"LindaY"  wrote in message
news:1107787156.579309.86520{at}g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> >  Birds
> >  eat seed in the wild so it's a fair assumption it's a natural diet.
>
> It is. The problem with seed, the vet explained to me, is that it's
> fattening. Birds in the wild get lots of exercise looking for food, and
> caring for themselves and their offspring and burn those calories. Pet
> birds *in general* just sit in a cage. The all-seed diet leads to
> obesity and/or liver disease. I had a budgie who died from hepatitis
> which the vet told me was caused by the all-seed diet.
>
> On the other hand I had a half-American/half-English budgie who lived
> until age 9 on pretty much an all-seed diet (he would not eat pellets
> and always seemed afraid of human food; I could get him to eat white
> rice in chicken soup but that's about it).
>
> Linda

Just like us (we're all animals) it's not the same from one body to the next
obviously. It depends on the bird/seed combination. My budgie became a
little chubby on one kind of seed, so I switched him to another and he
slimmed down to a perfect weight, and his activity level went up. Lived to
11 on an all seed diet (with occasional veggies).

Dave






>




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