Ooh OK, I'll try normal dry seeds right now. I am actually using the XS fruity Zupreem pellets (I also ordered Roudybush to get them to try to see if they like it better but I'm still waiting for that to arrive) so I'll also offer those separately to see if they're interested. Thank you!
Attempting to switch my stubborn budgies to pellets
Hi! So after my budgie Dib was diagnosed with fatty liver disease, the vet recommended trying to get all of my birds on a pelleted diet. Today is day 1 of introducing my birdies to pellets, I'm trying the method of crushing them up into dust and sprinkling it on wet seeds and eventually increasing it to full, dry pellets. So far, doing this has made the birds seem somewhat disinterested in their food which worries me. I'm trying to also weigh them everyday as much as I can (they can be a little skittish around the gram weight) Does anyone have any success stories for getting older, more stubborn budgies on a pelleted diet? All my babies are 7 years old and have mostly only had seeds and a few different fruits/veggies in their lives, so it feels nearly impossible to get them on the better diet right now 😓
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I'll look into that too! I've really wanted to try that for a while but I've been too scared of accidentally soaking them for too long and growing mold/bacteria on it. Plus the usual seed mix I get my birds has some pellets (all of which they usually pick around 
) which can be hard to separate and make sure no pellet dust is on the seeds to grow mold.
) which can be hard to separate and make sure no pellet dust is on the seeds to grow mold.
I'm at day 4 in the process of switching my babies to pellets, I'm still sprinkling the ground up pellets over their seeds but they're very good at just eating around it. When I wake up and see their overnight food its just seed hulls and the pellet dust underneath! I did see one of my girls, Archie, actually eat a half-crushed pellet sitting away from the food on its own, but I haven't seen her touch the dust in her food since. I'm thinking about trying to wet their food again to make sure they're getting at least some of it, but I'm worried about moving to the next steps of reducing seed for more pellet. Is this all just part of the process or does it mean they really just aren't going to take to the pellets?
Yea, I'm currently manually crushing them with a rolling pin (I ordered a granite mortar and pestle to make it a little less messy tho lol) and usually I can get it to be a pretty fine dust that way if I do it long enough, but if I can I might try getting a coffee grinder! I also still haven't seen them eat from their full pellet bowls I put in their cages, but maybe eventually. Thank you!If your feeling that the pellets need to be crushes more finely, I found a small coffee grinder works like a dream! I sprinkled it on her food and after a while I started seeing her eat from her pellet bowl. I did find though that when I used the grinder that it was fine enough that it tends to stick to the seed better. Even though I see her eating the pellets I still sprinkle it on the food.
If my budgies weren't on the older side I think this method would definitely work a lot better, haha. I have thought about trying to just give them seeds in the morning and at night and only pellets and veggies during the day (while monitoring their weight of course). If the mixing method isn't working out on its own I may incorporate this a little bit as well. Thank you!This is what I did, might not work for you but it worked pretty well for me. My birds are fairly young probably less than six months, and I’m using zupreem natural pellets for budgies.
1. As soon as I got the pellets in the mail, I introduced them to it by putting one right next to them to explore it and understand that it’s food.
2. Then I completely swapped the seed mix in their cage with the pellets, so it was just pellets in the cage for the remainder of the day. I would leave the pellets in all day but they didn’t eat any, they would just come down to the food bowl and scream at me for their seeds.
3. Since I knew they weren’t eating, I gave them some seeds that night just so they didn’t stay hungry all night. Then in the morning, I would give them seeds as well so they can have something in their tummy until noon or something. Like I said pellets are still in the cage 100%. So basically, the first week and a half was seeds in the morning and at night (about a small handful in the palm of my hand each time). Oh and also, I would put some pellets in my hand and they would eat it no questions asked😂 but they would barely eat the ones in the food bowl lol.
4. During the second week i noticed they started to eat from the pellets in the food bowl, but they would only eat them if they were slightly crushed cause I think they might’ve been to big even though they were budgie pellets. At that point, I stopped giving them seeds at night and only in the morning. Did this for another week and a half, then completely stopped giving them seeds after the 1st month and now they are on pellets. I still give them seeds from time to time just as a treat.
This is how I did it, but if you choose to do this option pleeeeeease be careful not to starve your budgies. Their metabolism is extremely fast so 4 hours of food can be like days without food for us.
*Also mods, please correct me if I’m giving bad or potentially harmful info, but this is what worked for me. *
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