No matter how you feed your budgies, at some point you probably end up with a bunch of seed hulls. Mixed in with those seed hulls are unwanted seed and maybe some pellets, dried fruits and veggies and herbs, depending on your preferred brand
- Use them as a fun enrichment. I feed Toby and Kelly 2 tablespoons each of a mix of the following every morning: Dr. Harvey’s parakeet blend
, Volkman Avian Science Super Parakeet
and Harrison’s High Potency Super Fine Pellets
. Even though it’s only 2 tablespoons per day, there’s always some leftover. They especially do not like the sesame seeds in the Dr. Harvey’s, and they are still getting used to the pellets. So, every morning when I refresh I put the leftovers into a Tupperware container that I keep on my kitchen counter next to the seed mix.
There’s still a ton of great stuff in there! So, I use it as an opportunity for foraging enrichment. Either I pour some on top of a fruit or vegetable I’m getting them to try, or a little bit on a flat plate really gets them excited. For a super fun Saturday I pour a good 1/4 inch onto a plate and let them go crazy. They really love digging through the discards and finding delectable morsels they missed the first time around, and I love getting just a little more use out of the good quality food I spent my money on!
- When you are truly done with the discards, throw what you’ve collected over the week outside for the outdoor birds and squirrels. I have two squirrels right now in my backyard digging through my budgies leftovers. It’s winter so I’m sure they are happy to have the little bit of extra food. Soon the birds will come and pick through the rest. What my picky eaters are too good for turns into a treat for wild birds.
and 
. Even though it’s only 2 tablespoons per day, there’s always some leftover. They especially do not like the sesame seeds in the Dr. Harvey’s, and they are still getting used to the pellets. So, every morning when I refresh I put the leftovers into a Tupperware container that I keep on my kitchen counter next to the seed mix. I’m sure it doesn’t mean much to them, but in a “waste not want not” kind of way it makes me feel good not to put usable seeds and pellets into the trash.
Does anyone else use their discarded seeds and hulls for anything? If you’ve got ideas I’d love to hear them! Otherwise, if you’re throwing out uneaten seeds on a regular basis I hope you’ll consider saving them for foraging, either for your budgies or the outdoor birds.
come in two colors, blue and pink, one with a blue budgie and one with green, so if you’ve got one of the more standard color budgies there’s a pair for you! I purchased both pairs because why not. I should perhaps mention that I have a pre-existing penchant for purchasing novelty socks which may have influenced my impulse spending. I anxiously awaited the arrival of my new socks and eagerly ripped open the package as soon as they hit my doorstep. I was very pleased with their feel, made of 68% bamboo they were very soft before even washing. I always wash new clothing before wearing, so I threw them in the laundry and kept my fingers crossed that they wouldn’t fall apart immediately. One never can be certain of quality with a novelty sock purchase. Happily they made it through and came out even softer on the other side. I washed on delicate and then tumbled dry with low heat. There’s probably not much call to talk about laundry products on a budgie blog, but since all of the humans and birds in my house are sensitive to products with fragrance, we use 
, and add 
as a fabric softener. Since we are totally unscented and trying to avoid chemicals for both the human and budgie inhabitants we use 
to help with static cling in the dryer. Sorry for the tangent! I get kind of preachy about scented laundry products because it’s one area that a lot of people don’t think of where they are adding unnecessary fragrance to their lives every day. With increasing numbers of people walking around with chemical sensitivity it’s incumbent on all of us to think about what we’re putting out into everyone’s airspace. Now I’m sorry for that tangent! Back to the cute budgie socks! 
I did not actually mix and match my budgie socks but they do look sort of cute together, so no judgement if you go for it!
it came with a set of plastic trough style 
, which I knew immediately I wasn’t going to use. Not only do plastic feeders encourage bacteria growth, but they were also difficult to get in and out of the cage. In fact, I’m not sure how you would keep water clean in them at all without quite a bit of difficulty. So, I bought a set of my preferred 
, put away the plastic tray feeders and didn’t think about them again for a few months.
and 
. All together it’s a bunch of little items with different shapes, sizes and textures as well as varying degrees of difficulty to pick up and throw.
