Finch Thread—Discuss and Show Off Your Birds

[BantyChooks]

At one time I had an entire flight transitioned onto the Zupreem fruit blend pellets formulated for the finches. All the birds seemed to get excited when I opened a bag. It’s very fragrant so I assume they were able to smell them. I do think seed is more natural for them, so I started adding the Zupreem and Roudybush pellets to their egg food that I made tubs of at a time and thawed. I have that recipe kicking around somewhere if I need to resurrect it. Lol

How often do you feed egg food to non-breeding birds? Some sources I've seen say to keep them on an austerity diet but that's far from universal it seems.
I just made up a large batch of veggie chop for the budgies and finches. They seem to like it alright, especially Charlotte, the female zebra.

 

[ColtHandorf]

How often do you feed egg food to non-breeding birds? Some sources I've seen say to keep them on an austerity diet but that's far from universal it seems.
I just made up a large batch of veggie chop for the budgies and finches. They seem to like it alright, especially Charlotte, the female zebra.

That just depends. I wasn't a huge fan of the Austerity diet. I did find in some species the egg food would cause them to double-clutch or wean too early to go back to nest. So for some species I really had to ration it. The Diamond Firetails are also little pigs, so they'd get so fat, even in big flights that their fertility would be off. So for breeding birds they got it daily. Non-breeding birds might get it once a week or so, and not as much.

Here's the "recipe" I followed, but I should mention that I did most of this by eye and when it looked right I was good. lol I didn't actually measure most of the ingredients.

- 24 Hard-boiled eggs
- Quiko's Classic dried eggfood (about as much dry of these two combined to equal the boiled egg, thus doubling the recipe)
- Quiko's Goldy eggfood
- Kaytee Exact Handfeeding Formula (1 tablespoon per egg)
- XS Zupreem Fruit Blend Pellets
- Roudybush Nibbles
- Perle Morbide pellets
- Omega One Freeze-dried Bloodworms
- Powdered Kelp
- Bee Pollen
- Dried Greens (offhand I forget the brand)
- Thawed frozen veggies (peas, carrots, green beans, broccoli)
- Any additional supplements or vitamins.

I just blitz everything (shell and all) in a large food processor and combine all ingredients in a large tub. I usually add a little finch seed too so that birds that aren't familiar with eggfood see something to draw them in. Kelp powder is used at a rate that doesn't color the eggfood green. That seems to put them off. All the bright colors and textures really seem to help draw them in. Sometimes I'd add live mealworms to the mixture. Phoenix worms can be added when the food is put out, but refrigeration (or freezing), kills them.

This looks like a boring mixture...probably one of the first large batches I made before I really got comfortable mixing and matching.

Roy Beckham has a simple recipe:

http://www.efinch.com/eggfood.htm

I prefer not to use any oil in the Texas heat.

 

[BantyChooks]

That just depends. I wasn't a huge fan of the Austerity diet. I did find in some species the egg food would cause them to double-clutch or wean too early to go back to nest. So for some species I really had to ration it. The Diamond Firetails are also little pigs, so they'd get so fat, even in big flights that their fertility would be off. So for breeding birds they got it daily. Non-breeding birds might get it once a week or so, and not as much.

Here's the "recipe" I followed, but I should mention that I did most of this by eye and when it looked right I was good. lol I didn't actually measure most of the ingredients.

- 24 Hard-boiled eggs
- Quiko's Classic dried eggfood (about as much dry of these two combined to equal the boiled egg, thus doubling the recipe)
- Quiko's Goldy eggfood
- Kaytee Exact Handfeeding Formula (1 tablespoon per egg)
- XS Zupreem Fruit Blend Pellets
- Roudybush Nibbles
- Perle Morbide pellets
- Omega One Freeze-dried Bloodworms
- Powdered Kelp
- Bee Pollen
- Dried Greens (offhand I forget the brand)
- Thawed frozen veggies (peas, carrots, green beans, broccoli)
- Any additional supplements or vitamins.

I just blitz everything (shell and all) in a large food processor and combine all ingredients in a large tub. I usually add a little finch seed too so that birds that aren't familiar with eggfood see something to draw them in. Kelp powder is used at a rate that doesn't color the eggfood green. That seems to put them off. All the bright colors and textures really seem to help draw them in. Sometimes I'd add live mealworms to the mixture. Phoenix worms can be added when the food is put out, but refrigeration (or freezing), kills them.

This looks like a boring mixture...probably one of the first large batches I made before I really got comfortable mixing and matching.

View attachment 2782878

Roy Beckham has a simple recipe:

http://www.efinch.com/eggfood.htm

I prefer not to use any oil in the Texas heat.

Great recipe, thanks.

 

[Serin]

I just crush up boiled button quail eggs shell and all in a dish once or twice a week for non-breeding birds.

 

[BantyChooks]

New finch cage. I have proper perches and dishes arriving in a week. I was caught unexpectedly by its arrival as it was supposed to take two more weeks to get here.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

I thought about getting zebras again but they cost more then budgies do this year

 

[Serin]

Add some silk ivy garlands and flowers in the bars, they love to play with them and it provides some cover.

 

[BantyChooks]

Add some silk ivy garlands and flowers in the bars, they love to play with them and it provides some cover.

I have some of that on order as well!

 

[ColtHandorf]

New finch cage.

I kept my parrot finches in flights like that. They seem to fly up and down as much as they do back and forth. Really busy little birds.

 

[BantyChooks]