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Not only seed!

While parakeets can live on seed alone, seed by itself is a high-fat food and should be supplemented with fresh veggies, fruits, pellets and the like.

In General

Currently, I feed my own flock the following mix:

• Nutriberries - Expensive but worth it to me, I will crush up nutriberries to include in my flocks' feed.
• Pellets - Parakeet pellets are teeny and tiny and colorful and my keets love them.  Search for parakeets among the results...you can also find them at places like PetSmart or Petco.  You can find an interesting article about them at Pellets or Supplements?
  
• Seed - Parakeet seed mixes like Kaytee or Avian Science can often be bought at pet stores or birdie stores.

• Healthy Food for your Parakeet
• Parakeet and Budgie Diets
• 800 numbers for Pellet manufacturers
• Pet Birds Diet FAQs
  

When you read articles about feeding parakeets on forums and the like, you'll always see postings about how much the author's budgies adore fruit and veggies.  I only wish mine would follow the same!  I've had some marginal success with getting my birdies to chow down on broccoli florets and ....well, that's it.  They turn their beaks up at grapes and apples and simply prefer the pellets.

Most annoying that is, let me tell you.

One thing I have had success in feeding my keets is whole-wheat bread (preferably toasted, as it makes for a nice beaky texture when being devoured).  This has given me a great usage for all those crusts that I have cut off from my kids' school sandwiches.

Another thing parakeets love is millet spray.  Millet, available in any pet store, is extremely high-fat and should only be used as a treat/reward.  You can clip it to the cage and let them go to town on it.

Make Your Own!

Would you believe, you can also cook and bake your own?  It's possible to make birdie muffins, bean mixes, salads and the like. 

Here are some useful resources for that:

• Cereals & Biscuits
• Breads & Muffins
• Cookies & Bars
• Casseroles & Bakes
• Fruits & Salads
• Pizzas & Popcorn
• Egg-Based Foods
• Bean-Based Foods
• Rice-Based Foods
• Potato-Based Foods
• Seeds & Sprouts
• Handfeeding Formulas
• Birdie Breads and Muffins
• Breakfast: Eggs, Pancakes, Waffles
• Desserts, Fruits, Drinks, Cool Things  
• Mineral Blocks, Cement Perches
• Cakes, Cookies, Pies & Pizza
• Soft Foods, Veggies, Grains, Sprouts  
• Tasty Treats
• Miscellaneous Recipes
  

Need more ideas?  There's even:

Birdie Feeding Forums

Check out these super resources:

• Feeding Feathers
• Bird Board Recipes
• Tailfeathers Homemake Food/toys
• The Perch Recipes
• Budgie Food and Nutrition
• Tailfeathers Eating
• Up at Six Avian Diets
  

Well let's see now.  We've covered budgie networking, cages, feeding and choosing - the next logical step for a wonderful parakeet experience is training and/or taming.  Let's now dash to: