Small amount of fruit everyday

[SpinySpino]

Adding 1-2(usually 1) blueberries to my sun/jenday conure’s chop is the only way I can get him to finish his dish, but I have been told that fruit should be limited to 1-2 times a week. Since what I’m giving him is a fairly small amount of fruit, is it still ok to keep on doing this?

 

[wrench13]

I give my yellow shoulder Amazon, Salty, a bit of fruit about 5x a week; not much and we vary it every day, blue berries, black berries, mango, banana, and what ever else I find at the market. BUT - his species is unique because in his native range, they eat a lot of fruit - he is not a fruitivore but their diet has more fruit in it then most other parrot species. Try and match the diet of your species in the wild - it may not be the exact same but give an approximation. And vary the type of fruit, and wash well before serving; blueberries are one of the highest surface chemical fruits, pesticides and fertilizers.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I give my yellow shoulder Amazon, Salty, a bit of fruit about 5x a week; not much and we vary it every day, blue berries, black berries, mango, banana, and what ever else I find at the market. BUT - his species is unique because in his native range, they eat a lot of fruit - he is not a fruitivore but their diet has more fruit in it then most other parrot species. Try and match the diet of your species in the wild - it may not be the exact same but give an approximation. And vary the type of fruit, and wash well before serving; blueberries are one of the highest surface chemical fruits, pesticides and fertilizers.

You brought up a very interesting point about feeding your bird the types of foods it would eat in its home range. Budgies are from the mostly desert areas of central Australia. Based on this, what should their diet consist of?

 

[wrench13]

AFAIK, Donna, Budgie are from the Aussie outback, mostly scrub and grassland, and they are flocking ground feeders, so I would hazard a guess that their main diet consists of grass and similar seed, but I would do more research on this before changing to an all seed diet. I am lucky in that Saltys species is restricted to a very small section of arid coast in Venezuela and 1 or 2 small offshore islands, also very arid. It was pretty easy to figure out what his diet would have consisted of.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

AFAIK, Donna, Budgie are from the Aussie outback, mostly scrub and grassland, and they are flocking ground feeders, so I would hazard a guess that their main diet consists of grass and similar seed, but I would do more research on this before changing to an all seed diet. I am lucky in that Saltys species is restricted to a very small section of arid coast in Venezuela and 1 or 2 small offshore islands, also very arid. It was pretty easy to figure out what his diet would have consisted of.

It seems like the pet bird food industry takes a one size fits all approach to feeding parrot type birds. The only thing that really changes is the size of the pellets and seeds. If I has an Amazon i would want to feed it what it would eat in its home range. Same for any other parrot species. I've learned from reading PF that Ekkies have very special dietary requirements and I knew that Lories and Lorikeets need a special diet.
I am reluctant to feed my budgies an all seed diet because everything I read says not to. That only "lazy" bird owners do that. That budgies need a more balanced diet. But I wonder because it doesn't seem like there are many fresh veggies and fruits growing in the Outback where budgies come from. I also wonder if budgies don't also eat some insects in nature.

 

[Keet_Krazy]

I do by species when it comes to fruit. My budgies get none, because I feel it is a completely unnecessary treat. My galah gets some every now and then to keep him interested in trying new foods (unless it is a native fruit which he likes and gets more often). My slaty headed parakeet is the only one who actually get fruit as a part of his diet. I still don't give it everyday, because I don't always feed fresh food everyday. It was suggested to me by a friend to try and stick with more tropical fruits. So Nautilus has had berries (blueberry, raspberry, BlackBerry), grapes and mango. Hope to expand that.


Budgie are grainivores, they eat seeds. But this includes seeds at various stages of development, not a bag of dried mixed seeds. They also spend the majority of their time flying around actually looking for this food. So yes a seed diet is completely unacceptable for captive budgies, but this is also why I never suggest someone remove seed entirely from a budgies diet unless for medical reasons.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I do by species when it comes to fruit. My budgies get none, because I feel it is a completely unnecessary treat. My galah gets some every now and then to keep him interested in trying new foods (unless it is a native fruit which he likes and gets more often). My slaty headed parakeet is the only one who actually get fruit as a part of his diet. I still don't give it everyday, because I don't always feed fresh food everyday. It was suggested to me by a friend to try and stick with more tropical fruits. So Nautilus has had berries (blueberry, raspberry, BlackBerry), grapes and mango. Hope to expand that.


Budgie are grainivores, they eat seeds. But this includes seeds at various stages of development, not a bag of dried mixed seeds. They also spend the majority of their time flying around actually looking for this food. So yes a seed diet is completely unacceptable for captive budgies, but this is also why I never suggest someone remove seed entirely from a budgies diet unless for medical reasons.

What do you feed your captive budgies?

 

[Keet_Krazy]

What do you feed your captive budgies?

Seeds, pellets, and veggies (they also have access to natives leaves which I believe they do munch on). I am always looking for ways to adjust and change their diet though.