FINCHforum

Every time I get an order for all three seasonal blends (or just the Austere Diet Blend) I try to remember to send this note to the customer. But in the case where you are mixing your own Austere Diet Blend it is important to take this into account:

Don't start your birds on the Austere Diet cold turkey. Run them on 3 months of Maintenance/Resting first (or Breeding/Moulting through the breeding season if they are ready to breed). The Austere Diet Blend contains only Rye Grass and Echinochloa Seeds which they may not be familiar with. A cold turkey switch to the Austere Diet from a commercial seed blend might starve them! There is Rye and Echinochloa seeds in both the Breeding and Resting Blends which allows them to get acquainted with these often new seeds before they start the Austere Diet.

An alternative formula for the Austere Diet is a 50/50 mix of White Proso and Golden German Millets which your birds should be more familiar with. We use the Rye/Echinochloa formula because it is Mike's first choice due to the homeopathic properties of Rye Grass, but you should achieve the same results using the Proso/German formula if your birds are not familiar with Rye/Echinochloa.

Bill

Thanks for the pointers Bill. I need to try that rye grass for sure.
My birds are so spoilt that when I cut out any seed, no matter how gradual my birds would swear I was trying to starve them to death

How does Rye have homeopathic properties? As in what is in the Rye that is homeopathic - how does it affect the birds?

CandoAviary wrote:Thanks for the pointers Bill. I need to try that rye grass for sure.
My birds are so spoilt that when I cut out any seed, no matter how gradual my birds would swear I was trying to starve them to death

Hi Candace!

A little rye grass ad lib or in your seed mix will help many different finch species as well as hookbills. Mike uses it for many of the finches he keeps. A friend just told me her Javas (or Parsons...I can't remember) were tearing it up from the PHS.

Take care

Bill

MLaRue wrote:How does Rye have homeopathic properties? As in what is in the Rye that is homeopathic - how does it affect the birds?

Hi Misty,

I don't remember I know they are looking at White Clover real closely as it seems to have just the right levels of isoflavones. Red Clover was too high in isoflavones. The STGF feeds white clover grown 1 to 1.5 inches high while the birds are resting and molting 2 or 3 times a week for immune system support, but not during the breeding season as it can adversely affect fertility.

In his book Mike recommends the Proso/German blend for the Austere Diet, but by the time I got to Oz he had switched to the Rye/Echinochloa blend. Sarah and Simon brought a lot of seed science to the project when Mike moved to Australia. Rye is also in the Premium Herb Seed which is fed to hookbills as well as many exotic finches. Rye can be fed year round.

There were a lot of heady conversations going on when I was there and I did Ok with the big picture, but I didn't bother to take notes during some of the chemistry talk. Mike owned a chemical company before he retired but he wasn't drawing pictures of molecules on a blackboard for me

Cheers!

Bill

Thanks Bill

I was just curious ;)