eat them readily. They love sprouted chickpeas, mung beans, lentils and all sorts of small seeds most.
Some info on nutrition in general:
GREAT information of Nutrient/Function/What foods | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum
a bunch of links about Feeding Your Fids | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum

 

[Lady Jane]

@Budgielover28 do you have any further questions regarding the diet of budgies?