FINCHforum

I just realized that I don't know if I am feeding my new finches correctly. And I can't find much info on these finches.
I am feeding the same seed mix that the prior owner gave them. She gave me a small barrel of seeds, maybe 5 pounds.
But what else? I tired egg food, but they ignored it, so far.
Canary seeds? More protein than the avg seeds, I think.

My Fire finches eat a good finch seed mix quite well. I think the most important thing is to give them a varied diet. You can keep trying the eggfood, they may eat it after a bit. You can also try making the eggfood drier or wetter (my birds prefer it fairly dry). Most all of my birds will eat Miracle Meal very well. Try them on all kinds of veggies, too. Most of them like broccoli or dark greens, but not all mine will eat carrots. I have just started adding plain canary seed to my seed mix--some of my birds eat it, and with others, I find a bunch of uneaten canary seed on the floor below the seed hopper, so they are tossing it.

Thanks Sally
I had not thought of Miracle Meal.
That will help get food in the green twinspot that is fluffed up.
She is picking thru the seed mix throwing seeds all over, to the point that I don't know what seed she is eating.

ac12..

I found that throughout the year, they kind of self adjust what they prefer. One constant is CHIA.. they seem to go nuts for it and usually go there 1st then tackle common seed.

They really don't seem to like dried insect mixes much but will take it time to time if no live food is available.

Try Chia, it's one of the best seeds available period and the fire's definitely seem to enjoy it. Definitely expensive but worth it.

Where do I find chia?

I probably have to order it.
But there is a bird mart tomorrow, I will ask the seed vendors about it.

I know nothing about twinspots (unfortunately, since they're gorgeous birds), but I can speak to what my firefinches like. I feed the EM Special Finch mix from Hermann brothers, which is all little seeds. They do like to kick it all over the floor of the cage, but I've read that's normal - they like to pick at the ground. They love cucumber slices, and of course live mealies.

cucumber slices ... hmm

They have been eating white and red millet, and some canary seeds. The other stuff gets left behind in the dish or flipped out onto the poop paper.

And they have been eating some of the miracle meal.

I really suggest everyone to supplement with Chia seed. We feed in a standalone dish available all the time. The reason we do it that was is because:

1. Experimental: We get to see which birds (males, females, young, old) are eating it and when (time of day, breeding cycle etc.) We expected to see them consuming it mainly during breeding season and by the females for the fat and amino profile but we have been very surprised to see all birds eating them all the time. No cycles etc. Normal the Chia feed dish is finished before the regular seed is and they eat a higher percentage of chia to millets, flax etc on a % by gram basis. We have found with flax, quinoa and rape seed that the fire's seem cycle between what they need at any given week. Not the case with Chia.

We have also found that the birds seem to molt much faster and not get stuck in a molt once we started feeding the chia. No hard data to back up such a statement just observational. Very rarely do we need to supplement with a featuring multivitamin since the introduction of chia.

2. Cost: If it were mixed with std. mixes, a good chance we'd be discarding a lot of uneaten seed from the dishes. Considering it's higher seed cost vs. prepared finch mixes, no point in wasting any.

OF NOTE:

CHIA can be bought in any health food store and some groceries but any good health food store will have it. Excellent amino acid profile and good fats.

On a gram per gram comparison:

• Nature’s richest vegetarian source of omega-3 essential fatty acids
• Nature’s richest source of fibre (especially rich in soluble fibre)
• Complete protein with high levels of 18 Amino Acids (including the essential 10) - 4x more protein then kidney beans
• Iron - 3x more than spinach
• Magnesium - 15x more than broccoli
• Calcium - 6x more than milk
• Antioxidants - Equal to blueberries
• No trans fats
• Gluten Free
• Hypo-Allergenic – There are no known allergies to Chia

Chia contains more than 60% omega-3 essential fatty acids, which are converted to EPA and DHA.

Compared to other seeds and grains, Chia provides the highest percentage of complete protein, averaging between 21% and 22% protein, with 18 amino acids. Unlike many vegetarian sources of protein, Chia has adequate levels of lysine and trytophan, with good levels of phenylalanine and glycine, and high levels of arginine, glutamic acid and aspartic acid

In addition to Chia, we feed ours the African Blend from Ladygoulidan. They really seem to prefer the smaller seeds in the blend vs. what we can buy in standard mixes. We"ve tried to find the smaller millet in bulk similar to what is found in theirs in local mixes haven't been successful. Not sure if Herman has the smaller seeds that Ladyg uses.

The Herman brothers mix started as a custom seed mix requested by a waxbill breeder, and I use it for all of my waxbills (including the larger lavenders, who definitely prefer it). It's made up of:

Japanese millet
Canary
Siberian millet
Finch millet
White millet
Steel cut oats
Red millet
Thistle
Flax
Rape
Anise
Sesame

The little guys like it, and that's what counts with me!

FireFinchMayhem wrote: On a gram per gram comparison:

• Nature’s richest vegetarian source of omega-3 essential fatty acids
• Nature’s richest source of fibre (especially rich in soluble fibre)
• Complete protein with high levels of 18 Amino Acids (including the essential 10) - 4x more protein then kidney beans
• Iron - 3x more than spinach
• Magnesium - 15x more than broccoli
• Calcium - 6x more than milk
• Antioxidants - Equal to blueberries
• No trans fats
• Gluten Free
• Hypo-Allergenic – There are no known allergies to Chia

Chia contains more than 60% omega-3 essential fatty acids, which are converted to EPA and DHA.

Sounds like I should be eating this!