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Budgies, or parakeets, love many of the fruits and vegetables that we humans enjoy, but you need to be careful before feeding your bird just any food. One vegetable that you may be curious about is carrots. Can budgies eat them?
Yes, you can feed carrots to your budgie. Both the stems and flesh provide great nutrients for your pet in a way that is tasty to them. As long as you don’t feed your bird contaminated carrots or too many, they can make ideal additions to your parakeet’s diet.
Keep reading to learn more about why carrots make such great treats for your budgie and what else you can add to their meals.
Are Carrots Good for Budgies?
Carrots are considered great treats to feed your budgie because they provide numerous vitamins and minerals. Most importantly, they provide vitamin A, which your budgie needs for proper growth and many immune-mediated processes throughout the body.
Carrots have trace amounts of calcium too. Calcium deficiency can be an issue for parrots. By feeding your budgie these vegetables regularly, they are less likely to suffer from calcium deficiency (however, please note that you should not rely solely on carrots for your budgie’s calcium requirements).
Most budgies love the taste of carrots, so you likely won’t have to force your bird to eat them since they will be more than happy to do so on their own. You might have to trick them into eating the carrots at first, though.
Picking Out the Right Carrots for Your Budgie
Even though carrots are generally a great source of nutrition for your parakeet, it’s important to examine the vegetable before feeding it to your precious bird.
Mold contamination is a serious issue for budgies. Even a bit of mold contamination can lead to death in these birds due to their small size. If it looks like the carrot is contaminated or going bad, just toss it out. Do not feed it to your pet.
How to Feed Carrots to Your Budgie
Feeding carrots to your budgie isn’t that difficult of a process. For best results, we recommend shredding, grating, or cutting the carrot into smaller pieces so it is more manageable for the budgie to eat. Smaller pieces also result in minimized choking hazard.
You can toss the stems and greens into the mixture too. All parts of the carrot are suitable for budgies to eat, and they offer different vitamins and minerals.
If you want, you can juice carrots and feed this juice to your budgie. However, it’s best to feed the carrot juice to your bird immediately. Also, do not feed your budgie purchased carrot juice because premade juice often comes with additional sugars, preservatives, and other additives.
What If My Budgie Isn’t Eating Their Carrots?
If you notice your budgie isn’t eating the carrots you serve, it likely is because your pet does not understand carrots are safe food. Very few budgies dislike carrots, so simply changing how you serve them can get your bird to start eating them.
You can try eating carrots in front of your budgie. These birds are intelligent and will see that you are eating the veggies, which means they can eat them too. We recommend trying this first thing in the morning, when your budgie is the most hungry.
You can also add carrots to your parakeet’s favorite foods. That way, they will be tempted to eat and eventually take bites of the vegetable. You might want to place the carrot tops facing up since these are softer and greener, making them less “intimidating” (or more intriguing) to budgies.
Another trick is to excitedly pick up and drop a small piece of carrot with your finger. Budgies are foragers, and the action of picking and dropping a tiny morsel of food may pique their curiosity and get them to sample the carrot.
How Many Carrots Should I Feed My Budgie?
Too much of anything is bad for us, and the same is true for budgies. If you feed too many carrots to your bird, they will likely get diarrhea and other illnesses due to the increased amount of water, sugar, and minerals.
Generally speaking, 20% of your parakeet’s diet should come from vegetables, and that includes carrots. Gauge how many carrots to feed your parakeet based on the rest of their diet and other veggies that you are feeding them.
What Should I Feed My Budgie?
Carrots should not be the only things that you feed your parakeet. You should also feed them seeds, nuts, fruits, legumes, and other vegetables. All of these should complement a base diet of a high-quality pellet designed specifically for them.
Nuts and legumes provide healthy fats, antioxidants, and protein for your bird. Budgies need around 10% of legumes in their diets. Lentils, chickpeas, pinto beans, and split peas are great choices, whereas walnuts, pecans, pistachios, and almonds are the best nuts.
In total, no more than 30% of your budgie’s diet should come from fruits and vegetables, with the majority being vegetables. Use fruits as tasty treats.
What Foods Are Bad for Budgies?
Certain foods should be avoided by budgies. Most importantly, don’t feed your bird any meat or animal products (with the exception of eggs as occasional treats). Similarly, don’t feed them processed food, such as chips, soda, or candies.
Even certain fruits and vegetables should be avoided. Avocados, garlic, mushrooms, onions, and rhubarb should all be avoided for different reasons. Bread, chocolate, crackers, coffee, and caffeinated tea are other examples of no-nos for budgies.
Final Thoughts
Carrots are among the best vegetables to feed your budgie for a healthy diet and happy life. Incorporating these veggies into your pet’s diet is pretty easy. We recommend selecting high-quality carrots and cutting them up into smaller pieces. Most likely, your budgie will love these nutritious treats.
- Related Read: Budgie vs. Parakeet
Featured Image Credit: victoras, Shutterstock
