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Sexing A Budgie
How to sex youre little bundle of feathers.
The sex of mature budgerigars is easily distinguished. Adult birds have a waxy skin around the nostrils, called the cere, which is a rich blue color in the male. In the female it is whitish, tan or brown. Young budgies can easily be distinguished from adults by their coat feathers. Young birds have striped markings running from the back of the neck extending over the crown of the head to the top of the bill. When their first adult plumage appears (between 3-5 months), the immatures moult out these barred patterns, replacing them with a clear colored mask, yellow in the green birds and white in the blue birds. The ideal purchase for an indoor pet should be a healthy male baby bird, one around 6 weeks of age and still in its juvenile plumage. With proper care, your budgie may live 12 to 15 years. |
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Diet
Budgies, like small children, are notoriously resistant to a change in their diet. However, they must eat a varied menu as youngsters to avoid becoming fixated on seed. Seed provides only about one-half of the nutrients that budgies need daily. The Association of Avian Veterinarians recommends that fresh seed, along with other grains and legumes (bread, cereal, peas, beans, rice and corn), make up no more than 50% of the budgie's diet. The next 45% should consist mostly of dark green, yellow and orange fruits and vegetables (grated carrots, yams, sweet potatoes, winter squash, cantaloupe and carrot and dandelion greens, Spinach, Chickweed, and even broccoli which provides nutrients as well as beak activity). The remaining 5% of the budgie diet should consist of meat or meat substitutes, eggs and dairy products.While not hearty meat eaters, they may accept water-packed tuna, raw tofu, some hard-boiled egg, and low fat, low salt cheese. Alternatively, avian pellets for small hookbills contain a balance of nutrients in every bite. One successful method to convert a budgie to pellets is to mix them with a favorite table food and/or add diluted fruit juice to pellets that aren't already sweetened.
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