Need advise for getting budgies to eat

[quarinteen]

Hello all. I picked up a couple of budgies for my daughter a couple of months ago. These birds are still absolutely terrified of people. Also they still refuse to eat anything except millet. I originally thought they were eating weed in general but now I’m sure they only eat the millet. I put fresh fruit and veggies in daily. I mix them up except for greens which I clip several pieces around the cage. They don’t even bite it hard enough to leave a mark. They just feel it them walk away. I have also been trying to get them to eat pellets. I have crushed them and made a paste then added millet and they pick the millet out and leave the rest. They will seriously not eat for days if I don’t give it to them. How in the world am I going to get these guys comfortable?

[tweetiepiesmom]

Don't put a lot of new things in their cage at the same time. I suggest you remove all food especially seeds first thing in the morning. Everyday give them the same green food, something leafy like basil or lettuce leaves is good to start with. Give them pellets in a dish and no other food. After 3-4 hours, put seeds in the bottom of the food dish and cover with pellets so they have to dig for the seeds.

Morgan has some good ideas that work. She posted a thread titled "pellets" on Nov 5 that has excellent tips.

[Hezz]

If these are young birds, I don’t agree with taking all the food out and leaving them with nothing to eat. If they are already eating the millet out of the pellet paste, that is a good start and continue to do this if pellets is what you want to be feeding them. Reduce the amount of seed in the paste as the weeks go by and you will find that they have been feeding on the paste itself. Mixing in puréed veg into this mix may help get them eating veg as well (forget fruit - too much sugar). Definitely have pellets in covering their seed mix so that they have to scratch through to find the seed.

As for getting them eating veg on its own, you will need to experiment with how to present it. Some budgies prefer dainty little pieces; others refer big chunks so they can bite bits off and fling it around. Too many things added to the cage at any one time can put off a bird that is cautious around humans, and part of getting them to accept food that you offer will be getting them used to human presence around their cage. How much interaction with people are they getting?

[Morgan]

I think the method definitely depends on the budgie. I didn't have much problem getting my first budgie to eat pellets, and certain veggies - so getting her and the rest to eat more of it by removing their preferred foods and leaving only veggies worked really well for me. They do need to know that the food you leave them with (the veggies, or whatever you want them to be eating more of) is actually food first. Otherwise you might as well be leaving them with nothing at all. That may have not been clear in my previous posts because I was still learning as well, so I should go back and revise that.

However, leaving your budgies with a food cup full of seed that gets topped off whenever it gets low, or even switched out with fresh, will not encourage them to eat anything more than what they prefer. You can try serving smaller portions of seed mixed with chopped up veggies, or mixed with pellets for them to forage through, so that when the seed runs out all that remains are the pellets or veggies. They will eventually associate the unknown foods with actual food because it is always served together in their known food dish.

A wild/pet-type budgie (versus a show-type, or larger bodied budgie) really only needs about 1-2 tsp of seed (and/or pellets) per day, filling in any gaps with fresh foods. This is a huge generalization though, since budgies can vary quite a bit in body size and healthy weight. It would be much better to serve them 15% of their body weight in seed per day, and reduce the amount slowly over time (if needed) to encourage exploration of other food items without having them go hungry.

So just as an example, you could give your birds 1/2 tsp of seeds each in the morning, mixed with whatever else you would like them to try (which they probably won't eat at all for a while, persistence is also key), and after they have finished what you know they will eat, wait an hour or two. Then give them another ½ tsp of seeds mixed with other foods, and etc. An hour or two before bedtime, let them eat all they want. Then take the food out and start again firs thing in the morning. Or, leave the food in, and take it out after they finish eating all they want for breakfast as well. Then start again with the portioned meals. They should at least start eating some of their less preferred seeds this way pretty quickly.

Keep checking back with us if you experience any further troubles. This method might not work, but another may. Mine do like their veg clipped up - especially long thin strips of carrot (I just use a carrot peeler) or bell pepper, and soft leafy greens wet down with water. Spinach should be given somewhat in moderation, but is good for introducing veg, broccoli too actually, and dark lettuces. Even the dark green part of romaine.

Good luck!

[quarinteen]

I really appreciate all the suggestions. Over the past 9 weeks I loterallly have tried everything suggested here. I thought I was in the right track too with the paste but they literally will pick the millet out and once they do there is barley anything on it. Once the millet is gone they are done. I have tried to show them in every way I can think of that veggies and fruits and boiled eggs are good but they refuse.

[quarinteen]

What I am trying now is I have a guest bath tub. I put dog training pads down and put their toys, perches, and food in there. They were in a open top glass enclosure at the pet store so I figured they would be ok. I have a buffet in the middle of fruits, veggies, boiled egg, and pellets. The pellets are both crushed up and whole. They have been in the tub for 3 days now and I just don’t know what to do.

[quarinteen]

Giant bath tub not guest

[Morgan]

How often do you provide them with seed to eat in this situation? They couldn’t go three days without eating at all, if they are not eating the pellets or the veggies. They have very fast metabolisms, and 6 hours is basically the max they should ever be without food without risking them becoming ill. I wouldn’t go over 3-4 hours as I have previously suggested, and now realizing that my birds as well were never left without foods they at least knew were food - even if they didn’t like them as much as their seed mix. It should still be safe for them to not eat at all during this time though, as even three week old budgies are only fed full every four hours and then their crops must empty - and wild birds do not always have a constant supply of food either.

If they always have veggies and pellets available to them, you can offer them a tiny amount of seed mixed into their veg and pellets so they must forage through the other foods in order to find the seeds. They will have to at least taste some of the other things in their search, and those tastes will eventually grow on them. Besides these past three days, how long have you been trying to get them to eat other foods by having them constantly available? It takes a lot of persistence and patience with many budgies to get them to try new things.

One new food item at a time may also be worth a try as Hezz suggested. Maybe start with just pellets (also as TPM suggested try different brands, but I would suggest stick with one brand until you’ve used up the bag, knowi mg you really gave it a good shot - and Harrison’s superfine is the size of a millet seed and probably the healthiest option) with some seeds mixed in. Hezz’s budgies also started to eat some of the pellets she was using as a foraging tool by presenting them this way daily over the course of at least a month or two, if not more, I think.