Pet budgies mainly eat pellets. But twenty to forty percent of their diet contains vegetables, fruits, and seeds. Raspberries are a common fruit that you may want to feed your budgie.
But the question is can budgies eat raspberries? Yes, they absolutely can. You can mix some raspberries into their food or just give a few raspberries as snacks. Fresh fruit is a great addition to a budgie’s diet. But don’t go overboard and give them only raspberries as fruit. Budgies are small, delicate birds requiring a diverse diet for nutrition. So giving them only raspberries as fruit is not advisable.
In this article, we will talk about how much raspberries budgies can eat, how to prepare the raspberries, and raspberry’s nutritional value.
Can You Feed Raspberries To Budgies?
Raspberries are completely safe to feed to budgies. And any other pet bird.
If you have become a newly budgie owner, then you must know about their diet. They eat sixty to eighty percent of pallets which are a large portion of their diet. And the rest, twenty to forty percent, consists of various kinds of vegetables, fruits, and seeds. Raspberries fit pretty well with this twenty to forty percent mixture of various foods.
Raspberries are highly nutritious fruits. They have a lot of important minerals and vitamins that will enhance the quality of your budgie’s diet. Raspberries are quite tasty; once your budgie eats them, they will get excited with joy every time they see the fruit.
Your budgie will love raspberries, but don’t overfeed them. Overfeeding a single fruit may lead to an upset stomach. And in case your budgie doesn’t like raspberries, just let them be; there are plenty of other fruits that you can try. So make sure to keep a balanced diet for your budgie.
You can give them raspberry in snacks every day, every other day, or two days a week. Use a try to give the fruit and take put the try when your budgies are done eating. Wash the try properly so that bacteria doesn’t form there because you’re going to use the same tray again.
And don’t go cooking or boiling the fruit to feed them. That will take away the nutritional value from it. Always use raw and fresh fruit to feed your budgie.
Here is a video of a bunch of cute little budgies munching on raspberries:
Do Budgies Like Raspberries?
Budgies love raspberries!
Raspberries are perfect in every aspect to include in your budgie’s diet. They are sweet in taste, so budgies like the taste of raspberries.
Remember, too much natural sugar is not good for your budgie.
Health Benefits For Budgies Eating Raspberries
Raspberries are highly nutritious fruit. They contain multiple vitamins and minerals that are given below:
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin B
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin K
- Iron
- Calcium
- Zinc
- Phosphorus
- Potassium
- Magnesium
- Copper
- Selenium
- Manganese
These vitamins and minerals are crucial for your budgie’s health.
What health benefits do raspberries provide to budgies? They improve the heart health of your budgie. Improved heart health leads to longevity. So your budgie will have a longer life thanks to raspberries.
Raspberries increase the bone strength of your budgie. So your budgie will not suffer from the brittle bone issue.
And another important health benefit of feeding raspberries to your budgie is that it supports and strengthens the immunity system. Immunity is very crucial for delicate bird-like budgies. Strong immunity means they are less likely to get sick and live a healthy life.
Health Risks For Budgies Eating Raspberries
Raspberries are a sugary fruit. So there is a high chance your budgie will love raspberries. And because your love your budgie so, you might end up overfeeding raspberries to them just to make them happy.
Overfeeding raspberries or any other fruit is a big no. It may lead to an upset stomach of your budges.
Apart from that, there is no risk or bad effect for budgies eating raspberries.
How Much Raspberries Should Budgies Eat?
It is recommended to feed ten to fifteen percent of fruit to the budgie. So you can include raspberries in a very small amount to that ten to fifteen percent.
Remember, raspberries or any other fruits are snacks for budgies; they are not the main meal.
How Do You Prepare Raspberries For Budgies?
Preparing raspberries for a budgie is quite easy. Just make sure you pick fresh and organic raspberries and wash them properly so that no dust or dirt sticks to them.
Try to avoid giving dried raspberries to your budgie. Because they usually use chemicals to preserve them, which may be harmful to your budgie.
You can chop the raspberries into small pieces so that your budgie can easily munch on them.
Remember, fruits and vegetables rot very quickly. So pay attention and take out any leftover raspberries from your budgie’s cage. Raspberries or any other fruit left for a long time inside a cage may lead to the sickness of your bird. Because leftover fruit quickly gets mold and bacterial growth.
Can You Feed Raspberries To Baby Budgies? If So, How?
Yes, you can feed raspberries to baby budgies. Though it is not essential to feed fruits to baby birds but getting some fruits into their diet is a good idea.
Try to add a very small amount of chopped-up raspberries into the vegetable mix and see how it goes. Because of the sweetness of the raspberries, baby budgie would love the fruit-vegetable mix.
Alternatives of Raspberries
Even though most budgies love raspberries, there are budgies who don’t like them. One of the reasons is raspberries are red in color. There are some buddies who don’t like the color red.
Doesn’t matter what the reason is if your budgie doesn’t like raspberries, don’t force them to eat them. There is plenty of alternative to raspberries that you can try. Some of the alternatives are:
- Gooseberries
- Strawberries
- Cherries
- Blueberries
- Cranberries
- Blackberries
- Pear
- Mango
- Kiwi
- Banana
- Apple
- Pineapple
- Tomato
- Melon
Fruits Budgie Should Not Eat
Now that we are talking about alternatives to raspberries, it is better to mention some fruits that budgie should not eat. It is so that you don’t end up feeding the wrong fruit to your precious budgie trying to replace raspberries.
- Date
- Avocado
- Lime
- Green tomato
- Pips
- Grapefruit
- Lemon
- Rhubarb
You can feed them apples but not apple seed. So take out the seed when you give them an apple.
Citrus fruits are allowed for budgies, but you might want to avoid citric fruit because many budgies have difficulty digesting citric acid.
FAQs
Here is some question that we frequently get asked regarding if you can feed raspberries to budgies or not.
Yes, there are many nutritional benefits of feeding raspberries to budgies. Strong immunity, improved heart health, and strong bones are some of them.
Yes, research shows raspberries can lower budgie’s oxidative stress.
Conclusion
We hope you got your answer about can budgie eat raspberries or not. Raspberries are tasty and nutritious fruit for budgies, so there is no reason to avoid them.
Unless there is a specific health issue your budgie has that requires them to avoid sugary fruit, or they don’t like the red color of raspberries. In that case, you have multiple alternatives of raspberries for your budgie.
Just make sure to add ten to fifteen percent of fruits with your pet parakeet’s snack, and don’t go overboard with feeding them fruits. Raspberries and any other fruit may cause an upset stomach if overfed.
Do you know if your budgies can eat chicken or sunflower seeds? Read our articles about it to learn more.