Every budgie owner wants their pet to enjoy a happy and healthy life.
As such, a healthy diet is the best and easiest route to keeping your budgie happy and healthy.
Ideally, you want to ensure your bird gets enough of a nutritionally balanced diet to ensure he gets proper nutrients for daily living.
That said, it is imperative for anyone leaving their avian companion for long to understand his eating habits before leaving a lot of food with him.
Hence, Can A Budgie Overeat?
Generally, budgies stop eating when they get full, even when their dishes are kept full and refreshed often. However, like humans, budgies can and will sometimes overheat out of curiosity or boredom.
Overeating can cause obesity and lead to other major health problems, so it is up to you as the pet owner to take control over your bird’s eating habits.
In this post, you will learn more about feeding budgies, including probable reasons why your bird could be overeating.
Should You Be Concerned With What Your Budgies Eat?
Poor nutrition is a common reason for many health problems in birds.
Sadly, many pet parents neglect the nutrition of their pet birds to the extent of assuming they are feeding a proper diet to their budgies when in reality, they are not.
That said, if you own budgies or any other pet for that matter, it is important to discuss your pet’s nutrition with your veterinarian.
Because budgies are very sensitive and have fragile health capacity, you should stay on top of your bird’s nutrition and always strive to improve his diet by educating yourself on new concepts in budgie nutrition.
Budgies need more than seed and water to stay healthy – the overall health of your bird will depend on how well it is fed.
Budgies Feeding Behavior
In The Wild
In the wild, your budgie would forage for whatever food is available in the morning hours and right before dusk.
Normally, budgies feed on or near the ground and eat a variety of seeds (grass seeds), fruits, berries, and vegetation. However, their food can vary depending on the season.
At Home
As for feeding your budgie at home, it is recommended that you feed him with a pelleted food formulated for birds.
However, because you provide all the food the budgie needs, he is likely to overeat.
Besides, if you feed your budgies the same diet on a daily basis, they will also get bored and probably overeat.
Your budgies can overeat when they have almost nothing to keep them stimulated. That’s why you need to monitor your budgies’ eating habits and ensure they have enough toys for optimal stimulation.
What Budgies Love
Generally, budgies love seed-based diets and will even intentionally and selectively eat only favorite seeds, usually the fattiest such as sunflowers and millet.
Ultimately, they overeat these seeds while eschewing other healthier components. Because most seeds are nutrition-deficient, make sure they make the smallest part of your budgie’s diet.
On the flip side, pelleted diets are developed to meet most of your budgie’s nutritional needs.
Although it might be hard to convert a mature budgie to a pelleted diet, with the right formulation for his life stage, it won’t be a significant hassle.
In a nutshell, to counter your budgie’s possibly unhealthy eating habits and ensure they get all necessary nutrients, ensure pellets make up to 75-80% of your budgie’s diet.
How To Keep Budgies From Overeating
There are a range of things that may cause your budgie to overeat.
That said, the best way to stop your budgie from overeating is to tackle the cause of overheating.
1. Provide A Wide Variety Of Foods
Considering that the common cause of overeating is poor nutrition, the first solution to your bird’s overeating is feeding him a wide range of foods and on a regular schedule.
At home, this could mean providing a pellet-based diet or ideal seed mix, preferably in the morning and before dusk, then removing the food after the budgie finishes eating.
A good diet will also include fresh fruits and vegetables.
2. Keep Your Pet Stimulated With Toys
Providing your budgie with enough toys to keep him stimulated can also help alleviate overeating.
Fun foods that your little friend can pull on and play with can also do the trick.
The idea is to satisfy the budgie’s need to work for his food just like he could when in the wild.
3. Keep It In A Large Cage
In addition, if you are on a busy schedule and cannot provide the most-desired human interaction, you can increase the budgie’s activity level by making him a large cage where he can fly around.
More flying means more energy sent, which can help burn excess calories that accumulated due to overeating.
4. Check His Keel
If you suspect your budgie has been overeating, there are few things you can do to check if he has obesity so you can take preventive measures to avoid future health issues.
One of the most reliable ways to examine budgie obesity is checking his keel – the bone running along his chest’s midline.
If the bird has been overeating, you won’t spot the keel easily, requiring your action.
Again, you can look along the side of your budgie’s jaw to see if you can spot his jugular vein.
Generally, if you can’t see the vein, it could indicate that your bird has been overeating.
Check out this video from the Alen AxP Youtube channel for additional info:
Four Foods To Feed A Budgie
Feeding a budgie with an assortment of foods will help keep them happy and healthy.
There are plenty of commercial foods that you can find from stores, but you can also supplement them with a variety of other foods to create a nutritionally balanced diet.
Your budgie will benefit from eating a balanced diet and even live longer. With that in mind, here are various foods to give your budgie.
1. Seeds
Budgies love to eat seeds.
However, because seeds do not provide many nutrients – they have low vitamin and minerals levels – they should be kept to below 10% of the total dietary intake.
The maximum recommended amount is two teaspoons of mixed seeds per day.
2. Budgie Pellets
When keeping budgies as pets, you should consider making good quality pellets your bird’s staple food.
All in all, considering that budgies prefer seed to pellet food, you will need to convert your bird to a pellet diet gradually.
Moving the feathered companion to pellets will help in maintaining his health.
3. Fruits
Budgies enjoy eating fresh fruits, even in the wild. That said, supplementing a budgie’s diet with some fresh fruits will help meet his nutritional requirements.
Some of the budgie’s favorites include
- oranges
- berries
- grapes
- melons
- pears
- and apples.
After giving fruits to your birds, remember to remove the uneaten part after two hours.
4. Veggies
Like most pet birds, budgies can eat various vegetables, including
- spinach
- lettuce
- kale
- and dandelion leaves.
These leafy vegetables can provide your bird with plenty of minerals and vitamins, making them a good addition.
Conclusion
It is normal for birds to eat frequently, so it can be hard to tell if your budgies are overeating or not.
However, if the bird overeats for long, you can tell by checking his keel.
Because overeating can result in other unpleasant health conditions, it is important to monitor the budgie’s eating habits and ensure the bird gets only enough.
Hopefully, this article helps you understand how you can feed a budgie for a happy and healthy life.
References
https://pets.thenest.com/parakeets-overeat-9133.html
https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/budgies-feeding
https://pets.thenest.com/list-foods-can-feed-parakeets-7731.html