How much to feed???

[Monica]

I had a question asked to me about the proper diet for a budgie, and was asked if a small foodcup was enough. Well, I don't know what size the food dish is, though I thought I'd answer how much to feed instead. I don't normally weigh out how much my birds eat, though I thought that I'd get a percentage of how much food per weight of bird. I read on a website that a 30 gram budgie should be getting eating 15-20% of its weight in food a day, which would work out to 4.5-6 grams. I thought about this, and wondered how much my two boys are getting. Well, they are in the 40 gram range of weight, but between the two of them they are getting roughly 10 grams of food a day, which is still too much for them, even if Cosmo has always been on the larger side (I had originally thought he was a full blooded english budgie because he was so large compared to my other budgies... well, he may have english blood but he is no english budgie).

This got me thinking, how much food do Noel and Casey get each day? Together, they weigh around 240 grams, however I'm only feeding them around 22-36 grams of food a day, where I *should* be feeding them 36-48 grams of food instead. I feel like I am overfeeding the little guys, yet underfeeding the bigger guys, yet that quite wouldn't make sense as Casey is actually a bit pudgy for her size and Noel shows no sign of being underweight, but is rather around average (as is Casey-for a tiel atleast). I've already have done a diet change since seperating the budgies and bourkes, though I'm guessing I need to tweak it some more! Yet, it seems if I feed the budgies any less, they'll starve, as they are such piggies, especially when it comes to fresh foods!


Anyone else have their birds weight, and know how much food, in grams, that you feed your bird??? If so, are you feeding in the 15-20% of your birds body weight?

[Skyebirdsmom]

I have no idea. I've had 6 different birds from finches to African Grey, and have no idea how much food I gave them. I fed them till they did not want to eat anymore. Simple eh? But that's how I did it. I didn't over feed as they were never overweight or ill from being too hungry. SO I know I fed them enough, my vet would have told me if they needed more or less food. Sorry, I know it's not helping, but use your judgement. They, like people, have different needs depending on specie, activity level, age, temperment, etc. Not one answer for each bird, even if same specie same weight, still probably different amounts of food consumed.
Linda & Skye~

[Samm]

Monica:

Just get a decent size food cup.....fill it with food, then when it looks like its getting empty, fill it again!! LOL, Thats all I do....if I had to measure everything, I'd have 20 screaming monsters to deal with!!

[Monica]

I was feeding an amount that they would finish each day, and if they had some left over at the end of the day, for several days, I'd just cut back. When I had the bourkes n budgies together, they were getting far more food than they are now getting being seperated, and this helps in more than a few ways. I don't normally check to see how much I am feeding, as I just go by a general rule and see how much they are actually eating compared to what they are not eating.

Indeed though, I know it can vary from species to species, or even bird to bird, which can go as deep as the genes of the birds or how the birds were raised...

[Tiki]

My birds have a seed hopper 24/7. They eat what they want from it. They also get fresh veggies in the morning and Chaska has a dish of pellets, the tiels don't like pellets. When the hopper gets down to about 25% full, I top it up again. They never run out.