Feeding Your Budgie (Parakeet)

Giving your budgie the proper nutrition is important if you expect it to live for many years.  Seeds were once the only food that bird enthusiasts believed were the proper way to feed their birds.  To make the food look more appetizing bird companies began to color some of the seeds and grain with red and green food coloring.  In this way, the colors could be seen inside the mix and hopefully entice you to buy this product.  Most owners think that this colored mix is good and that it looks healthy and appetizing for your pet parakeet.  In reality, these seeds and grains should only be a small portion of your bird’s diet.  Another advantage of feeding only seeds were that the food itself was simple to feed, clean, and long lasting.   

So what should the budgie be fed?  The answer is a combination of seeds, pellets, vegetables, and fruits.  If a budgie is well cared for and taken to the vet regularly you can easily expect your little friend to reach an age of 10 or more years.  These little parrots are omnivores and will eat greens, meat, and seeds.  Now that you know what a healthy diet should consist of, let us move on to food items.

The first thing is to introduce pellets to your budgie.  This needs to be pellets that do not contain preservatives, artificial flavorings, or colorings.  Though I will not name brands, many good quality commercial brands are available. Just be sure no added sugars are included inside the mix you choose.  These pellets need to be kept in a sealed bag inside the refrigerator to avoid moths or critters.

For the seed mixes choose any brand you like and be sure to ensure to seal it well after each feeding.  Some new brands come inside jars and can easily be stored in cabinets or the refrigerator.  Old seeds that have moths should be discarded and thrown out.  Never feed anything old to your budgies because it can make your budgie ill.   Also look to see when the seeds were packaged.

Never feed your budgie a mixture of the seeds.  I have had very bad luck with this and find the budgies will pick out the seeds and discard the pellets.   So to fix this, I rotate between seeds and pellets.  I’ll feed seeds for four days and pellets for three days.  This gives my budgies the variety and health they need for their base diet.  During the pellet days I do not keep seed treats such as spray millet, or honey sticks inside the cage.   A budgie will quickly ignore his pellets if he is given the option to eat what he wishes.

So now that the base diet is covered, it’s time to move on to fruits and vegetables. Your budgie needs to have vegetables incorporated into his diet.  Mine enjoy eating fresh parsley, squash, carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce, and broccoli.   Because my budgies have such small beaks I grade them up with a hand cheese grater.  This is perfect for carrots and broccoli stems.  If you want to go a step further, you can also grade zucchini, pumpkin or squashes.  I find my budgies enjoy these boiled and cubed into small chunks. 

Fruits need to be added to their diet as well.  My budgies enjoy apple or pear slices that have been thinly sliced and hung inside the cage.  I can’t keep them there to long because they brown easily.  If you are going to add tropical fruit that is extra juicy, I always dab them with paper towels and cut them as small as I can.  I then place them into their bowls.  Fruit is very important and needs to be added as well. 

Keep in mind you don’t have to feed your budgie 3 fruits and 7 vegetables a day.  I randomly pick one for the day and offer it to them inside their cage.  If I am cooking, I’ll prepare some fruits or vegetables for them too.  I find that my budgies can always eat plenty of leafy greens such as spinach and broccoli.  Mine especially love the flower part of the broccoli.  Add fruits and vegetables are important because it give your budgie plenty of unnatural unprocessed foods that are very easy on their digestive system.

When feeding them be creative.  Budgies are not picky if they have been properly socialized and most will eat anything you eat if they are tamed.  If your budgie does not eat anything besides seeds you’ll need to covert him over.

Don’t forget to ad protein to their diet as well.  Budgies enjoy slices of turkey and chucks of chicken.  If I am cooking chicken I’ll remove a small piece of chicken breast and shred it into pieces.  This last me for four days then I discard the rest.  Other sources of protein can come from eggs. Rather then dealing with boiling the eggs, I offer mine canary egg food.  It has plenty of protein and added vitamins.  All protein items need to be removed form the cage an hour after being placed into the cage.  Never keep them longer due to harmful bacteria that can kill your budgie.