parakeet care

Question
I am working with a family who has a parakeet and doesn't seem to know much about care of the bird. What foods do you recommend, how much and how often do you feed them this food? Are there any big no no's regarding food. So far, they have been using wild bird food because it's more affordable and accessible. Also, any other recommendations for basic parakeet care?

Answer
Dear Sarah,
thank you for your question.
Parakeets should have a very varied mixture of seeds or good pellets or a mix of both. Seeds are more entertaining for them, but it can be hard to find a good mixture. A good seed mix contains five or more different seeds (at least three different millets, peeled oats, about 50% canary grass seeds). Budgies should be fed at least once a day, they need two tablespoons of food per bird.

Apart from the seeds/pellets, they should have fruits, vegetables and leafy greens. The bird may not touch those at first because they are always afraid of something new and need to find out that they can eat it. If you can get untreated plants, chickweed, dandelion and grass seeds are excellent budgie food. Apple, pear, cucumber, zucchini, carrot, chard, chiccoree or melon can also be fed. You can find excellent information on budgie diet and general care on this website:
http://birds-online.de/index_en.html
I hope I was of sme help to you
Jennifer