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Thread ID: 103201	2009-09-15 08:29:00	Do people feed their budgies lettuce?	ssssss (2100)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
810486	2009-09-15 08:29:00	I do. My budgies love it. But I have heard some reports that it is bad for them. This month's Pet magazine for instance. And my neighbour is hassling me not to, because his vet said it was bad. I did a bit of a web check, and many people say it is alright. It doesn't do mine any harm! They also like cabbage which is another no-no, I believe. I think I will let them make up their own minds. They also love brocolli.	ssssss (2100)
810487	2009-09-15 08:57:00	They love chickweed too and that's good for them. Hope you have been enjoying this glorious Nelson weather SSSSSS	gary67 (56)
810488	2009-09-15 09:24:00	Before my mum passed away she had a budgie. The bird loved lettuce! I have to assume that the bird knew what was okay for it.	Greg (193)
810489	2009-09-15 09:24:00	Hi Gary67, Yes, We are lucky to live in Nelson. Spring is nice too with the daffs and magnolia trees and new growth. Hope you are enjoying the bush. Have you managed to get away?	ssssss (2100)
810490	2009-09-15 09:40:00	The 1st link Googling "budgie lettuce" www.letstalkbirds.com seems to suggest lettuce is OK but little food value. Silverbeet is just as easy to grow.	PaulD (232)
810491	2009-09-15 16:03:00	MY mom raised them by the hundreds in Key West, Florida, and when they got lettuce, every once in a while we'd have some that would evert an intestine (the intestine actually hangs out of the vent: commonly called : PROLAPSE) resulting in a long, slow and painful death . Most recently my wife had the same experience with her: "Mr . Blue" who was just learning to say a sentence or two . It took him a full week to die, just sitting there, eyes squeezed shut, feathers all fluffed out and standing on one foot with his intestine hanging out . Lettuce is a very powerful laxative both for humans and non-ruminant animals and I've raised enough chickens and turkeys to honestly say that constipation is NOT much of a problem for most dinner fowl . Quite the opposite! I say it's better to NOT give them lettuce since it was introduced into the New World by Christopher Columbus, and is NOT native to the area from where they originally came: Australia (IE: The Australian Rosellas and Grasskeets) . Don't let the Psittacula genus and other offshoot lines of the parakeet-like birds from Africa confuse you as these are not true Parakeets, but are mostly Conures and g:Aratinga, Pyrrhura, (Antique-S . American) and a few other generas of the tribe Arini . True Parakeets are not from indigenous zones where lettuce was originally found nor cultivated until after the 15th Century, So I would say that eating lettuce is not natural, although it is a well-liked but badly tolerated "snack food" by them .	SurferJoe46 (51)
810492	2009-09-15 17:30:00	<edit> I forgot I knew this stuff! Must be getting "old-timer's" disease .	SurferJoe46 (51)
810493	2009-09-16 00:07:00	All birds like their greens but they are not clever enough to know what is good for them and what is not. I feed my canary a broad leafed weed that my father called rarake and others call puha. My canary loves it! He demolishes it in no time. Have you ever seen a canary with a green beak? When we kept budgies, we fed them the same greens, and they devoured it rapidly as well. Like all other foods, birds should not be given large quantities of greens, but little and occasionally.	Roscoe (6288)
810494	2009-09-16 01:44:00	I suppose think what the budgie eats in the GAFA (Great Australian **** all) before the Euros pitched up. I reckon they wouldnt get much greenery in the GAFA.	prefect (6291)
810495	2009-09-16 02:06:00	To be kind to your feathered critters, always put just a tiny dash of Vegemite on their greens. Too much, and they will be wrestling the bars apart and eating your cat. (Students eat Vegemite before wrestling bars apart. Cats are an unknown factor in this case.)	R2x1 (4628)
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