I’ve been converting the budgies to their healthy chop diet and they are doing very well with it. So far they haven’t been very stubborn. Each of them are eager to try the fresh foods I’m giving to them. (With the temptation of seeds sprinkled on top of course) I’m really surprised that it didn’t take that long for them to start trying it out. It has only been around 3 months since I really introduced fresh foods to them, and since then I have been gradually adding to their chop mix.
Today I prepared another batch of chop and I mainly added in green peppers, red peppers, corn, peas, and carrots. These batches are only meant to last weekly in fridges because I don’t have enough freezer room for bigger batches. I didn’t have much of a variety of vegetables to work with, so I just added in other things to their meals. I made a hardboiled egg and crushed the egg shell into it after mashing it up. Then I added in a teaspoon of Clay-Cal, and a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon (They seem to like it better with cinnamon) which I separated into each dish. After I rinsed, drained and mixed all of this I added a sprinkle of seeds on top. I do this so that the budgies will have something in there that they are familiar with already. When they go to get some seeds, they pick up the tastes of the other foods. That’s what got them started on nibbling on the different foods.
I’m used to them just going for the seeds by now because that is usually all they do, but you could imagine how surprised I was when I saw Kasper dive in and grab out a piece of corn to start eating. I was so thrilled to see the progress he was making already, but what surprised me more was that when he accidentally dropped it, he went right down to the bottom of the cage to finish it! I was so happy, but then I noticed that the corn was picking up other debris from the bottom of the cage and I got a bit grossed out knowing Kasper was trying to eat from it. That’s when I got this really cool idea.
Instead of feeding them their fresh foods in their cage, why not try getting them to eat it outside? I’d make this a regular thing and get them to come out on their smaller cage to eat. It would make cleaning much easier, give them out of cage time, and it would be more fun for all of us all at the same time. After they finish their fresh foods, I could just fill their cage dishes with fresh water and dry foods like seeds, or other things like pellets and nuts that I plan on getting in the near future. (There are actually these new, really cool and yummy looking Totally Organic Pellets that I’d like to try giving to the birds called Crumplets that I heard of here.) It would make life just a bit more easier for me, and funner too. Change is good every now and then, and I think that this is going to be the next big change for us. Hopefully the budgies won’t mind the change and maybe even enjoy it some day.
- A picture of the TOP Crumplets that I found on The Birdsafe Store.
Now that I have it somewhat planned out, I’ve got to actually do it now. Since I don’t know how they will react to the change, I’ll just have to gradually build up to the full switch at the right time. I’m thinking that next weekend would be a good time to actually start, so I’ve got plenty of time to prepare. Until then, I’m just going to continue feeding them inside their cage. I’ll be posting about this again as soon as I begin. Wish me luck! 🙂
Kritter Krazy 