Budgie Diet - A Non-Exhaustive Guide

May 2, 2021
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Budgie diet. A very, VERY controversial thing when it comes to keeping these little guys. However, a correct diet is extremely important for budgies, as they often develop lipomas (fatty tumors) as they age. They are also one of the only birds that is frequently given an improper diet, resulting in them, as a species, being quite unhealthy and not living a long time.

A common issue with a budgie’s diet is they are often fed an all-seed diet. This is harmful because seeds are high in fat, and budgies are prone to fatty tumors. Feeding an all-seed diet can greatly increase the likelihood that your budgie will develop fatty tumors earlier rather than later, and therefore have a reduced lifespan. The tumors are often fast growing and invisible until it’s too late.

I often hear people saying β€˜Well, seeds are what budgies eat in the wild, shouldn't they also eat that in captivity?’. Yes and no. See, in the wild, a budgie may fly up to 500 kilometers (310 miles) a day! In captivity, they fly maybe 1-2 miles a day if they’re lucky. So in the wild, they easily burn off that fat, but in captivity they don’t, so they develop fatty tumors when their body can’t store all that fat.

So, diet. A budgie’s diet should consist of 4 things: seed, fruit, veggie, and pellets. All of these things are very important to have in a budgie diet. However, you need to get the right amounts of each to have a healthy budgie.

Budgie food recipe:

Veggie chop:
  1. Assorted Organic Leafs
  2. Carrots
  3. Peppers
  4. Broccoli
  5. Apple
  6. Blueberry
  7. Your budgie’s favorite fruit/veggie!

Offer whole, chop up or blend in a food processor. And there ya go, fresh veggie chop! Can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days, and always make sure not to give any spoiled food to your birds.

Seed/Pellets:

Offer 1 or less teaspoons of seed per budgie per day (excluding training). Offer a high-quality pellet, such as Harrisons, Tops, or Roudybush freely all day.


IMPORTANT NOTE: Never, and I mean NEVER leave your budgie without food for more than an hour. Budgies are small and cannot eat a lot of food at onceem so they need to eat small portions of food regularly.

Ok, thanks for reading, and I hope feeding time has become easier for you and your flock!

-Ollie
 
Last edited:

BirdyBee

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Jan 7, 2022
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I give my lil guys about 2 table spoons seed altogether 4-5 times a week. Pipp gets one table spoon as she eats a lot more than the budgies(she's a big tiel).

Breakfast for my budgies is chop at 8-10 am(occasionally egg food), lunch is the same at 2-3 pm, and dinner at 5-6pm is usually pellets, but I also give seed mix, or some dried herbs and flowers, and some grains and nuts(only a bit of nuts)
 

kme3388

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Sep 17, 2021
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Thank you for sharing your knowledge about budgies. I had 3 of these little guys growing up. I feel like because they are such a small bird people put them in the same category as a finch, or canary. I love all birds, but each species has their specific needs. Then each breed has their needs. People who participate in falconry even have a more complex diet for their birds. Can you imagine trying to give a hawk, or falcon some chop, pellets, and seed? ha ha ha :ROFLMAO:
 

CosiGirl

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Apr 2, 2022
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Does it matter what size you chop the chop into? Just don’t want to cut it too small or too large for her little throat.
 
OP
π•Ύπ–™π–”π–—π–’π–žπ•»π–Žπ–ˆπ–†
May 2, 2021
3,527
Media
4
Albums
2
8,038
Vermont, USA
Parrots
Stormy(M): blue Australian budgie
Picasso(F): green Australian budgie
Apollo(F): sky blue dominant pied Australian budgie
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #5
Does it matter what size you chop the chop into? Just don’t want to cut it too small or too large for her little throat.
Well, they'll break it up with their beaks, so as long as it's not larger then their head, it'll do.
 

CosiGirl

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Apr 2, 2022
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Welp, it worked. Cozy had her first chop experience today! Can you tell? πŸ˜‚
 

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BirdyBee

Well-known member
Jan 7, 2022
3,749
Media
34
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8,080
South Africa
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Current birds:
John
Snowy
Pippen

Past birds:
Grumpy
Sunny
Griffen
Jeff
Gertjie
Welp, it worked. Cozy had her first chop experience today! Can you tell? πŸ˜‚
Yup.. the veggies stained feathers around the beak! Lol!

Also that cage is lovely, is it one of those "geo cages"? They are very beautiful :)
 

CosiGirl

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Apr 2, 2022
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Yup.. the veggies stained feathers around the beak! Lol!

Also that cage is lovely, is it one of those "geo cages"? They are very beautiful :)
Yes it is! Honestly, I’ve been trying to hide it as best I could on the forum because I know many people in the bird world are not fans of it. But I gotta tell ya, she LOVES her cage and is so far a happy bird with lots of space πŸ₯°
 
OP
π•Ύπ–™π–”π–—π–’π–žπ•»π–Žπ–ˆπ–†
May 2, 2021
3,527
Media
4
Albums
2
8,038
Vermont, USA
Parrots
Stormy(M): blue Australian budgie
Picasso(F): green Australian budgie
Apollo(F): sky blue dominant pied Australian budgie
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #9
Yes it is! Honestly, I’ve been trying to hide it as best I could on the forum because I know many people in the bird world are not fans of it. But I gotta tell ya, she LOVES her cage and is so far a happy bird with lots of space πŸ₯°
Well, as long as she has good out-of-cage-time, she's fine! My cages are super small, but they're just sleeping cages, so not an issue.
 

cleavy

New member
Jul 4, 2023
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8
Parrots
the late great Pebbles the budgie
Thanks for posting this Ollie. I joined this forum to post something very similar. It has been about one year since my daughter's budgie passed away. We took him to an avian vet with the diagnois of fatty liver disease. I had hope that we could reverse the condition with a diet change but the bird went into seizures about one week later. Everyone was so sad and our ignorance regarding diet really did not help. I promised myself that I would post this topic on a budgie forum to help alert others that an all seed diet is not appropriate for a budgie. We just didn't know at the time. Our bird was just a few years old and full of personality prior to the build up of the fatty liver issue. We purchased our bird at a chain pet store and the staff gave us no guidance on a proper diet. I hope everyone with a new budgie gets to read this post and save some heartache with a proper diet.
 

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