Gravity Feed Hoppers with husk catcher

B CAMP · Post by **B CAMP** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 11:42 pm

They have hooks to hang in cage, the ones from just birds do

cntrymeadow · Post by **cntrymeadow** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 1:41 pm

Perfect.
Thanks!

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 2:29 pm

Hi Chris,

I ordered me one of those today to put into the new cage I bought Saturday. Thanks for posting.

BTW,,,, I haven't heard from Irene... how are the goulds?

Finch Fry · Post by **Finch Fry** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:29 pm

Np. I think these hoppers are a fantastic item at a great price. You can get them shipped from an online seller for under 10 dollars a piece or find them at your local shops for about 7 plus tax. I support local shops to some extent becasue thats all I have in the area, no marts or breeders, so i need to keep money flowing into the local places or I will have nothing.

Irene is back home in Florida for the time being. She is well and the gould status has not changed. Male is 100%, female is 100% minus being able to fly. No broken wings. She lost quite a few feathers. Irene has talked to Lorraine (sp?) from LG.com and called Floyd on his cell phone. Everyone says to give her 6 weeks to grow out feathers she lost plus rejuvenate herself with energy via vitamins etc. Floyd said if she is not flying by the next bird mart in April, to return to him and he will do an even swap.

I really want to say thanks for pointing us to Floyd over the other breeders at the mart. I am beyond pleased with my birds and his customer service towards Irene for this situation.

B CAMP · Post by **B CAMP** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 5:30 pm

Believe me all breeders are not like that wish I had one like that in florida

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 6:43 pm

Floyd is great. And he is a good person too. I am glad you were pleased with him.

Say hello to Irene for me and I hope the bird will be okay. She will probably not want to give it up.

BillD · Post by **BillD** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 10:39 pm

cntrymeadow wrote:Here we go!

seed hopper

I just ordered one of those for my cage. Thanks..

Finch Fry · Post by **Finch Fry** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:51 pm

Quick update. I had picked up 2 of these seed hoppers. The stars and gold breasts have accepted the hopper with the "stick some millet around it and put a feed dish in front of it for a week and then take it away but now they use the feed hopper" trick.

The zebras absolutely refused the seed hopper. I tried for a week and the others took to it. I will have a go at putting this in their cage again. I currently have the zebra cage empty.. except for the birds while i am cleaning things. So i might rearrange everything and hope the entire new set up makes them accept it.

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:09 am

Good luck with those stubborn zebras.

BillD · Post by **BillD** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:03 pm

Finch Fry wrote:Quick update. I had picked up 2 of these seed hoppers. The stars and gold breasts have accepted the hopper with the "stick some millet around it and put a feed dish in front of it for a week and then take it away but now they use the feed hopper" trick.

The zebras absolutely refused the seed hopper. I tried for a week and the others took to it. I will have a go at putting this in their cage again. I currently have the zebra cage empty.. except for the birds while i am cleaning things. So i might rearrange everything and hope the entire new set up makes them accept it.

thanks for that advice. I put the Goldenfeast Australian blend in mine and they have avoided it. May be wrong to introduce new food with it. The Australian blend doesn't flow very well in it.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 10:56 pm

FF
Couple things.
I noticed that whenever I changed the feed tray, especially if it had a top. The finches would be very hesitant about going in. I figured that the top would make an escape difficult, which is why they didn't like going in. So it may simply be giving them time to adjust to a hopper where they have to stick their head inside.

Or...
You could try the same technique as introducing new food, or the variation that I used when I converted them to pellets.

I removed the seed tray just before lights-out, leaving just the pellet tray.
In the morning, I would wait 2 hours after lights-on before putting the seed tray in.
Over about 2 weeks I gradually increased the time that I put the seed tray in from the initial 2hrs to about 4 or 5 hours.
At that point they would eat the pellets w/o problem, even with a seed tray in the cage. Before this, they simply ignored the pellets.

So you could remove the seed trays, leaving the hopper.
Then in the morning put the seed tray in after a couple hours, gradually increasing the amount of time, so if they are hungry, they would have to eat out of the hopper.

Since you work away from home, you would have to do this on the weekend. And with only 2 days at a time, it may take several weeks of doing this.

Finch Fry · Post by **Finch Fry** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 4:22 pm

The hopper/seed dish in front method failed again after this whole week. Not a single husk in the catcher.

This weekend, I am going to remove all sources of seed except for the seed hopper. I will be around and monitor them all weekend. If they have not eaten after 2-4 hrs, I will take a small 1 inch piece of millet and stick it into the seed tray. They go bonkers for this stuff. It will not be enough to satisfy their hunger, but it will hopefully trian them to move ot that area for food. Hopefully I can break them this weekend and get them on that hopper. Makes extended aways much easier.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 11:23 pm

I feed mine pellets, so I will have to do similar with a tube feeder or try the hopper, for any time we will be away from home for more than a day.

cntrymeadow · Post by **cntrymeadow** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:19 am

I have 4 cages and ordered 4 hoppers....
the hoppers are inside the cage along with ONE additional feed cup.
I didnt want to have the hoppers only in case they would not accept and eat out of the hopper.

Societies (mating pair w/2 juvies) - seed husks in bottom of hopper so they are eating out of it.

Gouldians (male/female) - not hardly. They prefer the seed cup.

Zebra (mating pair) - seed husks in the bottom of hopper so they are eating out of it.

Zebras (4 months old) - They have no problem eating out of the hopper!

It was my hope to have hoppers only in the cages but Im afraid to take out the additional seed cups in case they wont convert. I dont want them to starve.

L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:32 am

All my finches have adapted easily to these seed-hoppers - EXCEPT for my waxbills. Strawberries and Fire Finches won't touch them - I figure they are too small as birds to stick their heads that far in to get the seeds...?

Otherwise everyone is happy taking seed from these and all babies quickly learn from the parents to use these as they wean.