FINCHforum

ive been told to mix in grass seed with the finch mix when feeding my parrot finches and shaft tails but what type of grass seed should i use? there are many verietys out there or does this now matter? i was planning on adding some grass seed to my gouldian finches food to. thanks

I'm not very good with names of grass seeds especially when there are so many and different names for them all over the world, but here we go, most seeding grasses are ok but some not so good due them having toxins in or on them, rye grass is good for adults or weaned babies but not so good for young still in the nest, winter grass is absolutely devoured along with canola seed heads. Actually this can go on for ever best way is if wild birds eat the seeding grasses its good for your birds, you could also grow your own if you wish by using the left over seed which your birds don't eat like recycling. I'm hoping that someone closer to your area can give you names of local seeding grasses because I don't want you to pick something that might be the right plant. Remember never pick grasses close to the road as these can have toxic car fumes all over them. I personally would strip the seeds off the heads but instead peg it to the wire and let them have fun stripping it themselves its very stimulating for them.

thanks, some great info there. much appreciated.

Foosa101 (Nancy) works with seeds, she can probably suggest a few.

Most of the commercial bird seed mixes have a canaray and niger seed mixed in, some birds will eat it others don't. I found with some seed they might be less desirable to them than others. I found that finely grounding them to a powder and giving them a small dish to eat helps. Mine were not eating the red millets so I ground them to see if they liked it, my owls and some of my zebras dove right in.

What you can do is depending on what is available near you is blending a good canary mix in with your finch mix....some pet stores sell the song blend and grass blends in small bags or jars, you can blend those in also.

Also check out what Nancy is offering soon on this topic in regards to fresh seeds
http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15638

thanks Cindy, i need all the help i can get for the right seeds for the right birds. i have 2 kilo of niger(nyjer) seed but they all do untouched. however i found that my old societys used to eat a few

try grinding up a little and see if they will like it, try about a tablespoon ground, behaps the hull is to tough...or you can whirl it in the grinder just enough to crack the hull with out powdering it.

Canary grass is the most common seed to add. You can simply get a canary blend and mix with your finch mix for simplicity.
I feed my parrot finches a basic finch mix with added canary grass seed, oat groats, and shelled sunflower seed. They do well on this diet along with eggfoods and greens.
Some finches require more protein than others, ways to acheive that is to feed protein rich seeds, eggs, or insects.

thanks for all the help, im going to ask in my local pet store for some canary grass seeds on next visit. grass seeds are not cheap even though its plentyful in the wild. i didnt know parrot finches would eat sunflower seeds because i thought the seed would be too big for their beaks, i threw out a bag recently thinking this.

ive began to cut right back on the millet spray for all my birds as this was making them fat especially the parrot finches, they'd be awake through the night eating that so im going to give them that once a fortnight now.

The sunflower seed must be shelled/ hulled. Many times they can be bought as sunflower hearts or sunflower chips. Most good canary seed blends will contain canary grass, rape seed (also known as conola grass seed) and shelled sunflower. I use ABBA and mix the 1900 finch with the 1700 canary.... pictures below:
finch
http://www.abbaseed.com/Seed_Products/1900/1900.html
canary
http://www.abbaseed.com/Seed_Products/1700/1700.html

Parrot finches need lots of excercise to stay fit... make sure they have roomy quarters for flying.

they are kept in a 4ft long by 2ft wide by 2ft high cage i also let them out everyday to fly about my large living room they love it when i let the shaft tails out with the gouldians at the same time, they all meet up on top of the curtain rails then start playing

the good thing is they all know their own cages even though they all look the same, when they get fed up they all go into their own cages then its just for me to get up and close their cages
they normally come out for about 2 - 3 hours a time so they get plenty of flight time. i will buy some of those seed mixes, they look pretty good thanks

Orchard grass seed is popular with parrot finch breeders. I buy brown top millet and rye grass seed at a local feed store. They are not treated with any chemicals. I have fed it separately and added it into seed mixes. Both work well.