I feed my babies only seed as a staple. Of course they get their veggies and all else but for their cage food I still allow them to have seed.
I have tried 2 times to convert them. Each time was with a colored pellet, however I have learned that may have been the problem. I bought them plain ol' pellet today and will once again try to convert them.
Any suggestions? I plan to have the old school attitude: Put it in there and "If you dont like what is on the table for you, dont eat."
I dont have near the experience as most on here, but what I have done since I got Jade is give him pellets for his main food source. I give him a limited amount of seed at night and fruits and veges twice a day on his playland. He has two bowls on his playland, one he gets fruits and veges and the other pellets. When everything is gone on top he will pick at the pellets. He will eat the pellets to an extent during the day, some days more than others. He does have his favorites, the others he puts in his water bowl, or throws them off his playland. I think he gets more pellets and fruits and veges than seeds though. I limit his seeds to try and make sure.
From what I have read, the weight that they eat is the main thing. He eats more fruits and veges weight wise than anything. He gets about twice as much pellets than seeds by weight also. Some days he eats all the pellets and some not. I think he just enjoys cracking open the seeds as much as anything. I put his seeds, a large mixture, in a tuperware bowl so I can actually see and pick a good variety. I cover the bottom of his bowl with small seeds, then add like pumpkin seeds, corn, beans, and a couple of large like a peanut and chestnut. He has alot of trouble with a chestnut and it is fun to watch him try to get it open. I help after awhile cause he really likes them.
I have only seen pellets for sale at one shop. They were $20.00 for a 500g packet!! Sorry, but that's out of my league because I now have 6 ringnecks and two king parrots.
My birds get a huge variety of fruit and veg but I also have a big plate (its actually a dish you put under pot plants to collect the excess water) and I fill this with just a general birdseed.
I only have to replenish the seed once a week because they eat all the fruit and veg and only if they are still peckish they have a chew on the seed.
I'm guilty also. My indoor birds get pellets as well and Fruit and veg. But seed is always there for them to eat. As far as the weight thing goes. Being flighted my birds use up alot more energy so they dont get fat.
What is wrong with seed as a staple? It isnt healthy. It doesnt give the proper nutrients a bird needs as a supplement to fruits, vegetables, meats and nuts.
I will let ya'll know how the conversion goes. I am so glad Im not the only one guilty of this.
And you are right, the pellets were more expensive. I had to pay 12.99 for a zip-lock bag full.
OK, long time pellet feeder here, sticking my head in....
While pellets are in no way a complete diet, they are better for the birds than seed simply because they are made to be that way. Instead of empty calories they are getting nutrients while they munch.
Converting to pellets is never easy, but its worth the effort.
You can try the "its there and you need to eat it" method, but some birds are just too stubborn for this. I've seen that a lot in the rescue birds. While your converting you really need to monitor weight, to be sure the birds do get enough to eat if they are turning their beaks up at the pellets. I weigh at the same time each morning, after the big poo and before breakfast, to give me an "empty" bird weight.
You can also try the mix method. This is what I do for smaller birds, such as cockatiels or budgies. They NEED seed in their diet, unlike the larger parrots the little ones would be living on seed if they were wild. So, I mix up a batch of seed and pellet mix, 50/50. I use 3 types of pellet for them, Kaytee gold, Pretty bird, and Hagen. All the smallest size. I tried Harrisons crumbles with them at one point, and they hated them... so we stopped using them.
My ringnecks eat my big bird mix, which is worth mentioning because your instinct may say to give smaller pellets. They like the bigger ones. Our big bird mix has Harrisons, Zupreem, and Roudybush pellets in it. In addition we put dried fruit (no sulfites) and pumpkin seed, hemp seed, and rape seed into the mix. Its 80% pellets and 20% seed.
We give seed as a treat at night, each bird gets some every night. A healthy balanced diet should include some seed, so we give some. BUT we don't give any sunflower in that, sunflower only comes to the birds once its been sprouted. Too many birds will eat only sunflower if given the choice.
Sprouted seed is the very best method for feeding seed, once it sprouts its nutrient content goes through the roof, and it is also safe to leave out for extended periods. Growing things don't go bad like cut up fruit.
A really balanced diet would include 30% pellets, 60% fresh fruits, veggies, and some protiens, and the other 10% would be seed. As I said, sprouted seed is the best way to give it... making sure its delivering the biggest punch.
The only time we successfully sprouted seeds was when Jay left them in the laundry sink.. they GREW.. but.. I'm not sure I'd want to feed them to my birds after being in there... eww
I decided to do the 50/50 thing this morning as not to make them look at me like wtf? I will continue on with the 50/50 with my 'tiel but less and less eachday for my IRN's.
I too chose Kaytee gold. I always use their formula too. I dont know what I was thinking with the colored pellets. Yes, they are cute (they look like runt candy, little fruit shapes and colors. Common sense tells me dye = less healthy.
Sprouting isnt as hard as it seems before you get the hang of it. I made a few batches of slimy seed and was ready to give up on it, then a friend of mine showed me how to do it with a strainer and bowl.
Now I have 2 bowls going at a time, so the birds get fresh sprouts 2 days in a row, one day off.... it works out very well.
My cockatoo hates seed, has never eaten it in her life... until she got sprouted seed. She's a pig for sprouted seed LOL!
I'm also a pellet convert (thank my vet for that one), but I still let my birds have some seed. My birds have pellets available during the day as well as their fruit/veg for the day. Then at night they have access to seed mix.
It can be hard to get them onto pellets, but one way I have done it is by wetting the pellets and mushing them up a bit. just be careful not to let the mushy pellets sit around for more than a few hours. if you can get them to eat it like this then you are half way there! its just a matter of serving them up less and less mushy. currently my IRNs are eating 'living world' brand Tropican pellets (I used to feed a more 'generic' type from an aussie company vetafarm, but found that my birds really didnt like them much). The tropican ones are great, they smell like bananas!
Well I give Kai plenty of fruit and veg and then stuff off our dinner plates also. He has a small bowl of seed and a seed bell he has to chew threw the net to get at the seeds, to make it more interesting and challenging for him. He goes through 3 cereal size bowls of fruit and veg every day and finishes up with a little of the seed. He loves sprouted seed too.
I will look into pellets, but not sure where (around here) I can get them from
I know you are down around my way - where do you get the pellets from and how much? I had to drive to Pet City at Mt Gravatt to find pellets and they were really expensive. With the price of petrol as well as the 45 minute trip to buy the expensive pellets, Jamie would kill me!
As for the sprouted seeds, you should see the wild correllas, cockatoos, galahs and rosellas go nuts on the ones we accidentally grow! I empty the plate of seed from each cage in one spot in the paddock. We just had big rain (yay) and about 3 months worth of seed has sprouted and flocks of birds are grazing. Truly beautiful. My photos all just look like white blobs though They also eat and roll in the cow poo - ewww
I hear you! I have also been getting mine from pet city at the moment, but I commute between bris and the coast fairly regularly so its not so bad for me. I also have marine fish so pet city is almost a second home to me now! (If you ever think birds are expensive, try marine aquariums!)
But on the coast I (think) that the coomera produce may also sell pellets? you probably know where it is, Its a big bright pink place near dreamworld, opposite the boat house tavern.
pellets are expensive, but I only have the two birds at the moment so its not too bad. When I had more birds I used to get 20kg 'sacks' of vetafarm pellets which my vet used to order in for me.
my finches love sprouting seeds. Go to a health food store and buy a sprouting jar. Will cost you like $5 and makes it a whole lot easier.
As for converting to pellets....try soaking them in a little apple juice and giving them as a treat. After a week, dilute the apple juice with water by a little. Slowly decrease the amount of liquid until he's eating solid pellets no problem. I'd start with soaked pellets as a treat at first and as you continue offer pellets only at first, then later in the day (if he's not liking the pellets), give him his seed back.
You may also try baking some pellets into some birdy bread. Make the pellets as special as you can, so they are a big deal to find and eat.
Tony likes nutriberries when I hand him one....but he LOVES them when I put them in his cage toy. It's foraging instict....the challenge is half the fun
So true what you said about tanks. We have two salt water reef tanks and a salt water fish tank in the main part of the house. The kids have 20 gallon salt water tanks in their rooms. 7 tanks in all ranging from 20 gal to the bigger one inserted into the wall seperating the living room from the dining room.
This is all my husbands gig. He handles all of their care. My crab ate the leg off of my star fish so I had to take the star fish out of the coral (reef) tank and put her in the main fish tank. The arms grow back but it is still sad.
So, this is why I get by with spending on my birds. All I have to do is give him the "you dont want to go into what we have invested in the tanks" look and he shuttys.
Hi Mikaela,
I too had a problem with my birds only eating seeds. All pellets just sat there untouched and out of fear of them starving to death I gave them seeds as the staple diet. While at the vet one day I found out how wonderful Nutriberries are. They are nutritionally complete and the birds can have them as their staple diet and you can add the fruits and veggies too. I still give them about an 1/8 cup of seed a day and offer them pellets, but even my die hard seed only eaters are devouring them and it makes me feel good they're getting the nutrition they need. There are different sizes for different birds, but I try them all out on my birds as there are also different flavors for different sizes. Probably for IRN's if you give them the biggest ones, you can count each one as about 3. I'm not sure which size for IRN as there is cockatiel and then parrot and then macaw. the package says an average of 12 per day for each bird, but you wouldn't give an IRN 12 macaw, maybe 4, but you would give them 12 cockatiel and maybe 10 of the parrot. It will take a little while to figure out how many each will eat a day. I also divide it into morning and evening feedings. Some days they eat alot and some days not as many
If they drop them on the floor of the cage I put them back in the bowl and they think they're getting a new one and go right for it. The problem is they are expensive if you buy them in a pet shop. If you have a good storage container or could even share the nutriberries, you can order them straight from Lafeber.com and buy them in 2 (25#) bags and save big time. It's about $3.20 per pound this way including shipping. If you buy them from the pet shop, you're looking at spending more like $10.00 per pound. I have 2 IRN's, one plumhead, 2 quakers and 2 cockatiels and I go through about 2 lbs a week. Also if you can find a whole sale pet shop near enough they sometimes sell them for about $5.00 a pound in the 3lb bags.
Best of luck, as I totally know what you're going through
Lynne
Last edited by Lynne Watts on Sun Jan 01, 2006 12:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
wow I got stuck at that site.. listening to all the clever budgies. I will be getting an English breed, as soon as I find the bird that finds me. It already has a name , Brinly. I hope it talks as much and as well as those budgies seem to.
Angie --------- Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all sins. {Pro 10:12} ----------- God Bless
