Lisa Shea Forums Parakeets General Parakeet Chat treats and toys

there are several reasons i dont like millet...first of all there is a better quality of millet in their normal seeds then from the sprays of millet which sorry to report are not of the freshest quality and dusty and the hulls are so tiny that many times more than not get trapped into the birds nares and they cant get rid of them causing at times ...stress annoyance and sometimes infections...also millet sprays are a fattening food source more like junk food junkies when we feed it...veggies have so much more benefit to feed or offer as treats especially when they see us making believe we are eating them also to encourage them to do the same...the nutritional values of fresh veggies far surpass anything millet sprays have to offer. Now if that isnt enough millet can and again most often will cause impacted crop when allowed to gorge upon too frequently

Hi Illusive. I must say, the cage you have is Beautiful. Where did you get it? That is exactly like the one I was talking about in my last post. It is perfect!! For what I am looking for. With lots of room to fly and play. And maybe if I had a taller cage Storm would feel more comfortable coming all the way out.

only place you can find that cage is online as stores do not sell them i got mine from ebay

Actually millet is low in fat but the problem is it is deficient in several amino acids and since they like it so much will tend to eat it over other seeds and get a nutritionally unbalanced diet. I got some nice fresh organic spray millet (it was either Higgins or Hagen I always get them confused) at a bird show, it was sold by Nite Owl Aviary (actually it was cheaper to buy a big box so former member here, Pudgies mom got one and gave me some as well as gave some to other friends). They get maybe 1 spray a month as a treat.

http://talkbudgies.com/showthread.php?p=432980

http://www.tailfeathersnetwork.com/community/showthread.php/13253-spray-millet

under what is the best cockatiel food you can also read how fattening millet is

http://www.letstalkbirds.com/cockatiels.htm

there are those who will say it isnt and those who will say it is i find it interesting that Kaytee really pushes that it isnt...

point is ..it is fed way to frequently and in abundance by far too many and it definetly doesnt have much going for it in nutrition either and it would be just simpler to offer something that is as a treat such as veggie and get the bird introduced to them at a early stage and once the bird begins on veggies ...to a bird a treat is a treat if it isnt the norm of every day foodstuffs...

and veggies wont get wedged and stuck into the birds nares ...causing something even more of a drawback with irratation excessive sneezing and even infection...

we are people of taking the easy way to most things and lets face it ..its simply way too easy to just snip a piece of millet and offer it but it doesnt take much to snip a piece of veggie and offer it as well...

some old time habits just need changing like getting rid of grit or sandpaper perches or cage liners for instance...

the feeding of millet needs to be toned down considerably...and each bird owner needs to realize this and take the entire picture into consideration and make wise choices