Trill and millet

[cssh0599]

Hi can anyone give me some advice please.

We have had our budgie for about a week. Got trill as his main food, and some branches of millet as a treat.

He is not really that bothered about the millet, which I planned to use as a treat during training.

When I look at ingredients on the box of trill, it lists red yellow and white millet. Is there too much millet in his food, and so he is not bothered about the branches I have as a treat. If so, what would be a better main food instead of trill

[Marianne Marlow]

Trill is a great seed mix and in my opinion the best. It was red, white, yellow millet, canary seed, groats an also added vitamins, minerals and iodine.

I am probably going to go back to using Trill soon even though it costs a fortune as I have 8 hungry birdies.

[BudgiesBuddy]

Trill contains millet seeds so he is getting millet already.

[Bird Junky]

Hi Don't worry your bird wont overdose on millet.

Spray millet (branch) is a great favourite with Budgies.

As a reward you only need to offer a tiny sprig or just a

taste to keep him wanting more. Yours B.J.

[Hezz]

I agree completely with Marianne - Trill is worth using, if you can afford it.

With your little guy not really being interested in millet sprays, it may just that he/she hasn't had anything to do with them before. I am presuming your budgie is a young 'un, not long out of the nest. If you have a whole spray up for him, it could be seen as large and daunting - try taking off a small bud and if your bird isn't at the stage of taking it from your hands, drop it into the seed pot and check back later.

[Ryan.W]

im not a fan of trill to much stuff synthetically added. But that's just me. I think budgies love spray millet not so much because it is Millet, but more because it's fun to rip apart, and it's a more natural foraging behaviour for them rather than going to a pot. To make it more challenging for mine i usually hang it up in the middle of the cage, completely away from perches, so they have to fly and hang on it with their claws and eat it, its fun for them, it engages their mind (because they have to ofcourse think about how to get to it), and it's good exercise for them - not to mention quite funny to watch at first when they first try and figure out how to get to it.
forgot to mention - personally i feed - www.feedem.co.uk/bird-aviary-c196/bird-seed-c197/mayfield-special-budgie-seed-20kg-p11104 (not specifically from that website - i just picked the website at random ,to get a picture of the seed) with eggfood every day to ever second day.
don't know if that helped anwser your question or not

[Marianne Marlow]

Better to have stuff synthetically added than the budgie to not get those vitamins and minerals in it's diet in my opinion.

Deficiencies are no joke and probably more common than we realise.

I just wish I could get Trill (or a good equivalent) in bulk, cheaper but they don't seem to do it.

I agree about the spray millet, it's fun for them

[Ryan.W]

Apr 7, 2012 11:39:16 GMT Marianne Marlow said:

Better to have stuff synthetically added than the budgie to not get those vitamins and minerals in it's diet in my opinion.

Deficiencies are no joke and probably more common than we realise.

I just wish I could get Trill (or a good equivalent) in bulk, cheaper but they don't seem to do it.

I agree about the spray millet, it's fun for them

it's just a personal thing of mine , i try to avoid synthetics as much as i possibly can but it's hard to do most of the time especially with things like D3.

[Bird Junky]

Hi A problem with synthetics is that if your feeding

a good all round wholesome diet. Some of the

synthetics can interfere with the uptake of nutrients

from the fresh fruit/veg. This is also true of a mix of

fruit/veg fed at the same time. I have some notes

from a vet friend on the suject. Yours B.J.

PS I'll post it ASAP.

[Ryan.W]

personally i think we worry to much over uptake of vitamins etc, things like that are very easily overdosed (as i found out) and can cause more harm than good. Since i switched back to just a basic seed mix and the occasional eggfood it's been a lot better, and the birds seem happier, Almost everyone i know around the local area doesn't even feed eggfood (unless breeding) or as a occasional treat and the birds live long healthy lives. Personally if i didn't worry about D3 i wouldn't even feed eggfood myself .

[ginger]

My first budgie Joey only had Trill and never touched fruit or veg. I wasn't really up on everthing when I was a nipper but he lived till he was 12! Bless him - he was lovely!!!!

I now have 4 budgies and after lots of reading stuff on the internet (wasnt around when I was young!) I now feed them trill, veg, fruit, egg food, tonic food and have vit-min drops too! Wow - better fed then us ;D

I get Trill from Sainsburys for £1.55 a box - my four get through a box a month I would say. Cheap really - get it......cheap!!

[Marianne Marlow]

A box a month really?

When I only had four they got through a box a week. Now mine would take 2.5 boxes a week. £200 a year. It's a lot to me at the moment.

[ginger]

I give them two teaspoons of Trill each a day and then millet/egg food/veg varied oh and tonic seed so seems to last about a month. I have an overweight budgie and if I leave the pots full she would never get off the floor