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Budgies and diets?

BirbDex

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Hi, so I have a lot on my mind currently but I don't want to come off as causing trouble as soon as I arrive so I'm not going to disclose any names what I am going to say is I was advised to put my budgie on a diet from a so-called professional bird trainer.
Being someone who takes advice but always double checks everything that's exactly what I've done and continue to do with any advice given. I contacted them because I was having a hard time with taming and I'm fairly new to owning birds and have little experience or at least
as much experience as I could possibly find roaming the internet, which isn't always the best source of information but I don't know who else to ask there isn't anyone around. So here's my problem I went to a couple of forms and wiki to double-check dieting with budgies wiki told me that budgies don't need diets and so didn't a forum on Facebook that was made for budgies. But then I got a professional telling me all birds need diets even budgies and some others here and there have said the same information so of course now I'm unsure who to trust. Is there any accurate studies on this? Because I'm not sure what to do but heck, I don't even know to begin with why that was suggested to begin with anyways she's not currently on a diet and won't be until i know who's right and who is wrong. Also should i be feeding her pellets or seeds mixed with veggies? currently it's seed mixed with veggies but that's another conflicting informational piece that i keep finding people debating. I'm so lost i hope someone can help me shed some light on both things. By the way, i came to these forums to because I've always liked forums over chats and facebook. Gives me time to collect my thoughts and feelings and calmly communicate or ask for clarification easier. Other things for me feel too fast confusing or occasionally aggressive and scary to even ask for help i just like forums ya know?

Side note: Sorry if the spelling and grammar is poor i try I'm not the best at it.
 
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Sunni Tiel

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Welcome to the avenue!

Budgies are granivores, so you need seeds in the diet. Pellets are especially formulated to have complete nutrition, and an only seed diet could result in fatty liver disease and overweight. They also need veggies in their diet, many people feed almost 50% veggies, 25% seeds and 25% pellets. You should also look into making sprouts, offering grains every day, (a good option is chop, almost everyone here feeds it and it's super healthy, there are recipes all over here) and a little fruit, just offer some fruit every other day.

Do your best and keep doing research, you'll find lots of great answers on Avian Avenue!
 

BirbDex

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Welcome to the avenue!

Budgies are granivores, so you need seeds in the diet. Pellets are especially formulated to have complete nutrition, and an only seed diet could result in fatty liver disease and overweight. They also need veggies in their diet, many people feed almost 50% veggies, 25% seeds and 25% pellets. You should also look into making sprouts, offering grains every day, (a good option is chop, almost everyone here feeds it and it's super healthy, there are recipes all over here) and a little fruit, just offer some fruit every other day.

Do your best and keep doing research, you'll find lots of great answers on Avian Avenue!
I'm not good with math if you don't mind do you know a way i can do that % stuff easily? (She has chop i feed her chop as much as possible) besides that I'll look into pellets then thanks. :)
 

Sparkles99

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For the percentages, based on Sunni Tiel's recommendation, half of the food would be veggies. Half of the amount you see in veggies would be seeds. And half of what you see in veggies would be pellets. So the seeds & pellets combined would take up the same space as the veggies. Half (veggies) + a quarter (seeds) + a quarter (pellets) = a whole or 100%. Think of a pizza split by 3 people. One person's greedy & takes half (in their defence, it has mushrooms :xflove:). The other two split what's left.

This would be ideal. I'm the first to admit that my budgies aren't yet eating like this & so they get way more seeds. This is something to work towards, not something to impose by limiting food.

If the bird trainer said your budgies need a good diet, they're right. If they said to restrict availability of favourite foods (seeds, in the case of my birds) to somehow 'make' them eat the other food, that's dangerous. A good diet's very different from being on a diet. :)
 

Shezbug

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You don’t need to disclose any names, we are all fairly well aware of where and who most new bird owners tend to get information from so I’m guessing most of us could probably throw out two or three YouTube stars names and have your trainer in the list lol. You share what you want and need to so you get the help you’re looking for- lots of great information and support here on AA and best of all... it’s free!

What kind of diet were you told to put your bird on?
Sometimes the word diet is used in general reference to basically eating a healthy selection of veg/fresh foods, pellets and seeds so the word diet doesn’t always mean to loose weight. I just want to check what you were told regarding your birds current diet and body condition


Did they specifically tell you that your bird needs to loose weight or did they just mention bird diet?

@Ripshod is a wonderful source for all things budgie so hopefully he’ll chime in and help you out with some information that’s helpful and useful as well as correct!

I’m really glad you found us here, I hope you enjoy being a member :)
 

Ripshod

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:welave:

As already mentioned by Shez diet is not about losing weight.
Think about a flock of birds in the wild. They are constantly on the move flying many miles every day. With this much energy use a high fat diet is needed so seeds are the main part of the diet - easy to find and high calorie. As soon as you bring that bird inside you restrict that activity, and if that budgie eats the same amount of seed it will soon get fat and Ill. Given a choice a budgie will naturally opt fo seed over veggies.
Once you come to understand that you start to understand the reason to feed veggies and salad. Instead of feeding the high calorie seeds we get them eating fresh salad and veggies that while still nutritious have nowhere near the calorific value of seed. Effectively we 'pad out' their natural diet to keep them healthy in a highly acceptable way.
Pellets. What is it about pellets? Look at the ingredients on a pack. Amongst other stuff there's often a lot of seeds and grains in there. So why feed pellets? Apart from one that comes to mind they are fortified. To cut a long story short that means they have all the vitamins and minerals they need and would get naturally in the wild.
All this diet thing doesn't need to be made complicated by self-elected 'elite bird experts' . It's as simple as reducing seed it the budgie is getting fat and increasing seed if the budgie is skinny.
½ veggies, ¼ seed and ¼ pellets is a good starting point to aim for and work from.
 

BirbDex

Strolling the yard
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You don’t need to disclose any names, we are all fairly well aware of where and who most new bird owners tend to get information from so I’m guessing most of us could probably throw out two or three YouTube stars names and have your trainer in the list lol. You share what you want and need to so you get the help you’re looking for- lots of great information and support here on AA and best of all... it’s free!

What kind of diet were you told to put your bird on?
Sometimes the word diet is used in general reference to basically eating a healthy selection of veg/fresh foods, pellets and seeds so the word diet doesn’t always mean to loose weight. I just want to check what you were told regarding your birds current diet and body condition


Did they specifically tell you that your bird needs to loose weight or did they just mention bird diet?

@Ripshod is a wonderful source for all things budgie so hopefully he’ll chime in and help you out with some information that’s helpful and useful as well as correct!

I’m really glad you found us here, I hope you enjoy being a member :)
Hi, there not really "My trainer" I just sorta emailed them and I got lucky they even replied. There was no detail no food recommendations. And my price range I'd like to be in the 15$ range cause she's tiny and i don't see the need to pay a ton but that doesn't seem to be an option due to shipping costs and prices flying sky-high recently so I've upped it to 25$ range and that's going to have to work but I'm also getting a 4lb bag so that'll last a while with a budgie anyways and that's helpful in the long run. Currently she's on just seeds and veggies I'm rural and we don't got pet stores nearby unless you're gonna travel and i don't drive so getting up there for me is rare so I'm left with Walmart but i don't like that in general so I'm working on changing everything but i can only do one thing at a time and i figured the pellets are more important to get cause she's been without them for the longest and then i can change the rest but also everything being ordered so it's going to take time to even get to me to begin with. to clarify (She will stay on seeds,veggies while i get her these pellets then once i have them i'll change the seed type too) But also, i have a cocoitiel/medium bird food type that i originally got for a future cocitiel but decided to wait for a my life situation to get better before i jump to 2d. (But i looked at that and it says i can't give her that brand anyway)

She is on: Parakeet food Alimento 3-D para perico but she already hates the pellet side of it she'll eat the seeds no problem though. I'm looking right now at this brand of pellets: https://www.amazon.com/LAFEBERS-Tropical-Human-Grade-Ingredients-Canaries/dp/B08KGXL6D6/ref=sr_1_20?dchild=1&keywords=budgie+food+pellets&qid=1614720930&sr=8-20&th=1 or Amazon.com : Roudybush Daily Maintenance Bird Food, Nibles, 44-Ounce : Pet Food : Pet Supplies i also checked out harisons brand but these two i like because two positives are size and price and they don't have dyes like the seeds do i want to try to get her away from anything dyed or unnatural. But i still don't know for sure if these brands are good? so any and all advice is great!
 
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