Testimonials with Budgies all-seed diet?

[Jonnf]

Hi everyone!
This is a non-judgement post guys, and what I’d like to ask is, have anyone here -truly and out of exaggerations- lost a budgie prematurely or had to deal with severe illness due to an all-seed diet? Is everyone who has a budgie that refuses to eat nothing but seeds doomed to live with a sick bird?

Before anyone jumps to advise on methods for diet conversion, I want you to know that I am clear about the basics, I have read and tried unsuccessfully so many methods I’ve seen and i am still in the process of getting my bird used to veggies and pellets, however, I’ve observed that my bird is unhappy and distressed if no seeds are offered in a majoritarian proportion. I’ve seen posts in which experienced owners don’t advise to rush into changing budgie diets because they are actually -according to experts- categorized as seed eaters and they thrive on them naturally, so, now I feel very confused because of all the contradicting information about the subject.

Are seeds that bad in reality? Have anyone here lost birds due to 100% proven liver sickness? Are veggies/pellets really adding 5+ years to a bird that naturally eats seeds? I have seen so many budgies in my life and haven’t met not one owner that has complained about seeds reducing the longevity of their own birds.

I flight-train my bird and perform active flights indoors with a great number of repetitions, one reason is I enjoy that activity and another is of course, exercise for my buddy -that is besides all the flights he does by himself as he is free-range during daytime and I am work from home budgie dad.

Now, after consuming all the information available, I think I am doing wrong in offering any kind of seeds due to the over abundance of opinions, but if I don’t offer them, I end up with an angry bird throwing tantrums inside or outside his cage…

Let’s see what answers can arise from this threat!

 

[Sparkles99]

My budgies eat around the pellets in their food mix. I've tried all the brands, many conversion ideas, sprouted seeds, etc. Once in a while someone will sample a veggie, but they generally don't. It concerns me.

Wild budgies would eat sprouted seeds & likely some vegetation - can't be picky out in nature! They would also fly so much more both in distance & resistance. There are no winds or storms indoors. Everyone knows it's windier the higher you go, from towers, apartments, etc. Budgies fly much higher than that some of the time & do acrobatics to avoid predators. They basically get incomparably more exercise.

That said, the budgies of yesteryear routinely seem to have lived 10-14+ years. Some people on here have speculated it's due to inbreeding to establish new mutations, whereas people used to be satisfied with wild colour or sky blue budgies.

 

[Tyrion]

 

[Shezbug]

Wild budgies eat different seeds to those which we offer from a box or bag.
I don’t think we can compare what we feed to captive budgies with what wild budgies would be eating.

 

[Kassiani]

I am afraid to say that I am currently dealing with liver disease in one of my budgies which is likely due to the all seed diet they had in the first 3 years with me. This particular bird is now 6 years old. He may not make it another year, and I’m trying to prepare myself for that. My budgies now get about 25% seed with the rest being pellets and veggies with sprouted seed and legumes.

 

[Mizzely]

If you're okay with a non-budgie example, my Jardine's was on a 100% seed diet for 19 years and had heart issues and respiratory issues because of it. He was deficient in vitamin A, D3 and calcium. Most of his ailments have improved switching to pellets (his arthritis is still pretty bad).

 

[AussieBird]

Are seeds that bad in reality?

I am going to say no. YES, in excessive amounts they are bad! But so are pellets! It's really about finding a good balance to suit the needs of your budgie.
Ripshod is really awesome to talk to about budgie diet, but he's not very active at the moment.

Budgies are granivores and are designed to eat seed. It's best to feed 25-35% seed.
Pellets also contain calcium, something budgies can't tolerate in large amounts. Best keeping pellets to 35‰ max and fill the rest of the diet with fresh and cooked veggies.
It won't happen overnight though, we all know that. It's a healthy target to aim for.

 

[Pixiebeak]

my budgies have e seeds always available. My budgies also eat with glee fresh veggies twice a day. My budgies also eat pellets. That's why I made the veggies pictures thread. Because for many seeing is believing.

My 2 budgies came to me as adults that had only been eating seeds. My rescue from cats mouth i don't know but he started eating veggies in the first week of being with my flock.

My old quaker rescue was probably on all seed diet ...was on all sunflower in her food dish when I found her. Was unhealthy with fatty liver, black beak sides from liver...but she ste broccoli the first day home...so maybe had veggies before.

Wild budgies eat vegetable/plant matter.

100% seeds aren't nutrionaly complete. Many , many years ago people thought budgies only lived 1-5 years. Because that's when they died in captivity on all seed diets..

 

[zERo/]

Seeds are not bad, they are fantastic in small amounts, one of my budgies came to me after 2-3 years of eating only poor quality seed, she looked terrible, rough and dull feathers, very crusty cere, and over grown nails.
I've owned her for nearly 2 years, she now eats chop and sprouts for breakfast and for dinner chop and birdie bread, she is still allowed 1/4 tsp. of organic high quality seed and looks radiant, her nails now grow at a regular rate and her cere isn't crusty.

A non-budgie example but it has much more time behind it, a male cockatiel, was randomly given to me, he was 12-13 years old at the time, next April I'll have had him for 2 years, he doesn't love veggies but he will eat them. He mostly eats TOPs pellets.
When I got him he was very dirty and dull, now he looks like a different bird.

I could go on about all of my other birds, every single one out of 9 came to me the same way, the results of converting them to healthy and balanced diets are undeniable.

 

[Jonnf]

Thank you! this forum is awesome!

 

[Jonnf]

I am afraid to say that I am currently dealing with liver disease in one of my budgies which is likely due to the all seed diet they had in the first 3 years with me. This particular bird is now 6 years old. He may not make it another year, and I’m trying to prepare myself for that. My budgies now get about 25% seed with the rest being pellets and veggies with sprouted seed and legumes.

I am so sorry to hear that, and I share your concerns! my baby is just a couple months old, and I am already making such progress with him that I have started making preparations to allow him a longer life. However, I go back to my question... being budgies the kinds of bird they are, and being raised the way the are in the pet trade, then most of us are doomed to that destiny of loosing our birds early because of the difficulties of converting them to veggies and/or a healthier diet as opposed to larger parrots that might have been taken cared of by hand and therefore, introduced better foods at an earlier age... I believe that 90% of budgies will suffer that fate???

 

[Jonnf]

Excellent you guys! amazing answers from all of you! many thanks!

Now, what should I do when -in the beginning stages of the conversion as I am right now- my Budgie won't accept veggies with seed sprinkled on top and start squawking loudly for his seed? I feel at that point sort of obliged to provide seed... Wouldn't that be same reinforcing the behavior of rejecting veggies to obtain seed?

Should I ignore him for a certain amount of time and THEN provide seed in limited quantities? How to proceed in this matter WITHOUT starving the fella?

What do you recommend in your experience?

 

[Kassiani]

I am so sorry to hear that, and I share your concerns! my baby is just a couple months old, and I am already making such progress with him that I have started making preparations to allow him a longer life. However, I go back to my question... being budgies the kinds of bird they are, and being raised the way the are in the pet trade, then most of us are doomed to that destiny of loosing our birds early because of the difficulties of converting them to veggies and/or a healthier diet as opposed to larger parrots that might have been taken cared of by hand and therefore, introduced better foods at an earlier age... I believe that 90% of budgies will suffer that fate???

It is my understanding that many of the budgie breeders wean the baby birds onto seed because it is fast, easy, and cheap.

If you have a young bird, I believe that their long term prognosis is good if they can be converted to pellets and fresh foods.

 

[Jonnf]

It is my understanding that many of the budgie breeders wean the baby birds onto seed because it is fast, easy, and cheap.

If you have a young bird, I believe that their long term prognosis is good if they can be converted to pellets and fresh foods.

Yes, I was actually meditating on that... Budgies IMHO have been treated or seen as 'less than a parrot' kinda animal, closer to finches due to being so small, cheap, prolific and abundant... If they would be handled the same way as bigger parrots we might have Budgies that are properly introduced to a healthier life style rather than a life of struggles, difficulties or illness due to the simple fact of convenience of 'production'...

I wish I had a pair and raise my own baby myself and try that experiment to see if they can thrive and successfully transition quicker and seamless to a much healthier lifestyle.

My young bird has made progress, I have tried unorthodox methods to tease him to try other things, such as collecting empty shells of oat groats, and 'refilling' them with powdered pellets, I give them back to the budgie to keep hauling them and that has resulted in him actually grinding the pellets (Mazzuri mini bird diet) when I offer them whole, and also, these look very similar to hauled millet which I mix to sort of trick him into it. I have also used empty millet spray branches and pack them with pureed pellets close to the core, and on the outer part, I disguised the whole spear with hauled millet to make it look like the original millet spray thing, he goes and nibbles hard into it, thinking that the whole spear is millet, he ends up chewing into pellets, and altho he expels some of it, he has learned to eat some as well.

Currently I offer 3 different dishes with the three foods in question, one with veggies, another with half teaspoon of seeds and another with pellets alternated in pureed with seeds or just dry as they are.

Now, i have observed that birds are really difficult to trick. they have excellent vision designed to sort between grains and sand grains in the wild so they know what they're doing while eating lol!

 

[Fergus Mom]

Excellent you guys! amazing answers from all of you! many thanks!

Now, what should I do when -in the beginning stages of the conversion as I am right now- my Budgie won't accept veggies with seed sprinkled on top and start squawking loudly for his seed? I feel at that point sort of obliged to provide seed... Wouldn't that be same reinforcing the behavior of rejecting veggies to obtain seed?

Should I ignore him for a certain amount of time and THEN provide seed in limited quantities? How to proceed in this matter WITHOUT starving the fella?

What do you recommend in your experience?

I have always wondered if it was kind of a 'conspiracy theory' in regard to the pellets - (I know that is probably not a popular query...), but you know how hard those pet food manufacturers work and spend money to convince us... Anyhow, I still offer mine pellets mixed in with their seed, and fresh veggies daily. They now love their fresh veggies, and of course I offered those at first with millet mixed in, but I don't have to even put millet on them anymore. Pellets? I'm not even sure they're eating them. But seed I ALWAYS have available in their dishes. To me, it would not be right to deny a budgie their seed. (just my opinion there).
I am big on cautioning new to birds budgie owners about the hulls looking like seed in their dish, because I knew of someone who THOUGHT they had seed/food in the dish, but it was only empty hulls. Thus, the birds starved. SO sad!
Good luck Budgie Daddy! You are in a great place for bird wisdom!

 

[Shezbug]

Try offering your veggies in different ways- hanging, chunky, shaved, pushed through bars etc.
My budgie wont eat veg if it is chopped up and in a bowl (unless it is dried and mixed into seed and pellet mix but he will eat a tonne of them if I wet them and hang them from the roof of the cage (near a perch so he can get to them), he wont eat every veggie I offer him but neither do my large guys.

I would not withhold his seed which he knows as food to encourage him to eat other foods- it is not a good motivator as your bird may not understand the other stuff you give him is actually edible, budgies have fast metabolisms and there is not much of them so it really would not take much for his health to be compromised if you were to forget to replace his food or if he was needing more than you are giving him. They tend to investigate other foods fed to them daily if it is offered for long enough and consistently.

 

[zERo/]

The best success I had, the thing that made them really start loving veggies was when they felt like they were stealing them from the cockatiels, it sounds stupid but it worked! Making birdie bread is a way to have them eat pellets, enjoy the texture of 'bread' and sneak veg into their diet.
I use TOPs pellets powder as the 'flour' and mix other dry additives in like ground flax, bee pollen, coconut, and rolled oats and for the wet ingredients I use their chop mixed with water and an egg, then bake it.

 

[WikiWaz]

The best success I had, the thing that made them really start loving veggies was when they felt like they were stealing them from the cockatiels, it sounds stupid but it worked! Making birdie bread is a way to have them eat pellets, enjoy the texture of 'bread' and sneak veg into their diet.
I use TOPs pellets powder as the 'flour' and mix other dry additives in like ground flax, bee pollen, coconut, and rolled oats and for the wet ingredients I use their chop mixed with water and an egg, then bake it.

On this note, my first budgie only learned to eat pellets when watching my first cockatiel eat them.

 

[Winn]

My budgies took to veggies fairly easily but they may have been offered veg from the time of weaning, I don't know.
Initially they only ate veggies if they were pureed into pulp and sprinkled with seed. Over time they became interested in larger chunks of some (but not all) veggies. They love tearing apart a broccoli crown or a chunk of carrot.. they love whole green peas or corn on the cob. Other than those few they won't eat anything that hasn't been pureed.

There's a lot of debate about what's the "best way" to offer a parrot-family bird its veggies (mash, chunk, whole...)
My personal opinion is offer them the veggies in whatever form they will eat.

I don't have experience with a bird that absolutely refuses anything but seed (I do have one bird that loves to throw beakfulls of pellets to the cage floor!!) so I can't answer your initial question.
As bird parents we do the best we can with what we know.. to provide the best for them. A lot of what happens comes down to individual bird personality.

 

[Jonnf]

My wonderful people! problem seems to be solved, or is in its way to be solved and this is what i learned, for future references:

None of my birds really enjoy Chop. They like large, wet leaves as been suggested in other posts and sources.
They thrive on imitation. I got a cockatiel (I'll be posting soon about it in a separate post) and ever since my budgie saw the cockatiel eating pellets and nibbling leaves, he followed instantly.

Companionship proved to me the best way to assimilation of new behaviors.

Thanks everyone!