Parakeets are among the best birds to keep as pets. They thrive well if provided with a conducive environment and enough food. Giving your bird a balanced diet is important, as seeds can be fattening and unhealthy if eaten in excess. Hence, feed your parakeet a diet consisting of fruits and vegetables, as improper feeding can lead to nutritional imbalances and eventually illness and, in extreme cases, death.
The following are ways to introduce your parakeet to fruits and vegetables.
1. Introduce Your Bird Earlier
Begin feeding your bird a varied diet as soon as they start eating hard foods. This is because it becomes hard to change parakeets’ diet once they get used to seeds.
2. Offer Them as Treats
If your parakeet is used to receiving treats whenever it learns a new trick or behaves well, you can always introduce fruits and vegetables to them as treats.
The occasional treats will enable the bird to get used to the taste of the new food.
3. Use Their Normal Feeding Bowls
Parakeets easily get used to their toys and the items in the cage. They eat from specific food bowls and may become territorial if there is more than one in the cage.
Using their usual bowls, you can easily introduce your bird to the new food as they are used to picking food from the same bowls.
4. Use The Fruits And Vegetables to Prepare Bird Chops
Preparing chop for your parakeet is the best way to feed it a wide variety of seeds as well as vegetables and fruits.
As chop can be frozen and fed later to your bird, you can provide the parakeet with the most nutritious foods even when they are out of season.
Bird chop can be prepared as a fruit salad, a combination of two vegetables, or a mixture of fruits, vegetables, grains, and seeds.
5. Hand-Feed Your Bird
Feeding your bird pieces of fruits and vegetables from your hand will improve the eating habits of your parakeet and enable it to eat the new food. As the bird is used to receiving treats, he will think that the food you are offering is tasty.
Hand-feeding your parakeet will also strengthen your bond with your bird and help you gain its trust.
6. Be Consistent
Regularly offer the fruits and vegetables until the bird gets used to their taste and texture. Then you can offer them as snacks.
Your bird should be given fruits and vegetables more regularly to maximize the nutrients they receive from the food. Even if the bird doesn’t touch them, keep offering the fruits and vegetables.
Parakeets are curious birds, and once offered a new vegetable, they are likely to take it as a toy to shred. Eventually, they will realize it is something they can eat and enjoy the new food.
7. Make Them the Only Option
As parakeets love to eat seeds and pellets, they might fail to eat the new food you introduce. Hence, don’t provide other types of food, as your bird will refuse to eat the fruits and vegetables.
What Fruits and Vegetables Should I Feed My Parakeet?
Fruits and vegetables are full of vitamins and minerals, which help strengthen the immune systems of birds.
Vegetables should be fed daily, whereas two or three fruits in small amounts are to be offered about twice a week to avoid overfeeding.
As many fresh foods, especially fruits, are full of sugar, which easily grows bacteria, any remains should be removed from the cage at the end of the day.
What Fruit Is Good For a Parakeet?
Parakeets like to eat tropical fruits due to their juicy and succulent nature. However, not all fruits are to be fed to your bird, as some are toxic.
So, what fruits can parakeets eat:
Parakeets can eat fruits such as Apples, bananas, apricots, mangoes, grapes, berries, oranges, melons, pears, pineapples, and papaya, to mention a few.
Remove the pips and seeds of fruits such as apples, berries, and cherries before giving them to your bird, as they are toxic and can harm your bird.
Dried fruits should be offered sparingly as treats and should not contain any extra sweetener, as they will make your bird gain too much weight.
What Fruits Parakeets Cannot Eat?
Since some fruits can harm birds, they should not be used as food for your parakeet.
Avocados, unripe tomatoes, and pits and seeds of fruits such as apples, pears, cherries, apricots, peaches, and plums are some of the fruits and fruit parts to be avoided.
Never give your parakeet citrus fruits like lemons and limes, as they contain a lot of citric acids, which can cause stomach upset.
What Vegetables Can Parakeets Eat?
Parakeets get attracted to foods with bright colors and different textures. Hence, you are supposed to use two types of vegetables of different colors to feed the birds at any given time. Dark green and yellow or red vegetables are some color combinations you can use to feed the parakeets.
The following are some of the vegetables that parakeets can eat:
Cabbage, carrots, celery stalks, spinach, cauliflower, radish, ripe tomatoes, broccoli, beetroot, brussels sprouts, cucumber, kale, pepper, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and yams.
How to Prepare Vegetables For Parakeets
The vegetables should be served in any way that the parakeet prefers. They can be chopped, shredded, diced, sliced, or served whole.
All the vegetables should be offered raw and not cooked or processed, as cooking takes away vital nutrients.
Use only organic, fresh foods to feed your birds, as they have no pesticides or preservatives. Ensure all the fruits and vegetables have been washed and rinsed thoroughly before giving them to your bird.
What Is a Parakeets Favorite Food?
Since each parakeet has its own preferences, a favorite food can vary from one bird to another.
Below are some of the foods that parakeets love to eat:
1. Broccoli florets
2. Dark leafy greens
3. Finely chopped carrots.
4. Sweet potatoes.
5. Whole seeds
6. Pellets
7. Spinach
8. Lettuce and most tropical fruits