Budgie eating bird litter?

[Birdlover11]

My 2 budgies are eating their litter even tho their food is right I'm front in them they don't swallow it but they try too I'm worried they will chocke on it or something and thier perfectly healthy

 

[DannyA93]

What do you feed them? if all they eat is seed then there probly deprived of some vitamin and there trying to get it by eating the liter. they need a good pellet and seed diet(i would say more pellet) with fresh fruits and veggies everyday.

 

[Birdlover11]

They only eat seed but I'm trying to get them to eat pellets, to get them to eat pellets I would in the morning remove their seed cup and treat bars with pellets then i would switch it back to seed when I go to sleep I don't think their eating it though they would just start eating the litter again I also tried giving them apples pears mangos and watermelon but they won't eat them I thought about trying broccoli since the tops look like a bunch of green seeds

 

[DannyA93]

I had the same problem, you have to slowly change the diet put like 3/4 seed and 1/4 pellet, and in about a week go half and half and so on. but that still might not work for you (it didn't for my budgie, she's super picky), if they still don't eat it then you can try to soak them in 100% apple juice and see if they eat it but leave some seed in there so there interested. my budgie ate EVERY single pellet! i was shocked! haha if THAT doesn't work then you can try different brands of pellets i heard some peoples birds will eat harrisons and not zupreem and vice versa you just have to keep experimenting with it.

 

[lene1949]

My budgies love fresh fruit and vegetables... but their faces get very stained... lol

 

[Birdlover11]

I think the apple juice thing might work , ho long do you soak them?

 

[Birdlover11]

Bird litter is just like litter for hamsters except its made for birds. I used newspaper but their cage doesn't have a slide out bottom so when I roll it up out through the cage door they would get scared by the noise and the newspaper and fly into perches and toys

 

[DannyA93]

Every morning i just get her bowl wash it out real good, put about 2 teaspoons of pellets and cap full of juice and she's good for most of the day. my house if very cool so they last a while without spoiling and she eats it throughout the day. Its funny cuz in the morning she sometimes has a huge clump of mushy pellets on her beak! lol but she loves them and about every week or so i see she gets a lil bored of the pellet so i put seed for about 2 days then go back and she's scarfing them again good luck!

 

[BillsBirds]

Remember that budgies are "ground foragers", and in their natural habitat, they spend all day foraging through leaf litter, and meadow-like grasses. They may be going through their litter because it's there. It's only natural for them to do it. If they seem to be eating a lot of it, that could be a problem. And, putting budgies on a strictly pellet diet contributes to kidney problems. Their diet should be 50% seeds. That's all they would eat in the grasslands of Australia. Plus, eating a pellet diet is boring. How would you like to eat something like dry corn flakes and little else?

 

[Birdlover11]

I'm gonna try the apple juice thing today

 

[Birdlover11]

Can you use mango or orange juice instead

 

[DannyA93]

Hmm i'm not sure about the orange juice because of the acidity but the mango might be ok? Never thought of that!

 

[Birdlover11]

Thanks, I tried a few drops of mango juice and mixed it with the pellets. They love it, I'm going to try aPple juice next.

 

[DannyA93]

Im glad it worked for you you can offer veggies in lots of different ways. cooked, raw, mashed up, barely cooked, steamed. Just experiment and see how they'll take em.

 

[Birdlover11]

Thanks for you responses , theres another thing I'm worried about ,after I gave them the mango pellets they started getting a little hyper i think from the sugar is this okay?

 

[DannyA93]

is it 100% juice?? if its not then its probably loaded with sugar, i only feed Andi 100% and even reduced sugar if i can find it.

 

[Birdlover11]

I can't find any reduced sugar Manogo juice and my mom said she's not going to spend 5 bucks on apple juice for the birds so instead of giving them a full cap should o just give them half a cap

 

[DannyA93]

Its probly not good for them if its not 100% you can find a tiny bottle at like a gas station thats 100% and there cheap and if no one drinks it it'll last a while since your only putting one cap a day