My budgie saphy

[Wolf]

I am not very sure about the budgie mix that you posted the link for, but I worry about the fruit in it as I could not find anything showing me a good look at the fruit or telling me anything about the drying process. There are additive that are used to preserve the appearance of the fruit and if the manufacturer bought the fruit to add to the mix then they do not have to list these additives or admit that they are present.
You really have not said very much about your new friend so I am not sure what to say other than it sounds to me that you are really trying to provide what you feel is best for her. I would love to see a picture or two or three of her. What color is she? is she an American budgie or an English budgie? It seems strange to me to use American or English in regards to them as they hail from Australia in the first place.

[Zentg]

I am not very sure about the budgie mix that you posted the link for, but I worry about the fruit in it as I could not find anything showing me a good look at the fruit or telling me anything about the drying process. There are additive that are used to preserve the appearance of the fruit and if the manufacturer bought the fruit to add to the mix then they do not have to list these additives or admit that they are present.
You really have not said very much about your new friend so I am not sure what to say other than it sounds to me that you are really trying to provide what you feel is best for her. I would love to see a picture or two or three of her. What color is she? is she an American budgie or an English budgie? It seems strange to me to use American or English in regards to them as they hail from Australia in the first place.

thanks, i had a video of her in my first post of this thread, here's the link again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2pbXz6bfjA

[Wolf]

Sorry about this, you were posting as I was writing my last reply. I make about a two week supply of gloop at one time and freeze most of it and then as I use up the thawed supply I set out a new container of it overnight to thaw out for use the next morning.
I have 7 birds of 5 different species of parrots that are budgies, parrotlets, a Senegal, An African Grey and an Amazon and all of them eat gloop with no problem. I have really never had any issue with converting any of them to eating gloop as the most that I have had to do is sprinkle a little of their current seed mix on top of the gloop or in the case of my finicky Grey lady mix a little in it as well for a while. Some birds will jump right in and strat eating it without doing this. but I think that most require a short adjustment period. I feed them gloop in the morning and along with the fresh produce I give them enough for all day long, and then give them their seed/ nut mix in the evening for dinner. For my budgies and parrotlets I tend to put the gloop on a bed of shredded romaine lettuce, They seem to like it when I do this better than if I put the lettuce on the side. By Lettuce I am actually meaning what ever leafy green that I give them, but right now romaine is the most prevalent.
If you make a fresh food chop or a raw mash, I believe that they need to be changed every 4 hours or so because of the liquid from everything being high in sugar content which is a wonderful growth medium for bacteria. With gloop everything is cooked which all by itself prolongs it lifespan and the grains soak up most of the liquids making it less hospitable for bacteria growth again prolonging how long it is good.
I appreciate that you are taking the time to ask these kinds of questions, they show me how much you care for your friends( birds). I hope that this helps.

[Wolf]

We keep crossing posts, that is funny
I did see the video and watched it again just now, but I really can't see her all that well, probably just the lighting. I can see that she is blue and looks to be an American budgie, looks a lot like my Harley. She is very active and appears to be very sweet. I would still like to get a better look at her, I think that picture are exceptionally good for looking at birds as I love looking at their different markings, I like to look in their eyes and love the little spark in them if you know what I mean. Videos are great in their own right and I like them too, but am more of a photo person. I don't mean to sound rude by that, I guess it may have to do with a hobby of mine. I sometimes do a woodburning of birds and other things or sometimes a wood carving or an occasional piece of jewelry. Picture work better for inspiration in this regards than most videos.

[Zentg]

We keep crossing posts, that is funny
I did see the video and watched it again just now, but I really can't see her all that well, probably just the lighting. I can see that she is blue and looks to be an American budgie, looks a lot like my Harley. She is very active and appears to be very sweet. I would still like to get a better look at her, I think that picture are exceptionally good for looking at birds as I love looking at their different markings, I like to look in their eyes and love the little spark in them if you know what I mean. Videos are great in their own right and I like them too, but am more of a photo person. I don't mean to sound rude by that, I guess it may have to do with a hobby of mine. I sometimes do a woodburning of birds and other things or sometimes a wood carving or an occasional piece of jewelry. Picture work better for inspiration in this regards than most videos.

right on i will try to get some pics later, problem with her though is that day she was active because i gave her pellets with only 1 spoon of seed instead of 2 so in the afternoon she was hungry for seeds so more willing to interact with me for millet.

but today i gave her 2 spoons of seeds and she doesn't want to interact with me at all when i give her my finger to step up, she just runs away from me - i cant even get her out of the cage so its tough to get a good close up pic D: any advice for this?

[Wolf]

Not sure if I can be much help on that, but will try to.
First, let me say that I just got myself a cell phone and although it takes pictures, I am not very familiar with it and it does not appear to have a zoom feature, so that is not much help. I also have a digital cameras that has a zoom, but it is a bit slow on taking pictures. Nothing like the older cameras that took a picture as soon as you push the button, so bird have a chance to move before the picture is taken. This is a hinderance to getting good pictures for me. So much for the technical side of this.
Now going by your posting a portion of your problem with getting pictures is food. Not only what you give her but possibly when you give it to her. A birds diet actually has more to do with the way that they behave than what most of us are aware of. It affects much more than just how aggressive they might be. And the timing of what we do with them in relation to when we fed them what food is also very important as to what they are willing to put up with from us. To help you with this aspect I would need to know more about what you give her at what time of day and what food she has to nibble at between breakfast and dinner.
For example, I feed my birds shortly after sunrise and leave them alone to eat for about an hour. I then have about an hour and a half to two hours that they want to play and have one to one interactions and then they want to relax and nap or get a bit more to eat. At this time I give it about two hours and then they start getting active again and want to play some more. Most of the time after a bite to eat and or a nap they are good to go for interaction for about two hours and then want to eat again. My budgies are smaller and so these times need to be adjusted a little as they seem to need to eat a little more frequently, they have a faster metabolism than the larger birds.
I don't know if this will help you or not but I find that it is easier for me to work with my birds as much as possible as they are usually more willing to put up with my crap that way.

[liz]

I was feeding free choice of the foods they wanted when I was told to change their diet. To get them ready for change I gave them pellets instead of seed for a few days. I slowly changed to crushed nuts and grain. I added gloop and started reducing the dry grain.
Every one accepted the new way except Rambo who at his age "wants what he wants when he wants it" and is stubborn when I give him something new. By burying his 2 almonds in the gloop he has to get gloop in his mouth to get the almonds. I give him enough veg that he won't go hungry and last evening I noticed that some of the gloop had been eaten.

[Pajarita]

Cool thanks, I will look it up - so can you take that gloop recipe and use it for all birds? (I am thinking of buying another parrot) - Also will I have to convert my budgie to gloop or will she eat it right away? Any tips to converting budgie to gloop? Also can you cook it in the morning and leave it in the cage all day or do you need to throw it away and cook a fresh batch every 4 hours?

I feed the same gloop to all my birds from the budgies to the cockatoos so yes, you can use it for all kinds and sizes of parrots. Converting them is super easy, all you have to do is make a simple one first with only grains and mix the tiniest bit of seed into it so the bird realizes that it's food and, once you see it eating the cooked grains and not only the seeds (you will find empty grain 'skins'), you start adding veggies to it gradually and one at a time. You don't even need to cook it every day, you can make a large batch, split it into little baggies with a daily portion each and freeze them - then, every afternoon, you take one out of the freezer and leave it out all night so it will be thawed in the morning. You throw it away when you feed them dinner in the evening. It doesn't rot or anything during the day...

[Saerphe]

I actually portion the grain part of my GCC's gloop into ice-cube trays. She gets one cube of grains, a small handful of frozen peas and carrots, and a couple pieces of frozen fruit, which I microwave for about 30 seconds from frozen (I add a few drips of water to keep moisture in the grains). Then I chop or tear up a couple small pieces of fresh broccoli (I'm back in my parents' house now, where I have access to a veggie garden) to put in after everything else has been warmed up. She won't eat frozen broccoli, only fresh.

It's really easy (I am also kitchenally challenged ), and I actually find it cheaper to get all the grains from the Bulk Barn and to cook and freeze everything than to buy a commercial diet, especially since it's lasted such a long time. I've had my conure since June and she's been on the gloop since after her first week at home... and I haven't had to buy any more gloop ingredients other than frozen veggies since I started her... and the frozen veggies are as much for me as for her since I eat them too. I still have plenty of dry ingredients in case I need to cook more (they store really well), and I just portioned 3 ice-cube trays worth of cooked grains this morning.

I leave that in her cage most of the day, and put it out on her play stand when she's out of her cage. In the evenings she gets a budgie seed mix, which I take out in the mornings when I give her breakfast.

[Pajarita]

Actually, Saerphe, raw grains don't store that well because of constantly rising aflatoxin levels. Their shelf life is about 3 months so it doesn't do to buy large quantities UNLESS you are going to cook it and freeze it (cooking stops the aflatoxin production).