I have a few questions.

[Deleted]

1. Tips for converting a budgie's diet from seeds to pellets? I recently bought some Zupreem fruitblend avian breeder diets(here is an image..) for my birdies. I got some tips from these websites.
www.thesprucepets.com/converting-bird-from-eating-seeds-to-pellets-1236726

parrotfeather.com/budgie/diet/pellets/

2. How to encourage my birds to bathe? I have a bird bath which clips on to the cage. Here is a pic.

It is infront of Biscuit. They do not want to bathe in it at all, even on hot days. It is really annoying. 

3. Encouraging them to eat veggies. I placed cool wet cabbage in their cage this afternoon and I took out the water bowl. Bluey immediately went to drink the water, but Biscuit stayed put. Bluey didn't drink from the cabbage anymore after that. 

[tweetiepiesmom]

When I first got my Buddy, he was fed the Zupreem fruit blend. It turned his poops orange and I read that the Zupreem has alot of dye in it and alot of sugar. I changed his diet. You might look at other brands of pellets.

[blue48]

You could try putting the veggies in the bath? My boy isn't keen on veggies but he has a nibble when he has a bath, and I think the green in the water encouraged him in the first time. I use a shallow glass pyrex dish.

[mona]

1. Since I don't use pellets, I'm not the right person to advise about it.

2. Every birdie likes bathing in a different way. Cookie doesn't like bathing and when she wants to, she would bathe in the drinking water bowl only! Breezie likes spray bath. I have a mist sprayer bottle - I bought the ones used by barbers/hair stylists from amazon and it has mist setting levels. I start with spray bath..mostly breezie loves it, cookie might get interested after few moments of mist sprays. I have heard people adding greens in their bath tub which they like and that might encourage them to take bath - people here have used basil leaves for that purpose too. I'm yet to try that out. I was also advised to try out hanging grass with dropping water droplets and spray the grass instead, since that's their natural way of bathing.

3. Same goes with the veggies. Every bird likes it differently. Some like it chopped finely, some like big cut pieces, some like it hung. Mine like green veggies, fresh homegrown plants and grass hung in the cage. They started playing and shredding with it and ended up eating it after some days. Some like peeled carrots, mine were afraid of it.. so I started chopping rest of the veggies in a vegetable chopper. Started mixing a bit of their existing seeds in the veggie chop. Initially the seed proportion was higher than the veggie chop, since they would just pick and eat their seeds and leave the rest. If I added less seeds, they chose to starve and kept searching for seeds, which gave me an impression that they ate. But observing them closely, I saw them just searching for seeds and not chewing anything. Just make sure during diet transition that they don't starve & skip food. Also, they are not very frustrated..Breezie had screaming bouts for seeds.. All those observations inspired me to go very slow and try out new innovative ways, plus keep repeating it everyday even if they don't eat anything from the veggie chop or beans. They eventually started tasting other veggies over a period of time. It takes time.. Mine have taken a long time to transition from a seed only diet to a variety of diet in 6 months or so. You just have to experiment how they like it. Mine don't like raw cauliflower cut pieces or chopped and mixed in veggie chop. I tried steam cooking it and mashing it with their existing soft food. They started trying it out..but after repeated attempts. The key is to never give up and try as many different ways u can think. They are just like babies..you need to trick them into eating food they think are awful.

[Deleted]

SUCCESS!! This morning when I put the bowl of pellets out, Biscuit came along and tried one. Then he went away, came back again ate a lot. Bluey came and tried one but obviously didn't like it, dropped it on the floor of the cage.. So Biscuit likes it and is eating it, so fast! I would expect it would take weeks or months, but not in 2 days!

[Deleted]

Hi, I just went out, when I came back Bluey was completely soaked! I looked at the water bowl, it was wet. Maybe because the water bowl is bigger, he bathes in it. So happy he took a bath!

[Morgan]

@birdlover123 - I know you asked about this brand of pellets before, and I responded that many people trust them, but the colored ones make it very difficult to check your budgies poop every morning. The dyes in the food will dye their poop.

Also, breeder pellets specifically have much higher levels of calcium and other nutrients required for female budgies to produce eggs and properly feed their babies. They are probably not good for your male birds or even for a female who is not laying.

Do you have regular Zupreem Natural available to you? Those do not have dye and will have a more normal level of vitamin additives. Also compare the ingredients of this brand (which I believe contain sugar) with other brands you have available to you.

You can even post the entire ingredients list of each of the brands that are available to you in a new thread in the feeding section of this forum so members here can better help you choose if you wanted. You can find ingredients lists online so you don’t have to go to the store to read about them or type them here yourself.

For example, Zupreem Natural: zupreem.com/birds/natural/natural-small-birds/

Ground corn, Soybean meal, Ground millet, Ground oat groats, Ground barley, Ground wheat, Wheat germ meal, Sugar, Vegetable oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Celery, Carrots, Parsley, Beets, Blueberries, Cranberries, Ground flaxseeds, Calcium carbonate, Dicalcium phosphate, Iodized salt, DL-Methionine, Choline chloride, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, Vitamins (Vitamin E supplement, Niacin supplement, Biotin, d-Calcium pantothenate, Riboflavin supplement, Pyridoxine hydrochloride, Thiamine mononitrate, Vitamin A acetate, Vitamin D3 supplement, Menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Vitamin B12 supplement, Folic acid), Citric acid (preservative), Mixed tocopherols (preservative), L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate, Minerals (Manganous oxide, Zinc oxide, Copper sulfate, Sodium selenite, Calcium iodate), Rosemary extract

Sugar is the seventh ingredient, so a pellet that has sugar further down on the list will have less sugar in it overall.

[Deleted]

No, zupreem natural is not available, but I'm thinking about using Roudybush maintenance.

[Morgan]

Dec 30, 2020 9:36:40 GMT @birdlover123 said:

No, zupreem natural is not available, but I'm thinking about using Roudybush maintenance.

That is probably preferable to the sugar and dye in the Zupreem you are currently using. Try to make the transition between foods slowly as you probably had to do to get them to eat the Zupreem pellets in the first place. There will probably be conversion instructions on the package of Roudybush you can follow.

[ArthurIsCool]

I highly recommend Harrison's pellets for your budgies! the ones I use are high potency super fine. they are on the pricier side but brightly coloured pellets are to be avoided as they contain so much sugar and dyes and may not be the best option for birds

[Morgan]

Jan 2, 2021 16:05:07 GMT ArthurIsCool said:

I highly recommend Harrison's pellets for your budgies! the ones I use are high potency super fine. they are on the pricier side but brightly coloured pellets are to be avoided as they contain so much sugar and dyes and may not be the best option for birds

This is a good pellet brand, but OP lives in Malaysia and does not have easy access to Harrison’s.

[yellowfacedviolet]

Jan 2, 2021 16:05:07 GMT ArthurIsCool said:

I highly recommend Harrison's pellets for your budgies! the ones I use are high potency super fine. they are on the pricier side but brightly coloured pellets are to be avoided as they contain so much sugar and dyes and may not be the best option for birds

Welcome ArthurIsCool . As a fellow fan of Harrisons I can tell you you are likely to be more and more pleased with the results as time goes by.

Morgan , the on-line sources won't ship to Malaysia? This surprises me. That's a huge market.

[Morgan]

Jan 2, 2021 19:42:56 GMT yellowfacedviolet said:

Morgan , the on-line sources won't ship to Malaysia? This surprises me. That's a huge market.

[/div][/quote]

I don’t know myself. OP said s/he could not access Harrison’s where they live. I can check the H’s website to see if they ship to Malaysia, but I would imagine it to be very expensive. Shipping to my address in CA costs almost as much as a lb bag of food itself, so unless buying in bulk, and with the currency exchange... I’m not sure how feasible that would be.

[Morgan]

yellowfacedviolet - I googled “Harrison’s Bird Food Malaysia” and was able to find a link for worldwide distribution. However Malaysia is not listed directly.

www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com/why-harrisons/where-to-buy/international-retailers/

Perhaps @birdlover123 you could contact them to see if they can ship to you affordably.

Compared to Harrison’s more complete ingredient list, I would consider Roudybush to barely be considered “food”, but it does have balanced vitamins and minerals and no food dye, so would be the next best option in this situation - with sick budgies and perhaps questionable vet care.

Perhaps you could also take notes from what mona does with her birds’ food and try to feed 25% seeds and lots of varied fresh veggies and sprouted grains and legumes, if you have the time and can get your buds to eat them. If you go this route eventually, make sure they are eating the fresh foods before reducing their access to seeds or pellets though. Mona does not use pellets at all and her birds are lively and healthy. You could still continue to provide pellets alongside seeds and fresh food to make sure they are getting the proper nutrients as well.

However, until your budgies have gotten proper care from your vet and are no longer suffering from any illnesses or parasites, I would keep them on the Roudybush pellets according to the package instructions so there is no question about what nutrition they are receiving. This will be easier to manage to begin with, and when they are healthy you can make additional changes to their diet if you wish.

[yellowfacedviolet]

Just checked Amazon--Malaysia. They have Harrisons with reasonable shipping. And if you are an Amazon prime member, shipping is free.