by Kathleen » Sun Oct 04, 2009 12:18 pm
I offered my budgie small pieces of different vegetables, and he didn't touch it. I could tell he was disappointed because he was excited when he saw the bowl going in, then he went over to it, hopped on it, looked in and then hopped off to another perch again. He was raised so poorly (like most budgies) that he didn't recognize anything as food except seeds. He wouldn't even eat bread. He'd run away from me if I offered it.
Then I tricked him a few months ago. I chose a vegetable that was kind of wet inside, carrots. I chopped it up and kept chopping and chopping until it was extremely, extremely fine pieces of carrot. The carrot pieces were a bit moist, and because of the cohesion properties of water, they stuck to some seeds that I poured in there and mixed around. I poured some in, mixed it, and then I poured a little bit more to tempt him. He ate the seeds and he ate the carrot alright. He couldn't avoid eating the carrot because it stuck to his beak and it stuck to the seeds. After that, I put more and more carrot, more and more of other vegetables, and each time, a little less seeds.
Now I can put in carrots, broccoli, and string beans cut up, not as finely as the first time but pretty finely) and he'll eat them, no seeds. I don't think he totally fills up on this, but he eats it. He just didn't know he could.
I've also tried apple, banana, and pepper but he doesn't seem to like those as much, I think carrot is his favorite so far.