FINCHforum

I'm curious about what we are feeding our birds.

I guess this could be a poll?

What eggfood do you feed your birds and why?
Do you only feed dry eggfood such as Cede, Miracle Meal, Orlux and well the list is probably endless. What species are you feeding eggfood to? Do you find one prefers a certain kind over another?

Or do you prefer to feed hardboiled eggs as their "eggfood" and mix a dry eggfood like Miracle Meal into that or don't add any commercial eggfood to it to dry?

I prefer the hardboiled eggfood and it seems the birds clearly prefer it now too.

When I do use dry eggfood I use Miracle Meal and or the Orlux Gold Patee.

All my species prefer the hardboiled egg when freshly made with the Orlux Gold Patee being their second choice and Miracle Meal would be last now.

Here are some other brands of eggfood:

Abba
Cede
Proteen 25 (Higgins)
Petamine
Quicko
Birdcare eggfood now known as Easybird
Birdcare Gold Label is now Simple System Breeder Crumbs

I feed my egg food to all my birds -- even if not breeding (I guess I feel it is only fair).

I buy organic eggs and hardboil and grate them for my birds.

I do add: cornmeal, coconut oil, Mike Fidler's Soft Food and right now I'm adding hemp seeds, extra vitamin E and bee pollen because it's the beginning of my breeding season. I do not add a commercial eggfood product.

Mine have all become accustomed to their homemade eggfood.
I do mix in either some dry Orlux finch eggfood or handfeeding formula to dry it out a bit. I also leave a cup of the dry Orlux in every breeding cage from the second that I see any eggs. This is to make sure that the parents know that there is always an abundance of food, as I am away at work.
The one time that they didn't have dry eggfood in the cage I lost a whole clutch of smurfs. I guess the parents wanted to feed this to their young instead.
I also feed eggfood to all of my birds every morning, whether they are breeding or not. I figure if they don't need it they won't eat it. And sometimes I will actually find that not much has been eaten. They know their bodies best.

I feed hard boiled eggs with exact hand feeding formula added to dry it out a bit. I figure the formula has everything they need seeing how it is a complete food if you have to hand feed. I once read that you don't want to dilute your egg food with anything with less protein then the egg otherwise they will need to consume more to get the same amount non-diluted. That's why I never add more then the needed hand feeding formula.
I feed this egg food about 3 times a week unless they are molting or breeding then they get it everyday.

My eggfood is very simple, boiled egg with cornmeal and cod liver oil. I sometimes add veggies or crumbled corn muffin w/ handfeeding formula.

They like the simple eggfood recipe the best though.

I use boiled eggs chopped with a fork. I hate cleaning the grater. I add hemp seed, soaked seed, nestling food or quicko eggfood. I might try cornmeal like Domenic. I feed it on a paper plate and make piles of each instead of mixing it together.

I use Suskes eggfood mixed with Probiotic, Spirulina, Bee Pollen...I then mix in a Magic Bullet: brocolli, carrots, insect mix and water...Mix all together and freeze in individual serving size....

There are as many mixes as breeders...very interesting!

Volkman as my primary

Misty, I hope this is not off-subject but may I ask is there a good reason we all mostly use cornmeal to dry/cut our eggfood? I know cornmeal supplies Niacin and negligible amounts of other vitamins. I assume it's use is mainly to "dry out" the egg and prevent problems with mold/fungus? Other than that it doesn't seem to me like cornmeal has much to offer.

Is there a good reason why we shouldn't use, say, soy flour (which is very high in protein of course) instead of the cornmeal?

Is this a new post? Please tell me and I'll move it with no problem!

annague wrote:Misty, I hope this is not off-subject but may I ask is there a good reason we all mostly use cornmeal to dry/cut our eggfood? I know cornmeal supplies Niacin and negligible amounts of other vitamins. I assume it's use is mainly to "dry out" the egg and prevent problems with mold/fungus? Other than that it doesn't seem to me like cornmeal has much to offer.

Is there a good reason why we shouldn't use, say, soy flour (which is very high in protein of course) instead of the cornmeal?

Is this a new post? Please tell me and I'll move it with no problem!

Anna - excellent question!!!! And one that has me researching now - have been for a few days now because I just can't figure out why we feed our FINCHES corn???!!!! Or wheat for that matter - especially wheat that would have wheat gluten in it!!!

I've been perplexed by this for some time but never made a point to figure it all out. And, why I really started this post.

I don't know how I feel about soy either as there has been much debate on that too.

I feel like we should be looking at what the birds would eat in the wild - in their natural habitat. Which keeps bringing me back to the sprouted seeds and the BRU Softfood for Gouldians. I know we like to feed our Gouldians eggfood but if given a choice would they choose what over what?

I have to say that mine eat both but I really think they prefer the chitted seed when feeding babies. But chitted seed alone is not enough so we have to fill the void with something like the BRU softfood.

Look at the ingredients of the softfood... no corn and no soy.

But has wheat meal -

http://www.fabulousfinch.com/cart/produ ... 63-31.html

When doing a search for wheat meal - you get wheat flour

Found this about coconut meal - which is very interesting!

http://www.pjbs.org/ijps/fin719.pdf

Which brings me to another thought that has been bugging me.

We know that Gouldians don't do well in wet conditions - or even damp. They are susceptible to anything and everything that loves wet conditions. By feeding wet foods like hardboiled egg are we not just begging for problems?

Misty, if you remember we have discussed this before. I even thought about using handfeeding formula instead of the corn meal to "dry" it out. I have never been comfortable using corn meal and have always used Miracle Meal instead. But it gets quite expensive. At least I know that it is good for them though....

I would love to stop feeding fresh eggfood for a number of reasons, but just haven't yet because the birds seem to love it (and need it when feeding babies) so.

dfcauley wrote:Misty, if you remember we have discussed this before. I even thought about using handfeeding formula instead of the corn meal to "dry" it out. I have never been comfortable using corn meal and have always used Miracle Meal instead. But it gets quite expensive. At least I know that it is good for them though....

I would love to stop feeding fresh eggfood for a number of reasons, but just haven't yet because the birds seem to love it (and need it when feeding babies) so.

Yes, but Miracle Meal is corn - it is the number one ingredient

http://www.morningbirdproducts.com/prod ... emeal.html

And, Kaytee handfeeding formula - the number one ingredient is CORN

http://www.kaytee.com/products/exact-ha ... y-bird.php

WHY??!! Because it is cheap??!! It even has Corn GLUTEN in it??!!

YUCK!

That is why I'm so on a mission to figure this out even if I have to call the manufactures of these products and ask them why we use corn as the base for everything? Which I hate to say it but I would go as far as to say right now it is imported too. When I looked for wheat meal - suppliers - guess what came up most of the time? Imports ?! We grow corn and wheat here in America - why import from India and China?!

MLaRue wrote:We grow corn and wheat here in America - why import from India and China?!

As per usual, $$$$.

This is an excellent link of all the handfeeding formula broken down and their ingredients -

http://www.artemisaviary.com/formula.html

Domenic wrote:

MLaRue wrote:We grow corn and wheat here in America - why import from India and China?!

As per usual, $$$$.

And, why their countries are doing very well in growth right now... (sigh) bad subject for finch forum...