Birds r us seed

[Perfex]

Tiffany, your web site is very impressive and the quality of your birds is inspiring. I read through many of your care articles and have learned a lot and this has enabled me to raise the bar on my bird care and cleanliness. Thank you. I see you are a BRU supplier too. I will purchase my next batch of seed from you.

[nixity]

The size of the safflower seeds freak me out. There are too many of them in the mix to pull out. I will switch to another seed mix for sprouting once I run out of the stuff.

Yeah - some peeps with the larger finches like Javas and Saffrons like it because their birds will eat it. I've seen Societies and Gouldians chew off the sprouted bits and I had ONE Gouldian would actually hull and eat the Safflower but that was it.

I battled with it for about a year with trying to strain them out or just suck it up and deal with them until I spoke with Bill and he assured me I could use the Maintenance Blend for sprouting and that it would be an okay substitute.

[nixity]

Thanks Nixity, that makes sense and there's no point wasting seed. Perhaps the safflower is in there for other Australian species?

Yes - it's designed so that it can be used for the whole gamut of grassfinches as well as grasskeets - so the safflower is in there so that Australian Grasskeets owners can use it as well. In general the birds will pick around it but I have a slight case of OCD so they made me a little crazy. LOL

I dont like the filler stuff in the eggfood mix. Huge Thanks for the tips!!

I'm not sure what you mean? At the risk of sounding like I'm tooting a horn, there is no filler in the SoftFood. This second generation formula is the result of 5 years of field research and each ingredient in it brings something unique to the formula that when combined with the dry seed/sprouted seed blends presents the breadth of nutrients available in the foods wild Gouldians are eating as best as they understand at this point in time.

(Foods that are also available to wild Zebras, Crimson finches, Owl finches, Longtails, Masked finches, Chestnut Breasted and Yellow Rumped Mannikins, Star finches, i.e., all the finches in the Gouldians range)..
So.. probably very close to ideal for most finches from around the world (plus the addition of live food as necessary). This is why Russell Kingston uses this SoftFood for his collection of finches and softbills from many parts of the world.

In 2008 at STGF they were experimenting with both carrots and peas in the formula. Three years later pea meal appeared in the new formula but not carrots. We can't be sure why until Dr. Pryke publishes a paper (those are the rules) but Sarah has an $8M molecular lab where they study the Gouldian metabolism and body development through all life stages more closely than any avian species has ever been studied short of the chicken (power of the poultry industry, and probably not always to the chickens benefit!).

Birds R Us products are actually being introduced to zoo and university programs here in the states based on the now academically known weight of the STGF research.

I'm wondering if you're assessing the ingredients in the SoftFood based on how they would apply to human or other animal nutrition, not necessarily finches?

[nixity]

Tiffany, your web site is very impressive and the quality of your birds is inspiring. I read through many of your care articles and have learned a lot and this has enabled me to raise the bar on my bird care and cleanliness. Thank you. I see you are a BRU supplier too. I will purchase my next batch of seed from you.

Thank you

It's a constant work in progress... *sigh*

[Perfex]

Hi Tiffany,
Yes, I was considering the pea meal as a filler. I guess ( sheepish look on my face) I'm using my dog food knowledge where it is used as a bulk up type ingredient in Lieu of corn etc where the public has started to shun corn based formulas.
I knew there was a fair amount of research done but not to the extent that you have described. It's very impressive. Thank you for enlightening me.

[fabulousfinch]

Hi Michelle,

I saw your conversation with Tiffany about fillers in the STGF Softfood and here is a short story about the Birds R Us products:

I'm friends with Mike Fidler and I wanted the Softfood for my birds. Then the folks I sold birds to wanted the Softfood, so I struck up a deal with Mike to sell the Softfood commercially and donate $1 per Kg to the STGF for each box sold.

The agreement was that I could only sell the Softfood if I used the exact formula that is used at the STGF (no watered down commercial version allowed). So there is no marketing consideration as to the final retail price based on input ingredients.

If the Softfood were going through normal distribution channels to a pet store the retail price would be approximately $50 per Kg. But its just my wife and I and we're a small shop (FDA approved) selling directly and through Tiffany and LadyGouldian.com, so the price is more reasonable as there are no middlemen distribution companies involved plus the markup of bricks and mortar pet shops.

So the Softfood often gets compared to other commercial softfoods/eggfoods due to the similarity in retail price even though the ingredients cost twice as much. We'll never become a big company without national distribution, but I doubt it would sell at $50 per Kg, so we're happy with things the way they are

Bill