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From: susans@cfi.COM (susans)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: INDOOR:  Need advice for the purchase of bird supplies.
Message-ID: <958@cfiprod.UUCP>
Date: 19 Nov 90 15:24:50 GMT
References: <962@babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu> <9003@cognos.UUCP> <273716A3.4683@intercon.com> <9033@cognos.UUCP> <2741C060.5FA1@intercon.com> <3102@lectroid.sw.stratus.com> <9054@cognos.UUCP>
Reply-To: susans@cfiprod.UUCP (Susan Scheide -CFI-)
Organization: Consumer Financial Institute, Waltham, Mass.
Lines: 36

In article <9054@cognos.UUCP> stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) writes:
>In article <3102@lectroid.sw.stratus.com> mm@lectroid.sw.stratus.com (Mike Mahler) writes:
->>	Mikki's got a good point here.  The are some seed diets that
->>	are great for SOME birds.  My folks have always had parakeets
->>	that live to 12 years feeding ONLY Hartz Mountain seed mix
->>	and lettuce.  I doubt my nape would do well on this, in fact
->>	he hasn't
>
->   I will assume that you are talking about budgies when you say parakeets
->(please correct me if I am wrong).  I think you must keep in mind that
->the budgie has been a domesticated 'parrot' for a very long time (centuries).
->It has been 'tuned' to live off a simple diet.  While I'll bet that they
->can get some benefit from a 'more than just seed' diet, the difference
->isn't going to be great.  The caged budgie comes from generations of seed
->eaters and has become quite hardy.  In addition, budgies are desert birds
->to begin with.  These two factors, I believe, make them somewhat unusual


	Stewart:  I have read and found very useful all of your postings,
	and now have a question: aren't cockatiels from the same area
	that budgies are?  Therefore, wouldn't their native diet be very
	similar to the native diet of budgies?  Also, haven't cockatiels
	been domesticated for a long, long time?  My bird came from
	Maine!

	I have been able to get my budgies and cockatiels to eat broccoli
	and a little spinach, but never any fruit.  I feed them a mixed
	seed mixture--the budgies is fortified with SuperPreen powder, and
	I give the cockatiels SuperPreen seedlets with their seed (they now 
	scream out "Wanna treat" when I shake the bottle).
	Is that reasonably sufficient?

-- 
                        Susan S. (susans@cfi.com)

                        Another Friend of Bill's