hi again

Question
hi
it seems that your maxed out on the budgies section, but available on this one. YAY!!
evie Does have red eyes so i think its an albino.
i was actually going to have a pair of lovebirds before so i researched everyday for 2 weeks, but then it turned outto be more expensive i thought, so i just got budgies.
i was thinking about getting another same sized cage i have now and maybe put them together. i can open the entrance and put the entrance side together so they can still be with each other. or should i just get a bigger cage?
i ws also thinking about how i should have seeds, pellets, fresh vegetables and fruits at the same time, a little bit of all of it, so they dont have manutrition. i am REALLY worried that they'regonna get sick, so im doing my best.
thank you so much!

Answer
Hi again, Susan,

Either way you want to go with the cages would be fine.  You can often find cages at flea markets, thrift stores, etc., to help you save some money.  If you buy a used cage, be sure to disinfect/clean it thoroughly before putting your birds inside.  

Regarding feeding, if your birds are currently on all-seed diet, you have to make any change gradually or your birds could get gastrointestinal upset and/or not eat properly.  To switch a bird over to a better diet, mix 75% seed to 25% pellets for about a week.  The second week, change the mix to 50% each.  The 3d week, mix 25% seed to 75% pellets.  I always like to leave a dish with only pellets in it for those birds who prefer pelleted food.  The way I feed all my birds is this.  I feed in the evening because I work during the day.  Therefore, all my birds have pelleted food 24/7 (I have budgies and other parrots up to amazon sided birds).  In the evening, I feed all my birds a soft food mix consisting of cooked brown rice with veggies, ramon noodles (no flavoring) or pasta of some type, I often mix in scrambled eggs and any other healthy, nutritional item (I never make the mix the same way twice!).  My birds larger than tiels also get fruit, etc., with the soft food mix.  I do not allow any of my budgies and tiels to have any seed until/unless they eat their soft food mix first.  If they don't eat the soft food mix, they only get their pellets.  In other words, my parrots only get seed if the eat their healthy food first.  Most of my birds eat anything I put in front of them because they trust me and what I feed to them.  Granted, not all of them like the same foods every day (some days they don't want apple, but the next day they do).  However, they all always eat the soft food mix.  They don't all always eat everything in the soft food mix, i.e., some days some don't want the peas or carrots, etc.  As long as you've feed a well balanced, nutritional, healthy diet by the end of each week, this is fine.  I try to vary what I feed the larger birds every day so they don't get bored with their food.  Birds won't eat what they don't recognize as food.  Therefore, when offering new foods, you have to keep offering the food every day until eventually the bird(s) try the new food.  Sometimes it helps to sprinkle a little spray millet or seed on top of the new food to coax the bird(s) to try the new food.  They get a taste of the soft food mix and then start eating it all the time.  If one bird tries the food, the other will likely follow suit. To answer your questions, you may not want to provide all the foods at the same time because a seed-eating bird will usually always eat the seed over other foods.  This is why it's best to remove any seed when trying to get birds to eat other foods, then replace the seed after a couple of hours (whether they've tried to new food or not---you remove the other food so it doesn't spoil and your bird gets sick from eating spoiled food).  Problem with doing the latter is some birds get hip to the fact if they wait long enough, they will get their seed, so they purposely don't eat the good food!  So, I'd say it's OK to put the pellets, veggies, fruits in the cage at the same time, but keep the seed away from them until they've eaten their other foods.  Mainly use seed as a treat or reward.  Keets, budgies, tiels are very susceptible to fatty liver syndrome, which results from an all-seed diet.  FLS can be life threatening to a bird and doesn't usually show up for several to many years of seed eating.  This is why it's important to limit seed intake.  It's similar to diseases in humans...often times they don't show up until someone is older, so one has to take precautions early in life and maintain these good habits so disease doesn't strike us later in life.  Same thing with animals.

You have to learn what makes birds sick, what keeps them healthy, how to recognize signs of illness, the do's and don't's, proper way to care for birds, etc., in order to keep them healthy.  Proper nutrition is key to all the above.

Chrys