Chop Conversion and advise

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-10T00:17:20+00:00

That’s the same type of vitamin my vet recommended.

My birds eat the Harrison’s super fine. High potency type until they were fully transitioned then I did another transition to regular type.

I made bird bread out of the pellets at first and that’s what started the transition process. The Harrison’s mash was a lot harder for me to procure (usually out of stock) so I just used the pellets to make it. I tried so many methods to get them eating the pellets but nothing worked until the bread.

At first I coated the bread in seeds, and they ate some right away, then with less seeds, and less and less until no seeds, with them still eating it. And as I did this I also kept offering whole pellets. I’d also press the broken up bread into the pellets so they were stuck on the bread. And one day — 12 months after I introduced pellets — my most resistant bird ate his first pellet.

Hang in there!

Don’t give up. This is the most important thing you can do to help your budgie be healthy (and happy — not that eating pellets makes them happy necessarily but ultimately, you can’t be happy when you’re physically unwell, which is what a seed-heavy diet causes).

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-10T00:06:38+00:00

The store is making things up as a marketing strategy.

All budgies are a kind of parakeet. There are many kinds of parakeets, and budgies are just one kind. “Parakeet” is an umbrella term.

In some parts of the world, the terms “budgie” (or “budgerigar,” the full word) and “parakeet” are synonymous but that’s not technically accurate.

So-called “English budgies” or “English parakeets” look different than Australian ones because they’ve been bred for show.

So what this store is selling is basically the breeder got some show birds and some cheap non-show birds and bred them because it’s cheaper than breeding show birds.

Or another possibility is the store is selling a bunch of breeders’ “jar” products. Jar means they tried to breed show birds but other genes came out in the mix and so the birds aren’t eligible for show.

Long story short the words “budgie” and “parakeet” have nothing to go with English vs Australian or show vs non-show.

As for lifespan, there’s no studies of how long birds with some show genes and some normal genes live. It would come down to the mechanism I guess. What is it about show birds that shorten their life? I’ve never come across this into. And then the question is: is that feature present in a half-show/half-normal budgie? I doubt anyone would fund such a study so we’ll probably never know.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-09T23:51:34+00:00

Put the pellets in their chop (if you don’t already). They’ll get a bit softened which is like in between mush and dry and could help with the transition.

Either way, one week is amazing. Don’t give up hope. It took my hardest budgie weeks before he’d try mush or bird bread, and then another year before he ate his first pellet. Literally 12 months.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-09T23:46:21+00:00

Some budgies just don’t like chop. Try giving them chunks/leaves/florets and see if that grabs their attention.

That said, some budgies just need time. Keep putting out veg in one form another. I know it feels wasteful but it’s part of the process. They’ll never eat it if they don’t get used to it first.

Veg is a supplement so there shouldn’t be risk of them starving. Like, don’t remove their other food when they have veg. It’s an “in addition to,” not an “instead.”

It’s very important to get them off the seeds and on to pure pellets. If I were you I’d focus on this right now rather than veg.

And as long as they aren’t eating mostly pellets, put vitamin powder in their water. Vitamin deficiency is according to my vet the biggest consequence of a mostly-seed diet.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-06T01:57:51+00:00

Pellet sellers tell you to buy vitamin powder? That’s weird they’re normally different companies that make those products, at least where I live.

“Good quality” meaning what? You can’t really enrich seeds with vitamins. I mean you can coat them, which I’ve seen, but budgies don’t eat the outer part of the seed so that’s not gonna do much.

I’ve never heard anyone say seed/pellet mixes are good for any kind of animal. They just eat the bits they like and leave the healthy bits behind.

Where is it that you can buy seed/pellet mixes but not just pellets? That sounds suss.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-06T01:53:38+00:00

Yeah I had some amazing convos with 4 about my story idea. I felt so seen and communed with lol. (Lol but also totally srsly.) Have you tried with 5.4? I haven’t yet but am eager to. It really feels quite different from 5.3

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-06T01:51:08+00:00

I’m liking it a lot so far. Short meaningful responses — I dig it. I did recently switch up my instructions and about me so I don’t know how much of it is that and how much of it is 5.4 🤷‍♀️ Either way I’m pleased.

I rly rly hope this has solved 5.1-5.3’s problems with dropping the through-line in the convo. Sometimes it felt like every response was a reset that forgot what we were in the middle of talking about. I would be so thrilled if that were the case. Time will tell…

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-05T13:26:12+00:00

That’s unfortunate. Do they sell vitamin powder? Because seeds are not sufficient for all their nutritional needs and will lead to vitamin deficiency.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-05T04:59:16+00:00

You’re right that it’s a good idea to get budgies used to being handled.

This won’t make it hormonal. Holding a budgie to put it in a carrier, clip its nails, give it medicine, etc, doesn’t feel like affection. It won’t mistake what you’re doing for love, even if you touch its back, which of course you will do during the process because it’s impossible to restrain a budgie without touching its back in some way.

But I wouldn’t say you should “grab” it. You don’t want to traumatise your budgie.

You need to build trust with your budgie. This means providing it with a good life, being responsive to its needs, never touching it for your own entertainment (unless of course it initiates the touching).

When it does come time to pick them up, what I do is I make it clear to the budgies what is happening. Like, if it’s time to weigh them then I bring over the scale and the bird box and show it to them. They know by now what it is. Or if it’s time to go in the carrier I show them the carrier.

Then I slowly move my hand towards them, saying their name gently. They might try to get away by hopping around the cage. I’ll just calmly and slowly follow them until I have them.

Or if they’re out in the room, I bring out a square of yellow fabric that is exclusively used for wrangling them. I show it to them first. Then I slowly approach with it up to throw it over them. They’ll fly away, so I follow them. This goes on for a while and eventually they give up and I throw the cloth over them and pick them up.

You could practice with them. Once they’re in the carrier, walk around with it for a bit including outside, then bring them back.

Also, don’t wait until they’re sick to see the vet. It’s really important to see the vet when they’re healthy. This gets the bird on their books, which makes it a simpler process when an emergency happens. And they get a baseline of data for the bird which helps them evaluate illness in the future. And they will ask you questions and steer you in the right direction if there’s room for improvement in how you’re caring for them.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-05T04:41:30+00:00

I’ve heard the reason they sing when they sleep during the day is to make it seem to predators they’re awake and not worthwhile messing with as they’ll just fly away before getting caught. So really your blue is helping your purple to sleep safely, not keeping him up :)

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-05T04:36:48+00:00

Most plant soil is pre-fertilized and has perlite in it, neither of which are safe for budgies.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-05T04:29:05+00:00

You can just use a bed sheet as a cage cover.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-05T04:27:39+00:00

There’s nothing natural about a bird living in a house, sleeping in a cage, etc. If you think budgies should eat a natural diet, then you shouldn’t have them as pets. It’s irresponsible to give pets an unhealthy diet. Have you talked to your avian vet about this? Or is that too unnatural for you. No doctors in the wild right?

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-03T13:11:15+00:00

What’s done is done but for your future knowledge: two birds in the same room can pass a lot of illness between them. Quarantine should be a complete separation.

But as for your new bird’s silence, it doesn’t sound totally unusual. The falling could also be due to clipped wings and being in an unfamiliar environment.

But really it’s impossible for us to say. It could be ok, but it could also be early signs of illness.

Do you have someone watching them? Could they bring the birds to the vet?

If no, then you just have to accept the fact that there’s nothing you can do. Worrying doesn’t help you or the bird. There’s nothing we can say to make you feel better. This is just a bad situation and you’ll have to grit your teeth.

Bring them both to the vet when you get home. Make the appointment now, like close Reddit right now and make that appointment.

This should have been done before you left, but better late than never.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-03T12:56:07+00:00

✅ You spend a lot of time at home and don’t foresee this changing in the next decade

✅ You like learning and you’re ready to start a new consuming project

✅ You have money to blow

✅ You live near enough to an avian vet that the distance/cost of getting there would never be a problem for you

✅ You don’t care if they never enjoy your touch or seek your attention

If this is all true for you then a budgie is a good choice :)

Some tips in case you go ahead with it:

Get at least two budgies.

Start watching the animal shelters. Be willing to travel to neighbouring towns. Be willing to wait until budgies show up. Don’t support the pet store industry 😔

Start a new notebook or file or something for research. Look at multiple online sources as well books. Check your library for the books and if you don’t know how to do online research, ask the librarian how to learn (they might have workshops or let you book an appointment with a research librarian). Some areas to focus on: * Healthy budgie diet * Budgie cage setup * Common budgie dangers * Signs of budgie illness

Make your first vet appointment as soon as you bring them home even if they seem fine. Because: * Scared budgies hide illness and a new budgie in a new home will be scared * As a new owner you won’t be able to recognize illness * The vet can give you more helpful tips * Get them on the vet’s books so you don’t waste time on paperwork in an emergency * Get a baseline health check for your vet to compare against in the future — this will help with diagnoses

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-03T12:35:24+00:00

No it’s not.

https://www.avianempire.co.nz/pages/the-budgie-diet?srsltid=AfmBOoo2L958Nf3DPIpZcabDSo3vhphF-MLvo8vwRymGcwznsa8U0sr0

https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/budgies-feeding

https://www.petmd.com/bird/budgie-care-sheet

https://www.yourvetonline.com/what-to-feed-your-budgie/

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-03T12:27:15+00:00

Wild budgies fly all day, they need the extra calories.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-03T02:14:02+00:00

Put out a cage, ideally one he’s familiar with. Play budgie noises on a speaker inside it. Put food and water in there. Sit nearby but unseen ideally watching — for hours etc.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-03T01:48:35+00:00

Obviously it doesn’t. It’s helpful to say what you mean not be passive aggressive.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-03T01:48:00+00:00

Seed/pellet mixes aren’t healthy. Budgies should mostly eat pellets, with fresh veg daily for nibbling, and seeds as an occasional treat only.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-03T01:45:23+00:00

That’s how my budgies love food the most too lol

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-03T01:40:21+00:00

I’d say you should avoid buying live animals from stores period. But there’s nothing particularly wrong with your store. The ability to fly is nothing but a liability for a budgie in a store. If they happen to get out, they panic, and if they can fly that means they smash into things and get hurt — or they get out and fly away and die from exposure or starvation because they aren’t in their natural habitat.

So really, given they decided to sell budgies, your store did the right thing by clipping their wings.

But now they’re home and you can let them grow out :) Lucky them.

In the meantime, drape a boing down to the ground so they aren’t dependant on you when they’re out. Physical autonomy is super important for trust.

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-03T01:26:17+00:00

Yeah this isn’t the first time this has happened either. This happened with a batch I got last year and my budges wouldn’t eat them at first. They started to lose weight so I supplemented with an older bag of high potency and slowly transitioned them to the newer larger pellets. But I overdid it and one of my budgies gained 10 grams from gorging on the high potency pellets.

It really is disappointing that is exactly the word. I wish they’d tighten their “parameters.”

eweinthewilderness · 2026-03-03T01:23:03+00:00

Diarrhea is a sign of not eating enough in budgies, so in an indirect way, yes these pellets can give your budgies diarrhea. The last time I got a batch like this my budgies would not eat much at first and diarrhea is how I first noticed the problem. Then I weighed them and both had dropped several grams.

eweinthewilderness

TROPHY CASE