What Do I Feed 3 Budgies That Aren’t Fond of Anything?

Last Updated on February 16, 2023 by Mitch Rezman

What do I feed 3 budgies that aren’t fond of anything except millet and Avicakes and Baked Munchies?

Love your Sunday morning e-mails.

Question … what do you feed the Windy City Parrot Brunch Club?

I have three parakeets and they aren’t fond of anything except millet and Avicakes and Baked Munchies.

Thanks!

Catherine Replied

The Breakfast Club consists of mainly untamed and even feral keets.

Most likely none were ever given anything other than plain parakeet seed and water if they were lucky.

They jumped into the seed dishes without trouble and their health seemed fine.

But they did have to be retrained to eat more than just seed too.

In the beginning, they were all adults when we received them, one or two at a time.

They only wanted to eat millet and ignored everything else.

They would eat green lettuce (romaine) if clipped to the cage bars, but once the lettuce went limp it was ignored.

I started to clip a leaf of romaine to a water dish that I filled with water and hung in the cage.

That helped and they would jump in, chew up the lettuce and bathe at the same time. Bonus.

That was fine, but I wanted them to have more.

I took the same dish and without water, lined the dish with a lettuce leaf and added some chopped mixed from frozen veggies.

The birds thought I was going to poison them and would not go near it.

How Do I Get My Budgies to Eat Veggies?

Next, I sprinkled some of their beloved loose millet on the veggies and that was all it took to get them in the dish and while they picked off the bits of millet, they also ate some vegetables.

The next day the dish was picked clean.

I did not have to add the millet on top anymore, nor the lettuce leaf liner.

Now daily they get two dishes of chopped veggies and they eat it UP.

I use generic store brand frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, carrots, beans) and I add some frozen broccoli.

I mix it all up in a big bowl then dump into zip lock bags or plastic containers and put back in the freezer.

I use a little more than a half cup of veggies a day, so I put some in a cup in the fridge to thaw out overnight.

Then I dump into a small electric chopper and give it all a whirl.

You can also add a little apple in the chopper.

Then I divide into two dishes and mount them in the cage.

I remove it in the afternoon, or sooner in summer.

It is a good food to sprinkle bird vitamins on too.

As far as a seed mix, This is a very good mix.

Higgins Sunburst Parakeet as it has everything, seeds, tiny pellets, treats, dried veggies, and fruit.

If you only have a couple of keets it is much easier to rely on a good mix than to make up your own.

As we have 10 parakeets we make up a big container of a mix that I pour out of daily.

I put these items in it.

Higgins Vita Parakeet 2.5 lb

Higgins Vita Canary 2 lb

Higgins Sunburst Leafy Greens 2 oz

Higgins Protein Egg Food 5 oz

If I have it, I will add a couple of tablespoons of this which adds calcium and other healthy qualities.

Hagen Hari Clay-Cal 1.27 lb

This mix makes quite a bit, I mix in a large bowl and fill up plastic containers.

I add the Higgins Canary seed to the mix as the little football-shaped seeds are more nutritious than just millet which is what most parakeet seed mixes contain.

Our keets get this seed mix daily and a couple of dishes of veggies.

They have 3 food dishes, 2 water dishes and 2 water bottles due to there being 10 parakeets in the large cage. There is no fighting and they all eat well.

I hope this helps.

Weezie Barendse replied

Thanks so very much for all of this information. I will give these a shot and see what happens. I really appreciate all of this input.

Wishing you and Mitch a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!