FINCHforum

I am not a big fan of sprouting seed (I guess there's just not enough humidity in my house to get it to sprout all the way), so I bought some perle morbide a couple of days ago. Last night I added some of the dry mixture to my egg food, and gave it to my birds this morning before I left. I'll report back on whether or not they eat it. I'm really hoping they'll like it!

slwatson

So how did your Perle Morbide experiment go?

Sojourner

It looks to me like they're eating some of it....when I pick up the plates, there's not as much left. I need to offer it to the by itself and see how much they actually eat. Right now I'm adding it to their egg food.

I use several pellet and dry foods with my Zebras...
Lafaeber Finch granules, Zupreem original, Zupreem fruit, Perle Morbide

They are all pretty similar in prep except for the granules...

I use Perle Morbide and they enjoy it, but much like the others it depends on the way it's made....too wet, no good....too dry, no good....they enjoy it when it's more of a moist crumble.

I mix all these pelleted diets the same way...starting with soaking them in water in the desired amounts. Then I add the I add the following, in varying amounts for variety. Using all or some at any given time.....

Dry egg food
Boiled eggs
Chopped greens
Cous cous
Quinoa
vitamin/mineral supplements
egg shell
Calcium

I try and make it different each time....keeping it interesting....I also only offer it 2-3 times a week............removing it in an hour or two each time......

My only question is how does ground corn, wheat and oats replace completely a wide variety of sprouted seeds, like millet, canary grass, rape,nyger, quinoa etc?
Reading the ingredients it just seems like every other pellet just wet. I prefer to offer the wide variety and have never had a problem sprouting seeds. I think I will not change what works for me.
It will probably just end up like pellets for years vets said pellets only no seed. Then they did studies and found birds need the mental stimulation, we already took their wide range foraging away. So now vets wills say natural foods and variety with no more than 50% pellets.

Munialover

Honestly, my birds seems to really like it, and it has much more in it than just ground corn, wheats, and oats. My birds still get seed, so they have the mental stimulation, and they also get a large variety of other things. I'm sticking with the perle morbide.

Honestly it is all personal preference. It is a pellet with vitamins and extracts added. If your birds like it that's fine. I just prefer natural and can't have any gluten in my house. No not fad diet...Celiac.

My breeding societies eat it, but not my gouldians...so far.
I soak it overnight or about 8 hours, then I sprinkle it over their chopped hardboiled egg+veggies.

My gouldians still won't touch it.

I noticed that the perle morbide goes off way quicker, too. I normally mix eggs w/dry eggfood and spread it out so it dries quickly and can stay out all day. I had extra perle morbide pieces leftover in a dish sitting next to the cage after serving the eggfood mixture...the next morning, my sister told me "it smelled like garbage" upstairs and to my horror, the extra dish of leftover p.morbide had grown mold! So this happened within about a 24-hr period. To be fair, I'd image sprouted seed only stays good for so long, too. I've never experimented with it.

GouldieFledge wrote: My gouldians still won't touch it.

I noticed that the perle morbide goes off way quicker, too. I normally mix eggs w/dry eggfood and spread it out so it dries quickly and can stay out all day. I had extra perle morbide pieces leftover in a dish sitting next to the cage after serving the eggfood mixture...the next morning, my sister told me "it smelled like garbage" upstairs and to my horror, the extra dish of leftover p.morbide had grown mold! So this happened within about a 24-hr period. To be fair, I'd image sprouted seed only stays good for so long, too. I've never experimented with it.

it is corn based and dried corn can easily grow mold if wet.

I know this is an old thread, but I googled "Finch Forum Perle Morbide"
because I also received a free sample in an order from LadyGouldian. I googled it, and when I saw that it's corn, wheat, and oats, I thought the exact same thing, Munialover: "How can this replace sprouted seeds? It's nothing LIKE sprouted seeds - it's a pellet!" So I appreicate your asking the question.

Not saying it's not worth feeding, but I still don't understand how they can say it "replaces" sprouted seeds!

Munialover wrote: My only question is how does ground corn, wheat and oats replace completely a wide variety of sprouted seeds, like millet, canary grass, rape,nyger, quinoa etc?
Reading the ingredients it just seems like every other pellet just wet. I prefer to offer the wide variety and have never had a problem sprouting seeds. I think I will not change what works for me.
It will probably just end up like pellets for years vets said pellets only no seed. Then they did studies and found birds need the mental stimulation, we already took their wide range foraging away. So now vets wills say natural foods and variety with no more than 50% pellets.

I was caught by the picture of the bag.
It looked to me, like it is from a plant, NOT pellet.
So when I opened the bag, I was rather disappointed

But since I had it, I decided to give it a try.
So far, only the societies eat it, and they scarf it up.
Fire finch and gouldians seem to ignore it, at least there is a lot still in the dish when I go to clean it out.