Millet Spray / diet

[Ivan.Vanca]

Millet sprays should not be used as a treat, but as a main daily source of food.

 

[AussieBird]

Millet sprays should not be used as a treat, but as a main daily source of food.

Millet sprays should not be a main food source.
If your budgie is eating seed it should be a good quality mix that they will be benefitting from.
My lot get Millet sprays so rarely and it's strictly for training/bonding.

 

[Ivan.Vanca]

Lot is what? Sorry. I give my budgies mainly grass seeds and red millet sprays. I know in the USA it is supposed to be like some "treat", but I do not agree with that. Treat or training, it sounds strange. I do not train my budgies. It is fact that some my budgies have fatty lipomas on the chest, but each budgie has the same metabolism. So if it does not hurt one budgie, it can not hurt the another one. Maybe those which do not fly such much, but there is not adequate replacement to those seeds here.

 

[AussieBird]

Lot is what?

My flock of five budgies.

Treat or training, it sounds strange. I do not train my budgies.

I don't really either. I ask my budgies to fly to my hand in exchange for a treat, this is simply to encourage exercise. They get to choose what they want to do, I often end up giving them each some whether they come to me or not to build trust.

but each budgie has the same metabolism. So if it does not hurt one budgie, it can not hurt the another one.

I truely do not believe that. Every budgie is completely different, a wild Australian budgie is SO vastly different to a champion show English budgie in many ways! Not to mention budgies that require more specialized diet to account for health conditions.

Maybe those which do not fly such much, but there is not adequate replacement to those seeds here.

Can I emphasize the here? For you that diet may work and you may not have many options to change it, but that it not so for every single budgie owner. I, for example, have less options then those in the US, but I still have more options then others elsewhere.

 

[grafton]

Millet sprays should not be used as a treat, but as a main daily source of food.

I could not disagree more. Millet is an entirely inadequate main diet, as any seeds-only diet is. Lacking in necessary nutrients and way too high in fats. Our birds aren't in the outback and cannot burn up all those calories. Such a diet will lead to obesity, tumors, lipomas, internal organ issues etc. I agree with all of @AussieBird's remarks on this subject.

 

[Winn]

Millet sprays should not be used as a treat, but as a main daily source of food.

Most of my budgies' diet is veggies. They also get a seed mix and pellets daily.
Millet is included in their seed mix but isn't the main ingredient. Millet sprays are used for training purposes only. (Recall and step-up... I don't "trick-train"..)

Yes, they LOVE the stuff and would happily nibble it all day long. A single main food source won't offer a variety of nutrients they need.

 

[Ivan.Vanca]

I do not understand the point about recall, etc.... And I do not understand what is the training purposes. IT is not true that only birds with large flying in aviaries can eat millets... What else does the seed mix continue beside the millet which is in sprays? I give my budgies millet sprays, grass seeds, maybe some oats, canary seeds, some salads sometimes, carrots, sometimes cucumber, corn, sometimes egg. IT is ok. Pellets are not able to provide D vitamine, etc. Millet in sprays is much less fat that classic millet, normal seeds for budgies - yellow millet, etc.

 

[Ivan.Vanca]

You probably keep your budgies in some outside aviary or in the house. Ok. What I mean is that when in my flock 2 budgies have fatty lipomas, and all of them eat the same, fly the same, they would all have the lipomas. I do not want to have budgeis with lipomas in one room and give them veggies and the others with seeds in the other room with seeds. Nobody can guarantee me this would work. It if it thyroid connected, the diet would not change nothing.

 

[Ivan.Vanca]

What does provide the all nutritions? Most of the pellets are made by heat temperatures, crushing some corns and soyas and make them together into pellet. Burdening the kidneys, because budgies will not drink more after this dry food. Grass seeds itself provide the most of the nutritions.

 

[Ivan.Vanca]

If we would considet the only criteria of healthy budgie is the longetivity, I must say I have not seen no evidence that budgies eating pellets live longer thatn seeds eating budgies.

 

[Ivan.Vanca]

Grafton, can you send me any evidence of seed diet causing or affecting tumors, etc.? Thank you.

 

[Ivan.Vanca]

Peachfaced, I give my budgies not limited foods every day, so this spoon would not work for me. I soak grass seeds 1 time a week and then sprinkle special vitamine powder for them on that. Maybe it stays mainly on the shell of the seeds. And once in a week I sprout seeds into tiny sprouts. NO, I do not buy organic veggies. In the spring I was taking mellica uniflora seeds, budgies love that.

 

[AussieBird]

I am not in the right brain space to reply to and answer all your points, but I did notice you have some incorrect points.

• 99% of pellets do contain Vitamin D, I only have to read a label to see that.
• I never suggest an all pellet diet for exactly the reason you said, bad for the kidneys.
• Not all pellets contain corn, soy etc, and are heat pressed.

We brought these undomesticated animals into our homes, and we're still figuring out the kinks of it all. No one has the correct answer, but I will continue to share what I've learnt and know until proven otherwise by a trusted and reliable source.
Because I feel this thread is going off topic I may not reply to further comments.

 

[Ivan.Vanca]

I do not understand, ok. I will ask in a different way. If my budgie who died after the eye operation, was suffering melanoma in the eye and some bacterial infection due to that, how could I affect it?
There are many recommendations. I have huge hand made wood perchces for my budgies hanging from the ceiling. I was told to throw them away due to chronic chlamydia carriers and buy new ones... This is another very doubtful recommendation. What would I gain by changing the perchces, for example? if I have chronic chlamydia carriers in my flock?

 

[Emma&pico]

I do not understand, ok. I will ask in a different way. If my budgie who died after the eye operation, was suffering melanoma in the eye and some bacterial infection due to that, how could I affect it?
There are many recommendations. I have huge hand made wood perchces for my budgies hanging from the ceiling. I was told to throw them away due to chronic chlamydia carriers and buy new ones... This is another very doubtful recommendation. What would I gain by changing the perchces, for example? if I have chronic chlamydia carriers in my flock?

Basically it’s like you eating cheeseburgers and fried chips everyday every meal or pizza or fried chicken it’s fatting and doesn’t offer much nutritional benefits obviously we need some fats in diets that’s why it’s a treat
I actually don’t mean this rude but have you actually looked at @AussieBird thread about her budgies her care for them is amazing their feather condition the enrichment they receive I don’t know about your birds so I am really not judging but if I had budgies @AussieBird would be who I would look at as a role model for they care

 

[Ivan.Vanca]

What is a role model? I have my budgies in the aparment. Maybe they would be doing better in some outside aviary, I do not know. But I am lazy to place them on some other place. Simply, that is a fact.
Millet sprays do not have much fat. Much less than sunflower, oat or classic millet. I saw some chart about that, but does not have it hear. I think my budgies are ok without pellets. Chronic chlamydia is maybe here, but changing the whole furniture and call some dezinfication team, I am lazy on that. So I stay in this condition.

 

[Peachfaced]

Peachfaced, I give my budgies not limited foods every day, so this spoon would not work for me. I soak grass seeds 1 time a week and then sprinkle special vitamine powder for them on that. Maybe it stays mainly on the shell of the seeds. And once in a week I sprout seeds into tiny sprouts. NO, I do not buy organic veggies. In the spring I was taking mellica uniflora seeds, budgies love that.

I wouldn't be giving them their main food from the spoon. This thread is specifically asking about what treats their birds can have, and this spoon would just be the way the treats are delivered... and that's fine. Treats are a small part of the diet, so giving them on a spoon is ok.

 

[Ivan.Vanca]

DEspite I do not understand the point about the spoon, thanks for the reply.

 

[Peachfaced]

DEspite I do not understand the point about the spoon, thanks for the reply.

If your bird(s) take treats from your hand, you can do it that way, but some birds are hand shy, apprehensive, or aggressive, so the spoon provides a safe way to deliver the treat.

For a bird that is afraid of hands, the spoon is less scary, and puts distance between the bird and the scary hand.
For an aggressive bird, the spoon keeps your skin from being targeted or bitten.

 

[Ivan.Vanca]

What is the sense of that? Once my birds are shy, they will go away regardles get close to them with hand or spoon.