What i feed

[fox]

hi guys. i'll let everyone know what i feed my grassies. to start with my birds get feed a busic budgie mix bird seed that i buy from only 1 pet shop. i do this cause only because thats what i do. i don't normally feed my birds rare sunflower seed. i do add extra canary seed and i think its jap millet (can't remember what's called only what it looks like). i also feed sprouted seed when the breeding season starts to get closer, the sprouted seed consists of 2-3 parts sunflower seed, 2 parts milo seed and 1-2 parts mung bean. the 3 seeds are all sprouted in different containers. my sprouts are looked at 3 times a day, once in the morning, when i get home from work and just before i go to bed. almost everytime i look at the sprouts i'll wash them out and let them drain if the weather permits. i believe great care must be payed to sprouts for the fact that bacteria can and does grow easy, and if not cared for and then feed to your birds, death can occour. also i feed endive, (spinich sometimes), broccoli and some pairs also get corn. i'll also give my birds chunks of grass from the lawn with dirt still attached for them to play around with at least once a week. i'm prity sure that my birds like the way that they are beening treated, well i think they are happy cause they've never told me different ;D this year i have lots of 2 and 3 generation birds that i've breed in the past and hopefully i'll be able to do the same in years to come.

[John]

G'Day fox, I also feed a good quality budgie mix to my birds, I also add some hulled oats and a small amount of sunflower seed. They get sprouted seed every day, is there any reason you only feed it to them around breeding season, I feed endive, corn kernels, apple chopped into bite size chunks and a crushed up arrowroot biscuit, I also give them a slice of grain bread which they love and devour.

John

[fox]

hi john, i only feed sunflower seeds when they're sprouted, an only when it's the breeding season is mainly because its a fatty seed an i don't want my birds putting on any extra weight before the season when all they do is just sit around.

[oaklee]

i birds diet differs with fox`s. i make my own mix up, because i don`t believe they get enough balanced seeds just from budgie seed. i believe they are just like humans and they need a balanced diet as well. i don`t like using the small parrot mixes as i believe they fill a quater of the weight up with seeds the birds don`t eat like milo and dried corn etc and you are not getting value for your money this way. so i use a mix that is 2 parts canary to 1 part white millet and 1 part hulled oats. i also feed my birds grey stripped sunflower all year round. but here is my tip, i find if i put the sunflower in with the other mix the birds flick all the other seeds away to get to the sunflower, because they will eat the sunflower first. so thats why i make my own and the seed mix goes in one dish and i put a small amount of sun flower in a separate dish. this way i can control the amount of fat they are getting and not waste nearly half the seed if it was all together. i also sprout mung bean and sunflower once a week when i have eggs or young in the nests. this is just an extra source of vitamins for the birds. i also feed spinach, corn , chicory, broccoli and endive. my birds get something extra apart from seed every day when there is eggs or young in the boxes. as soon as the birds have finished breeding they go back to seed and spinach twice a week. if you feed them to much in the non breeding season they just over eat and get fat and lazy, then when breeding season comes around again you have fat lazy birds that wont breed. so mine go on diets for a few months and when i introduce the nest boxes to the birds to commenc breeding season i start to give them the extra foods to commence breeding.

well i hope this gives you some ideas and i believe in trial and error with there diets some pairs will eat foods that the others won`t so just write down what each pair likes and feed it to them.

[aksavairies]

seeded grass, milk thistle and sundried figs are eaten readily by my birds.

[ena]

I've never tried sprouted seed, though everyday i collect native flowers and thistles, then there are different gumnuts. My seed i buy from a local breeder who makes up his own with some grey sunflower. The different wattle and wattle type they love to spend eating and playing. They like brocolli and a few leafy stuff but not so much into the fruit. Hope I find a good meathod once I have lots of aviaries.

[fox]

ena, one bit of advice i can give you is that if you are picking anything that you are planning on giving to your birds to make sure that the food is chemical free. what i mean is that anything that you are picking, it must be clean. i'm not saying that it isn't, but i know someone who used to do the samething, and ended up kiling half of his birds. the thistle he was picking was sprayed by the local council with posion, my friend didn't wash any of them and unfortunatly he payed the price. also i have read that if people shouldn't pick anything for there birds if it is grown near a major road because the chemicals from a car's exhuast will stay on the plants and can cause harm to anything that eats them.