Home » Misc » Baby budgie food

Baby budgie food


What can budgies eat? - ExoticDirect

Get a quote to insure your budgie for £1,500 of vet fees | Up to three birds per policy | We've been insuring exotic pets since 1996 | Check out our customer reviews on Feefo

Advertisement: Northern Parrots have lots of tasty food for your Budgie. Visit now.

Up until a few decades ago, it was customary to feed budgies mostly on seed mixes, Trill being the favourite with a cuttlefish bone clipped to the cage bars, maybe a spray of millet as a treat. And that was it.

These days pellets have become the choice of many vets and you will have to choose whether pellets or seeds or your own mix will form the major part of the diet.

Current feeding advice is that 40% of the diet should be fresh foods. Choosing the correct food needs plenty of research and advice from trusted sources.

What fruit can budgies eat?

Budgies can eat banana, strawberries, apples, grapes, oranges, peaches, blueberry, pear, raisins, mango, melon (all varieties), nectarines, cherries (ensure you’ve removed the stone) and kiwis. Tropical fruits are also a favourite.

  • What salad vegetables can budgies eat?
  • What vegetables can budgies eat?
  • Food and drink budgies can't have
  • Pellets or seed mix
  • What seeds can budgies eat?
  • Calcium for budgies
  • What do baby budgies eat?
  • How much should you feed a budgie?
  • How often should you feed a budgie?

What salad vegetables can budgies eat?

You may like to offer small portions of: Cucumber, lettuce, beetroot, tomato, rocket, celery and pepper.

Budgies enjoy cucumber along with other salad vegetables

What vegetables can budgies eat?

Budgies can eat: Green beans, carrot, peas in pods, cabbage, cauliflower, sweet corn and sweet potato – this should lightly cooked and your budgie would only want a teaspoon full.

There is controversy that onions, mushroom and garlic should be avoided. Some of us have used them successfully. Others do not. It is true that often a food stuff like parsley or fruit pips if taken in large amounts can cause harm but not in small amounts. Unless your fresh food is home grown or organic, it’s a useful precaution to wash well.

Food and drink budgie’s can’t have

You should avoid letting your budgie eat: Fried food, salt, crisps, bacon, coffee and caffeinated tea, although herbal teas are fine, biscuits, pastries, alcohol, cakes, chocolate, pizza, chips, bread, vanilla, peanut butter and cheese.

These foods aren’t that wonderful for humans either 😊. But most parrots, like toddlers with junk food, adore these human foods. The solution is to try to have unsuitable food out of sight.

If she’s out of her cage, don’t beat yourself up if a tiny bit of cookie or a chip was stolen or offered. Our family meals improved a lot, once we had free ranging parrots around at meal times.

This budgie is enjoying a piece of cabbage

Pellets or seed mix

Pellet diets for captive birds originated in USA. Avian vets nowadays recommend pellets because a good pellet is considered to provide nutrients, minerals and vitamins that an amateur cannot match.

Seeds contain too much fat and lack other ingredients for health, so vets choose pellets. Several manufacturers produce pellets designed for budgerigars and other small birds.

The nugget shaped pellets are made from grains and vegetables and easily digestible. The formula is fortified with essential minerals and vitamins that will meet your budgie’s various needs better than an all seed diet.

A well-chosen pellet is a sensible choice for budgies, canaries, and finches. If you choose a pellet be sure it contains no artificial preservatives and buy in a small quantity.

A useful serving for a budgie would be one tablespoon a day, with the rest of the diet made up of fresh food. Usually around a thumbnail amount.

If your bird was not weaned onto pellets but onto a seed-based diet you can accustom her to the change by gradually substituting the food she’s currently eating with the food you want her to eat. It can be done with patience.

If you are feeding seeds, and don’t wish to switch, you can provide sprouts and seeds for 40-60% of her diet and a varied selection of fresh foods for the rest.

What seeds can budgies eat?

Most budgie owners buy a ready-made seed mix to feed their birds, which is fine as long as you are sure the seeds are fresh as they have a limited shelf life. Once past their sell by date the food has little nutritional value.

It’s easy to test if seeds are fresh. Soak some seeds overnight. Rinse and drain them and spread out on wet cotton wool or kitchen paper and keep them warm for 24 hours.

If less than 50% of the seeds start to sprout throw them away. At least 90% of good seeds will sprout.

Seeds can make up between 40-60% of your budgies diet, with fresh vegetables and fruit being the rest

Grass seeds for Budgies

Grass and grains are in the same category and make up 50% of your birds intake. They are the budgie’s staple food in the wild.

If you have a garden or access to open spaces here are some grasses that you can forage for free and feed the budgies.

Your budgie will pick out the seeds from the grass you give her.

  • Annual meadow-grass (Poa annua)
  • Meadow foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis)
  • Orchard grass, aka cock’s-foot grass (Dactylis glomerata)
  • Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne)
  • Poverty brome, aka barren or sterile brome (Bromus sterilis)
  • Rough bluegrass (Poa trivialis)
  • Soft brome, or soft chess (Bromus hordeaceus)
  • Velvet grass (Holcus lanatus)
  • Timothy grass (Phleum pratense)
  • Yorkshire Grass, aka Meadow soft grass, velvet grass or tufted grass (Holcus lanatus)

Budgie grains

You can feed your budgie these grains: Amaranth, barley, buckwheat (whole), canary seed, oats, quinoa, rye, sweetcorn kernels and wheat.

Budgie herb seeds

Herb-derived seeds can form a quarter of a good seed mix. You can store herbs in sealed jars and give a varied selection of the following: Alfalfa, cabbage, chia, clover, dill, fennel, fenugreek, kale, mustard (yellow, red and black), radish, red clover, groundsel and coriander leaves. 

Budgie seeds that are high in fat

Parrots love many seeds that are bad for them. The following seeds need to be used sparingly because of their high fat content: Sunflower, flax, hemp, millet, niger, pumpkin (soaked and allowed to germinate first), rapeseed and sesame.

Millet, hemp, niger and rape are actually grains but they’re included here due to their high fat content.

Budgies in particular - like Galahs or some Amazons - can become obese and this shortens their life spans.

Budgie legumes

Peas and beans are high protein foods. They can be detrimental if fed in too large amounts as they can be a trigger for hormonal behaviour. If you use one or two sprouted legumes in a homemade seed mix that should be fine.

These are suitable for budgies but do not ever feed raw:

  • Chickpeas
  • Black-eyed peas
  • Green peas
  • Lentils (yellow, green, black NOT split)
  • Mung beans
  • Yellow peas

What is the best source of calcium for budgies?

Cuttlefish bones are the best source of calcium under normal circumstances. Parrots love to gnaw on the cuttlefish bone and it provides a great deal of enjoyment – far more than a couple of drops of calcium added to water or moist food.

If your birds are breeding you may need to use additional calcium in the form of supplements, although you always need to be careful not to over feed vitamins and minerals.

Budgies and drinking water

Many carers prefer bottled water. Also, the addition of a few drops of cider vinegar is a choice for many. The most important consideration is providing fresh water daily and more often in hot weather or aviary conditions. 

Budgies - mealworms, chicken and egg

If you want to add an occasional treat some budgies adore dried or live mealworms. Although with a pelleted diet a budgie will be getting enough protein.

Also an occasional bite of hard-boiled eggs or a fragment of chicken or meat can be offered one or twice a week. Remember that small amounts should be given.

What do baby budgies eat?

Here’s a suitable recipe from the excellent Omlet website. You would not need it in everyday care but it’s helpful for young birds, breeding birds, moulting birds and unwell birds.

  • 1 egg, with shell
  • 1 tbsp cooked brown rice
  • 1 tsp millet
  • 1 tbsp crushed budgie pellets OR milled, mixed seeds
  • 2 tbsp mixed chopped and grated fruit and veg

Boil the egg for 15 minutes, remove the shell and grind it up. Finely chop the egg and mix all the ingredients together and serve cold.

The fruit isn’t essential, but some budgies take more readily to the mix if it has that sweet kick.

Never be tempted to add honey or other sweeteners, though; and don’t be tempted by recipes that suggest a boiled egg and a couple of digestive sweet biscuits can do the trick.

No biscuits sold for human consumption are suitable for budgies, due to their added sugar, salt and fat. 

What to feed budgies when breeding

If your budgies are in breeding mode, both parents need adequate calcium.

The hen needs more than the cockbird and to absorb calcium from cuttlefish or grits the birds need exposure to sunlight.

If your budgies are kept wholly indoors then a liquid or powdered form which also contains Vitamin D3 can be sprinkled over soft food and seed. Using calcium products in moderation does not have adverse effects.

You can also feed the recipe from the Omlet website that’s explained above.

If you're planning on breeding your budgies, the diet is more specialised that we’ve discussed here.

How much should you feed a budgie?

A reasonable amount for a budgie would be 15 or 16 grams of food and 3 or 4 grams of treat items like nuts, sunflower seeds or a piece of human food.

Individual birds just like individual humans vary in their food needs and preferences. If your bird has sufficient exercise and you like to err of the generous side, as long as the dish is emptied the budgerigar will remain healthy.

How often should you feed a budgie?

First option: The day’s food is put in bowl and left all day. Treats are given during day during in training sessions or out of cage time.

Second option: The food is divided into two and fed twice a day – you should take the morning bowl away after 15-30 minutes.

This can be advantageous in hot weather when fresh food can spoil. Feed fresh in the morning and dry in the afternoon.

Hygiene is essential so never put fresh food on top of stale food. Garden birds will finish off what our house birds leave.

Can two pairs of budgies live together?

The trend now is to keep birds in pairs which makes their lives more enjoyable when they have to be left alone and enable them to realise more natural behaviours when they are with other birds.

Birds prefer to be with their own species but will make friends with other species.

Exercise

How much exercise your budgie gets is a key factor in how much food she needs. I believe cages for small birds are often too small.

Certainly, if you have tame budgies watching them flit across rooms or aviaries and with training land on your hand is a delight you will never tire of.

How to sex a budgie

Visual sexing: Mature hens and mature cocks over 12 months show some physical differences.

The female is generally smaller with a smaller head. The cere, the little tuft of feathers over the beak is brown in a hen. In a cock bird its blue. A hen’s legs and feet will be tinged brown. While a cock bird’s will be tinged blue.

In juvenile birds these attributes have not yet appeared.

If you need to sex younger birds there are several reliable methods:

Feather testing can be done at your vets, or you can ask for a kit from the laboratory and pluck the feathers yourself and send them off. Instructions are clear and simple and I have used that method successfully for years.

A few drops of blood will also contain enough DNA for successful testing. If you feel competent enough you can get a kit to draw blood at home and send the lab the results.

Another method is testing the eggshell of just hatched chicks. When chicks hatch, they leave some DNA in the broken shards of eggshell.

If you can get some eggshell and are sure it has not been contaminated, the lab will test that.

Genetics laboratories now have the ability to determine the sex of a broad range of avian species and types. Being such a common pet, budgies are included on a list of testable bird breeds.

Did you know?

Wild budgerigars are ground feeding seed and grass feeders. Grains and grasses provide the bulk of their intake in the wild. They move in flocks often thousands in number and fly enormous distances in their native Australia.

Earthflight - Black Falcon and Budgerigars captures budgies in their massive flock in Australia.

And finally…

If you become fascinated with the species you will find a lot of interesting information in Cage and Aviary Birds, a weekly publication which lists all the bird shows and has a free For Sale and Wanted section.

The Budgerigar Society founded in 1925 deals with show birds but provides an excellent resource and information for any keen owner.

Feeding Baby Parakeets | Parakeet Chicks | Parakeets | Guide

Rearing chicks by hand is very time-consuming, and should not be done without full appreciation of what’s involved. Always make sure to seek expert advice for any aspect of chick-feeding, and take time to watch some instructional videos. This will boost your confidence and minimise the chance of you messing something up.

Even if you have a healthy pair of birds doing all the hard work for you, you should still know what to do if things don't quite go to plan. Mishaps could be anything from a sick male bird (meaning that he won’t be able to feed the hen) to an abandoned nest. Baby parakeets are very delicate creatures, and if the mishap occurs early in the rearing process -- within the first two weeks -- your chances of successfully weaning the birds are slim. Rearing a freshly-hatched bird is something none but the most experienced breeder should attempt.


A six-week-old parakeet

Feeding Parakeet Chicks

There are several parakeet chick feeds and additives that can be purchased online or in larger pet-stores. These should offer the correct mix of nutrients, vitamins and minerals needed to raise the chicks. Always make sure to consult with an expert before opting for any particular brand. Don’t be tempted to make a choice based on price, as cheap mixes are often not good enough for such fragile, young creatures.

Chick food should be mixed according to the instructions on the packet. It will usually have a gloopy consistency, and, like Baby Bear’s porridge, should be neither too hot nor too cold. If the feed is too hot, it can scald the bird’s crop and throat: if too cold, it may lodge itself in the chick’s crop and lead to a fatal condition known as “sour crop”. Again, just make sure you read the instructions.

The food each chick receives should be carefully measured, and should be served at a temperature similar to that of the regurgitated seed of an adult bird (the chick's natural food source). You can use a thermometer to measure the temperature precisely. Never be tempted to heat up the food quickly in the microwave, as this can lead to hot spots in the food. An ideal temperature for this food is between 105-110F.

How to Feed Parakeet Chicks

The food can be offered on a plastic spoon with bent edges (dip the end of a standard plastic teaspoon in boiling water and then bend the edges inward -- this funnels the food into a relatively narrow gap), or alternatively you can feed them via a wide-nozzle syringe. Many breeder rig up their own spoon-syringe hybrid

The syringe is good as it allows you to measure the quantity of food you are administering` There are however choking hazards to beware of though, so a spoon is advisable once the chick is old enough to feed this way (at around 10 days old). The spoon allows the chick to swallow the food at it’s own pace, but does not recreate the “regurgitated seed” flow as well as the syringe.

Experts may sometimes opt for a “crop-needle”, this is a tube attached to the end of a syringe and inserted directly into the chick's crop. This takes a lot of care, however, and should not be attempted if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing.

No matter what feeding method you opt for, make sure all equipment is suitably sterilized before giving it to the chick, and any unused food should be discarded. Always make the food fresh and refrain from preparing it ahead of time.

Keeping a young chick warm whilst feeding them is also important. They should be placed onto a cosy towel or similar soft object for feeding. The aim here is to impersonate a soft, warm hen.

Gently tap on the bird’s beak with your spoon or syringe, just like it’s mother would. The bird will obligingly gape (open it’s beak to receive the food). Deliver the mixture sideways on, coming in at a 90 degree angle to the front of the beak (i.e. don’t feed from the front, as this could force the upper part of the beak too far upwards, and it’s not the way parent birds approach the job).

Don’t syringe or pour in all the food at once. The chick needs time to swallow, and can easily choke on too much too soon. It will let you know when it’s had enough, by simply closing its beak and refusing to reopen. If the bird hasn’t eaten its usual amount, don’t force-feed it. If the lack of appetite persists for the next few feeds, seek medical advice. A blocked crop can sometimes be remedied with a small squirt of warm water and some gentle crop-massage – but you really need to know what you’re doing. Always have the vet or breeder’s phone details at hand.

The food will have cleared from a healthy chick’s crop within 2-4 hours depending on it;s age, and it will need feeding every 3-4 hours. As stated above, if your chick isn’t hungry, it won’t gape. Feeding is a full time job, at least six times a day, and you can only retire at sunset. No one said this is going to be easy!

baby parakeets grow alarmingly quickly, and their food intake needs to grow with them. At two weeks old, depending on the chick’s size, they will take 2-4ml at each feed. At three weeks this increases to 4-6ml, and 5-8ml by five weeks old.

Feeding a 3 Week Old Parakeet

Things become much easier at 3 weeks old. The parakeet chick will now resemble an unkempt miniature dinosaur, with a rather ugly mix of down and pin feathers, and a lot of the character and curiosity that will stay with them throughout their lives. At this point in their lives feeding won’t be such a challenge. Usually every four hours. The bird will happily receive your attentions throughout 16 hours on a long summer’s day, though.


A five-week-old parakeet

Feeding a 5 Week Old Parakeet

At around 5 weeks old you can start putting food on the ground or in bowls, and letting the parakeet indulge in its natural instinct to forage. At around 6-7 weeks old the bird should be fully self-sufficient. You will still need to keep an eye on their feeding behavior, however, as not all parakeets become independent as swiftly as the average bird. Some hand feeding may still be in need at seven weeks old.

what and how to properly feed small, medium and large parrots

Proper nutrition of a parrot is the main requirement for home care, on which the health and life expectancy of a feathered pet depends.

In the article we will look at what to feed parrots, how to choose good food for parrots of different sizes, an overview of popular manufacturers, what can be given besides food.

What should be in the diet of parrots

Food for feeding a pet parrot should correspond to the needs of its body and the nutrition that an exotic bird receives in its natural habitat. nine0003

What should be in the diet:

1. The main part of the daily diet is cereal mixtures.

2. Germinated grain.

3. Leaves of useful plants, fresh herbs.

4. Vegetables, berries and fruits.

5. Branch feed.

6. Delicious treats and complementary treats. This category includes nuts and seeds.

7. Porridge from different cereals.

8. Drinking water.

Varieties of food

All substances necessary for the organism of parrots are contained in ready-made feeds produced by trusted manufacturers. nine0003

Types of food:

1. For small, medium and large parrots.

2. For adults and chicks.

3. For feeding during shedding season.

4. Specialized medicinal feed for weakened and sick birds.

5. One-component, multi-component grain mixtures.

6. Cereal mixtures with fruit and berry additives, nuts, seeds and other useful ingredients.

7. Natural dry food with a pure grain composition, with the addition of granules, granular mixtures. nine0003

Rating of the best food for parrots

It is difficult for an inexperienced owner to choose a good food for a parrot. Experienced breeders will help solve this issue, according to whose reviews a rating of the best feed mixtures for small, medium and large birds was compiled.

For small parrots

For parrots of small breeds, special grain mixtures with fine crushed additives are created. About 70% of the volume of the finished diet is peeled millet and oats. The remaining 30% is hemp, canary, flaxseed, oatmeal, crushed corn, sunflower seeds and other nutritional supplements. In the article "Overview of the best food for budgerigars" you can see the rating of the top 10 best ready-made mixtures for feeding feathered pets of small breeds. nine0003

Medium

Cockatiels and other medium breed parrots are fed a high-energy multi-ingredient diet of 3 or more grains. The ready-made compositions also contain pieces of fruits, berries, vegetables, seeds, some plants and other nutritional ingredients that satisfy all the needs of the organism of birds of these breeds.

Top 10 Foods for Parrots:

1. Fiory Parrocchetti Africa is a premium grain blend with added natural granules containing beneficial trace elements and fatty acids. Provides a healthy condition and bright plumage. nine0003

2. "Vaka Lux" - a balanced composition at an acceptable cost for complete feeding of medium and small parrots, contains 7 useful vitamins and many trace elements.

3. VERSELE-LAGA PREMIUM AFRICAN PARAKEET is a feed mixture made from high quality raw materials. The composition includes all the seeds that parrots consume in their natural habitat.

4. "Rio" for parrots of medium breeds - a balanced composition of ingredients, enriched with calcium and flax seeds, which are a natural source of healthy fatty acids. nine0003

5. Padovan Grandmix Parrocchetti - complete grain food with fruits, biscuit crumbs, vitamin and mineral supplements.

6. FIORY CLASSIC – food for daily feeding with cereals with sunflower, canary, hemp and buckwheat seeds.

7. "Merry Parrot" from "Zoomir" - a nutritional mixture of high-quality selected grains with a vitamin and mineral complex.

8. VITEN for Parrots is a complete food with safflower seeds and other beneficial ingredients. It is rich in iron and B vitamins.

9. "Native feed" - nutritious feed made from ecologically clean grains of the best varieties.

10. "Rio Gourmet" - crunchy food of large structure with fruit and berry additives, vegetables and nuts.

For large parrots

Large parrots need to choose food rich in vitamins, micro and macro elements. Grain mixtures are enriched with nuts and other useful additives - fruits, berries, vegetables. The top 10 feed mixes can be found in the feature article Best Foods for Large Parrots. nine0003

How to choose a good food for a parrot

When choosing food for a parrot, the owner needs to consider different criteria. First of all, the breed and age of the bird. As we have already said, manufacturers produce different feed formulations. There are special mixtures for chicks and adults, for small, medium and large breeds. These are the first parameters for choosing food for an exotic feathered pet.

Other selection criteria:

1. The composition is natural, balanced, without harmful additives and dyes. nine0003

2. Feed assignment. For daily feeding, complete feeds are purchased. It is advisable to choose a product with a multicomponent composition of ingredients, they are most useful for birds. As a top dressing, you can choose food from the category "additional food", as well as delicious treats that are served to birds as a treat.

3. It is better to give preference to foods from trusted manufacturers, whose products have many positive reviews from experienced breeders of exotic birds. nine0003

4. Packing volume. The larger it is, the more profitable the cost of the product.

5. Expiry date. Do not feed the feathered inhabitant with an expired mixture.

How much food should be given per day

The average daily allowance for parrots of small breeds is 20-25 g of grain mixture, medium - 30-35 g, large - 40-50 g. Exotic birds have a very fast metabolism, so food and water should always be freely available. The feeder should be filled daily, in the morning. Throughout the day, the parrot will eat this food, and uneaten leftovers should be discarded and replaced with a new portion. nine0003

In addition to food, during the day you can give your parrot vegetables, fruits, berries, herbs and other healthy foods, but without fanaticism. It is impossible to overfeed the birds, this will lead to obesity and various health problems. Natural products should not be left in the cage for a long time, as they can quickly deteriorate.

What can you feed a parrot, other than food

Earlier we mentioned what you can feed parrots at home. We list the permitted and prohibited products for feathered pets. nine0003

How to feed parrots:

1. Useful berries and fruits: peach, plum, pineapple, apple, kiwi, cherry, cranberry, watermelon, pear, apricot, lemon, tangerine, fig, banana.

2. Vegetables: tomato, zucchini, pumpkin, cucumber, carrot, sweet bell pepper, radish, beetroot, Chinese cabbage, broccoli.

3. Fresh herbs: lettuce, celery, green oat grass, dandelion, nettle.

4. Branch fodder: maple, linden, birch, apple tree, aspen, mountain ash, raspberry, currant, cherry, alder, willow, ash, elder, hawthorn. nine0003

5. Porridges from various cereals boiled in water without salt and sugar.

6. Fresh hard-boiled chicken egg.

7. Dry fat-free cottage cheese, liquid fermented milk products.

What foods should not be given to parrots :

• potatoes;

• white cabbage;

• onion, garlic; • cilantro, sorrel;

• persimmon, avocado, mango, papaya.

In moderation, parrots are fed with grapes, melon, pomegranate, spinach, dill and parsley. nine0003

Where to buy high-quality food for parrots

The largest Russian network of pet stores "Le'Murrr" offers a large selection of high-quality food mixtures for parrots of small, medium and large breeds. You can buy food online by filling out an application on the website. The catalog contains grain mixtures from trusted manufacturers.

Assortment:

• complete and supplementary food for parrots of different breeds;

• healthy treats for birds;

• feed enriched with healthy fats for parrots during the moulting period; nine0003

• egg food;

• fruit and berry sticks;

• Biscuits.

Fast application processing. Sending orders to the point of issue and to the address by courier service (in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region).

CAKADU pet products Bird food

  • Zoomir
  • RIO
  • TitBit