Georgie no like nothin' but seed!

[andyjh64]

Can anyone please help.  I have had my budgie Georgie for about six weeks and he is doing really well,  completely tame,  loves to spend time outside the cage,  playing etc.  But the most frustrating thing I've now learned about budgies is their apparent inability to recognise food as...... well, food!  I've been reading about how it's important to include a variety of foods, apart from seed in their diet,  but so far all my attempts to do this have failed and he stubbornly refuses to eat anything but seed (and Millet).  I've tried the following:

1. Leaving fruits and veggies around the cage for him to discover and try it. - He just ignores it untill it goes bad. 

2.  Introducing it while he is out of the cage,  putting it in places where he has to see it - he just avoids it. 

3.  Eating it in front of him and pretending to love it,  then offering it - Again,  he ignores it. 

4.  As a last resort,  temporarily withdrawing all other food for a day and putting an array of tempting fruits and veggies in his food tray.  He was clearly hungry but refused to go anywhere near it and just starved himself till I eventually had to give in and put the seed back.  

I feel like I've done all the obvious things and been persisitent with it.  Is there anything else I can try?  Or should I just resign myself, at least for the moment, to him being a seed-only budgie?   Thanks!

[blue48]

My boys sound a bit like yours. They really don't like vegetables. I honestly think it's just a case of try, try and try again. I have been trying for a year and have offered them a wide variety in chunks, grated, hanging them to make them look like toys. All they will eat is carrot tops (they love them), basil (the occasional nibble) and sometimes they will eat a tiny pea from mange tout if I open the pod for them.

Some people have success with sprouting seeds like mung beans and lentils which is easy enough to do but didn't tempt mine.

Come Spring, I will gather seeding grass, which it seems no budgie can resist.

[ffiscool]

I think you will have to just keep trying, he either will be brave or not.

Maybe just stick some carrot into a cage bar, obviously as you say, once it goes bad you had to remove it

and maybe just keep eating in front of him, even without the hmmms, lovely - just so he keeps seeing it

Sugar snap peas always went down well I found, I used to open the pod for him to pick at the peas. Basil, hung from his bird bath was great excitement, carrots were a winner - eventually..

Even if you just hold something in your hand, whilst say watching tv, with him out of the cage, he may surprise you and get curious

[Hezz]

Six weeks isn’t a lifetime, and a relatively short time to change over a budgie’s diet. As has been said, you just have to be persistent and give him the opportunity to eat them by having them available each and every day. Try changing the way you present them. Carrot as an example: some budgies love a chunk that they can bite and destroy at will (how much goes in is irrelevant at this stage); others like dainty little bits of it grated; some like thin slivers of rounds, others a long stick of carrot. You will have to determine what is Georgie’s preferred serving.

[Deleted]

Hopefully you'll find a way that he's willing to explore and likes.

Two of mine like picking at their carrot rounds but I have no idea how much they actually eat.

My eldest budgie mainly seems to like his carroy boiled so that it's soft. Less nutritious, but at least he actually eats in then.

All three of them don't seem massively interested though, they only pick a little bit, and prefer to do so outside for the most part.

I just tried putting in veg this morning and withholding seed for a bit to see if they'd actually eat some veg, but once they'd poked around it and realised there were no seeds hiding in between they quickly lost interest.

My eldest used to enjoy his veg. It's kind of sad.

Keep trying though. He'll come around eventually, I'm sure!