Taking a poll

[Harley2013]

How many of you toss your dishes of seed each day, OR blow out husks and replace with what's left? What do you think is better and why?

[KarenB]

I toss mine, and I probably waste a lot of good seed, but for me I don't have much time in the mornings to stop and blow hulls out. Plus, if they have pooped in the dish, you don't want to leave that in there.

[David]

I agree. Each day I toss the dishes of seed away, because they sometime poop inside the food feeders, you don't want them continue to eat it for next meal and contaminated by any moist. I usually clean the dishes by washing it and refill seed in the dishes twice a day, some of the birds more messy than others; so depends on them, I didn't even see any poop in 10 of my finches' dishes, what I do is just throw the leftover seed away and put more seed in it. Some other finches even poop in it just an hour after I put the dishes in with seed! So I think it's better to toss away the leftover each day rather than let them consume more from the contaminated seed! Because you don't want them have any risk of healthy problems in the future in long term.

[MiaCarter]

I use a spoon to scoop out all the hulls a few times throughout the day.

I use big bowls, so they only eat about a third of what's in there so it wouldn't make sense for me to dump them entirely.

I toss the hulls outside for the birds, as I tend to scoop out a bit more than necessary.

[Elsidewe]

it depends on how much good seeds are left.... i normally blow and add new seeds..
but if you dont have time put small amounts of seeds and then every other day toss and replace.

[Sheather]

I use large catfood dishes for seed, they hold a few days worth of food for all the birds together. I pick up the bowls every morning and open a window in another room and just blow the hulls outside to be carried off in the wind. If there's a dropping in the bowl, I'll scoop that out alongside the seeds by it. I wash the bowls roughly weekly, after all the seed is eaten. I also feed a lot of pellets, though, and sometimes pull the bowl entirely for a day here and there to make sure they're eating enough of them and getting a balanced diet.

[sundancekid]

I only have 3 birds and I know they're not eating all the seed during the day so I try to salvage what I can. I was blowing away the hulls, but I'm going to switch to scooping. Yesterday one blew right into my eye.... Took me a few minutes to get it out and it hurt SO bad. Bw careful if you decide to use this method.

[monotwine]

I use large gravity feeders. Works for a large aviary set up and I only need to refill twice a week. The feeders have a catch tray below and the birds rummage through there for anything they want. What is left gets given to the wild birds. No wastage, just re-purposed! wild birds are never as picky as my spoilt brats and will eat anything.

[Harley2013]

Gravity feeders are what I may need, i have double flight and many seed dishes. To collect them and take them out each night to blow hulls is a pain I am finding. I will look into this. Anywhere to but them that they are reasonable?

[MiaCarter]

Harley2013 -- This site is super affordable.
http://www.thefinchconnections.com/

[ppg5tu]

Harley2013

You should use the vacation seed feeders. You don't have to worry about seed husks and you can hang them from the outside so that you can empty the bottom collection tray without going in the cage. You also can refill it without ever going in there. It's soooooo much better than dishes and they don't seem to poop while feeding.


http://glamgouldians.com/product-plasticfeeder.php

[Harley2013]

Thank you Phil and Mia! I will look at both sites. The problem with the vacation feeders on the outside of the cage, is I need one that will work with the verticle bars. I have a double flight. Outside the cage would really be ideal, because the goldfinches are so skittish, I'm afraid of them escaping.

[Colt]

Those feeders also have hooks on the "back" of the feeder to allow them to hang from the horizontal support bars in the flight cages. That's an awful picture in the ad, but you can see them set up in a cage here:

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=30124

They really are fabulous. I had no idea how much seed I was wasting until I switched a few cages over to this style feeder. Nothing is more rewarding than dumping that little drawer and it only having hulls in it.

[Harley2013]

This is would imagine cuts down in the seed mess blowing onto the floor as well? Great picture! I will have to invest in these! Thank you Colt.

[Colt]

Absolutely it cuts down on the mess, unless the drawer gets full. Then when they hull the seed it will sit on top of the grate and get blown around when they fly on and off the feeder.

They really do work great. I just ordered 10 more. The only downside to them in the cage is the birds can sit on top of the feeder. Of course they poop on it and then you have to clean it but it's worth it to not waste half a bowl of seeds every time you feed them.