No-pellet/pellet-free diet

[Azalea]

For a few reasons, we've decided to try a no-pellet/pellet-free diet for our birds. I know this is a controversial issue, judging by older threads that I browsed on other forums. 

One of our main reasons is that they've only liked one brand of pellets so far, Roudybush Daily Maintenance, and it's not sold at any stores near us. We don't want to depend on Internet shopping for a main part of our birds' diet. Even those pellets seem to be their last choice after eating seeds and vegetables.

I am mostly posting this to ask if anyone else here does not feed pellets. The breeders who we got three of our birds from (our Sun Conure and Cockatiels) don't, and have been keeping birds for over 20 years.

[Loz]

Some budgies might be fine on a seed & veg diet. Certainly, some of my Flock were, their weights never climbed beyond a point I felt happy with.
Some of my Flock though were becoming dangerously overweight and I had to do something, so I introduced pellets and cut the seed ration drastically.

Weights dropped rapidly for which I was in equally parts pleased and concerned. Weights then, after about two weeks, started climbing again - but not to dangerous levels. My interpretation of this is that the pellets were generally ignored until hunger drove the budgies to try the them and once they were accepted, weights stabilised again.

I'm no dietician (or any other kind of expert) but it seems sensible to me that you try your flock on a pellet-free diet - but monitor their weights closely. In your shoes, should the budgies start becoming overweight, I would cut the seeds back and offer whichever pellets you want to buy. As long as you are monitoring weights, you probably won't be placing any budgies in danger of malnutrition.

My (secondary) advice however would be to try a pellet that you are happy purchasing straight away, while the birds are used to see that kind of food in their bowls. Monitoring the weight should ensure the safety of the birds.

My primary advice would be, just buy the pellets that they eat on-line

[Marianne Marlow]

I don't feed pellets. Their diet can be healthy on pellets or seed as long as it's a balanced diet with plenty of vegetables etc :-)

[Loz]

Nov 22, 2023 15:34:56 GMT Marianne Marlow said:

I don't feed pellets. Their diet can be healthy on pellets or seed as long as it's a balanced diet with plenty of vegetables etc :-)

I have some budgies who really don't know how to say "No" to seeds. Despite having the equivalent of Kew Gardens available every day, there were three or four budgies who were (and are) seed gluttons!

[Hezz]

It is only recently that my budgies have been given access to pellets and I’d quite happily not mind if they didn’t eat them. Plenty of fresh veg, sprouts, and foraging opportunities which is what I originally intended for the pellets for my birds are necessary. I would advise having a particular time of the day when seed is available and offering fresh veg etc before they have access to a topped up seed pot.

[criswell]

I've been trying to increase pellets in Dexter's diet because he has a lipoma on his chest. If it wasn't for that, I probably wouldn't be feeding pellets. One of my previous budgies had a lipoma too. The only pellets Dexter is keen to eat are Roudybush but I'm not switching them entirely over to pellets. I have changed their seed mix by adding extra canary seed which is lower in fat than millet. My plan is to feed them a diet similar to the link below and I'm in the process of buying and introducing them to some of the herb seeds on the list.

www.omlet.co.uk/guide/budgies/budgie_food/food_list/#:~:text=Budgie%20Oily%20Seeds

They also have vegetables every day too and I need to try again to get them to eat sprouts as Dexter ignored them totally the last few times I tried. Now he has friends they might all be willing to try them.

[Azalea]

Thank you, everyone, for your comments. After giving it more thought and reading more, we've decided not to make their diet completely pellet-free. I ordered Zupreem Natural, which is sold at two store chains with locations near us. (I haven't checked a third store that we sometimes go to.) They already eat some Zupreem Sensible Seed mix. But I do want to decrease their pellet portion somewhat, and increase vegetables.