FINCHforum

lol let me explain...

I got my two little society finches a little over 3 weeks ago. They are wonderful, very happy and healthy But as some of you know from my other post...I kept trying to see if there was any singing...nope, nothing...I have 2 pretty little girls

Also, there have been NO eggs..nada...zip...neither one has laid a single egg in the 3 weeks I've had them. I'm starting to think they are very young little girls. In fact one seemed a little unsure of her flying at first...could fly ok but wasn't too accurate with her landings. After a few days she got much better and both got much stronger from flying around the large cage (32x20x40). Now they fly in circles, hover and all sorts of flying. (from reading other posts I learned to look at their legs whch are also very young looking) So I think my two young girls are also birdie virgins.

Since I got them I've been trying to get them to eat eggfood. Everyone says their birds love eggfood! That they can't get enough of it! Mine? They turned their little beaks up at it and wouldn't touch the stuff. I tried plain dry eggfood (purchased). I tried plain hard boiled eggs. I tried mixing the two. I tried adding friut. I tried adding veggies. Again...nada...they wouldn't go near the stuff but would just eye it from a branch. I tried putting it in a finger cup. I tried putting it on a plate on the cage floor. I tried putting it next to their other food. I tried sprinkling their regular food on it. I tried taking all other food away...they STILL wouldn't touch the eggfood.

Then yesterday we had a breakthrough! After adding dry eggfood together with hard boiled egg and adding some parsley...and after it sitting on the cage floor on a small plate for 3 hours...they decided it was ok to step on it.
I sat with them for the full 3 hours. I know they didn't eat any...they just stepped on it then went back to their perch.

I don't know what possessed me to try what I did today, but since I had put my hard boiled eggs in the refrigerator, I wanted to make sure the eggfood wasn't too cold for them. Yesterday it was room temp when they stepped on it. I know it was room temp because it had set there for 3 hours. So to warm it up a tad today I nuked it in the microwave...for all of 5 sec. That's it, just 5 sec was all it took to warm it up to a comfortable warm and not cold temp.

I put it on the floor of the cage and they jumped on it and started gobbling away!!!

So what I want to know is...Who spoiled my two young little ladies into thinking that their eggfood had to be homemade, cooked, blended, served on a platter and heated up WARM before they would eat it? LOL

(it's been in the cage for 3 hours again now. I'm about to remove it because I don't want it to spoil but they have been nibbling away at it here and there the whole time.)

LOL Gotta love em!!

Great progress - persistence pays off! Tomorrow you will not have to warm it up at all. Straight from the fridge to a plate on the cage floor and they should still jump to it. Well done!

I guess it smelled better warmed up

I sure got a good laugh about your young ladies! You know, if they are very young it could be that warm egg reminds them of mom feeding them. Parrots do that if you bring one home newly weened and they don't want to eat. You give them warm soft food and more times than not they'll eat it. Maybe it's a good thing they weren't a pair. They'd be too young. Thanks for the laugh and I applaud you for not giving up on your girls! Like little children, they've gotta eat what's good for them and not just the goodies! ha ha

P.S. to this little story. Liz was totally right. The next day I put out the eggfood without warming it and they hopped right down and started gobbling it up. I've also put some crushed eggshells on the side and they are loving that too.

They have been with me for 1 month now and I'm still just as facinated with them as I was on day 1!

hi
you could always make a supply of eggfood,mix it up and put it in an ice cube tray,put it in the freezer then all you have to do is take a cube out and warm it and servre it up


ken

Hi Ken,

I sorta did that. With only the 2 birds (for now, hopefully more soon) it takes a couple of days for them to go through a whole egg because I also mix in dry eggfood and veggies. So I put each egg in a different ziplock baggie and put those in the freezer. I thaw one when I need it and keep the left over in the frig for the next day. I didn't think about using ice cube trays..hmmm....

I swear they are learning words though. Every day I say something about getting their "yumyums". Now they seem to get excited and know the eggfood is coming when I say "yumyums'. lol

Guess I have to be more persistant. My Gouldians are more finicky than any cat I've ever known - and I've known a lot of cats!

hi
i have had a few cats and they all had a mind of thier own,one would sleep in my greenhouse and sqaush all my plants and seedlings.one always slept on top of my old avairy and just looked at the birds..he was that docile they must have known he couldnt get to them....i was the only person on my avenue with a cat flap in the greenhouse,i kid you not he slept inside a polystyrene box all through the winter aswell...i tried and tried to get him to sleep in the house but he would have none of it ,as soon as it became dusk he wanted out

ken