A Big Surprise For Owners of Australian Parrots & Budgerigars.

There’s no such thing as an Australian fruit or vegetable!

Yes, it’s true Australian birds in the wild never ate fruits and vegetables because until 1788 there weren’t any!

It comes as a surprise to many Australian parrot owners to hear that before white settlement, a mere 200 years ago, there were no fruits and vegetables in Australia. Everything we white Australians eat originally came from other continents. But, Australian parrots had been eating eucalyptus barks, saps and leaves for several millions of years before white man came to Australia and they still do! The trees are still here and the birds are still here!

That’s not to say that our birds won’t eat fruits & vegetables. They do and some parrots love them. In fact some species are recognized as pests in Australia because they raid vegetable gardens and orchards. But did you know that they also raid commercial eucalyptus plantations too? This is because they need the goodness that’s contained within those eucalyptus trees. It’s natural to them because they evolved alongside these trees and their digestive systems are designed to cope with eucalyptus leaves, barks and saps.

Here’s a list of fruits, vegetables & cereals that are not Australian and were never seen on the entire Australian continent until after white settlement in the year 1788. The list is far from complete but we challenge anybody to find a readily available Australian fruit or vegetable.

Fruits:

Apples	Cherries	Grapefruit	Mandarins	Peaches	Raspberries
Apricots	Currants (any)	Jackfruit	Melons	Pears	Star fruit
Bananas	Fejoas	Kiwi Fruit	Nectarines	Plums	Strawberries
Blueberries	Grapes	Lychees	Oranges	Rambutans	Tomato

Vegetables:

Asparagus	Cabbages	Cucumber	Parsnip	Rutabagas
Beets	Carrots	Lettuce	Potatoes	Spinach
Broccoli	Cauliflower	Onions	Radishes	Zucchinis

Cereals:

Corn

Maize

Rice

Rye

Wheat

We don’t advise against giving your parrots any of these foods, we just thought you’d find it interesting. So...what do you think Australian parrots and cockatoos have been supplementing their diets with for all these millions of years?

Yes, you guessed it, Eucalyptus.

So what’s native to Australia that we eat today? Well’ we’re sorry to have to admit it but only the Macadamia nut and that was first cultivated by the Americans in Hawaii in the 1920s.

A word about bird cage toys:

No matter what we do for our pet bird, the inside of the bird cage can never even come close to a pet bird’s natural environment. No matter what kind of pet bird you have, in the wild it would never have seen anything like the kind of bird toy you usually find in most pet stores these days.

Smooth blocks and balls in unfamiliar geometric shapes made in carpenters workshops from woods that don't exist in the wild bird’s natural habitat can’t be ideal for any cage bird. To top it off they’re then dipped in unnatural (and sometimes toxic) chemical dyes. How can they be healthy items for inclusion in a bird cage?

Do your bird a favour. No matter what kind of pet bird you have - try to get hold of some of the tree branches or leaves it would normally come across in nature. Just watching your bird enjoy itself will reward you.

Remember the toy is for your pet bird. Bird cages and bird toys are not supposed to be there as ornaments for us humans to look at. If your pet bird is a budgie then try toys made from the Eucalyptus trees that the wild birds (budgies) live with in their natural environment. Click here for natural budgie toys.

Budgerigar Diet

Budgies in the wild eat both ripe and unripe seeds. The reason for the consumption of unripe seeds is that they carry more assimilable lysine. You can, in part, duplicate this situation at home with your pet budgie by giving him/her grass seeds from your gardens. Wild budgerigars feed upon grass seeds; mainly on the ripening seeds of the Australian Spinifex and the Mitchell grass which they supplement on a daily basis with Eucalyptus leaves, buds and bark. They sometimes also feed on a few other plants depending on where they are.

The reason for this is that wild budgies are nomadic and don't always come across the same vegetation every day. Territorial birds diets are fixed by what is available in their territory but the budgie has to adapt and this is part of what has made it such a popular pet. Anywhere in the world it's possible to find a diet budgies can exist on.

Being able to exist though, doesn't necessarily mean that the budgie is at its happiest or healthiest. However, as long as you try to stick as closely as possible to what natural budgies consume your pet bird should have a long and happy life.
Pre packaged bird seed differs from country to country depending on what's available but here are the ingredients you should be looking for on the package: plain canary seed, oats, milled millets including white millet, pannicum millet, Japanese millet and French millet. Budgies can also benefit from seeds of the sunflower, safflower, wheat, buckwheat and maize.

If you want to mix your own feed a basic mix would consist of 40 % canary seed, 20 % pannicum millet, 20 % French millet, and 20 % oats. Pretty simple isn’t it? Don't forget that your bird also needs dietary fiber in the form of green stuff and they find lettuce or dandelion leaves appealing.

However, if you give your budgie a Eucalyptus leaf or two per day that’s all the green stuff it needs to get all the trace elements, minerals and amino acids it requires. Eucalyptus leaves are also the original budgie medicinal tonic. They act as mite deterrents. They’re bacteriocidal too and act against internal (gut) parasites so they keep your pet healthy. Click here for natural Eucalyptus leaves.