FINCHforum

Hello,

I am new here and new to finches.

I would like to know is there any seed brand which is best? With parrots I know the brands, but with finches I am at a loss.

Also, I have some bags of small bird pellets, which I use for my budgies and a disabled conure with a broken upper beak. Would it be ok to mix with finch seeds? They are Tropican Living World Egg Granules.

Thanks!

There are LOTS of brands of seeds that your birds will do well on. I think there are two things important when buying seed - 1) Your birds will eat most of the seeds in the mix you are buying and 2) that the seed is fresh and free of insects.

With that stated - I prefer the ABBA 1900 finch seed mix. I also like to give my birds many other things in addition to a good seed mix - chick starter, pellets, hulled millet and soaked seed...to name a few.

Ok thank you,

I do not know if my pet store carries that brand, I will check it. Most of my birds eat Hagen, and I think they do finch seed too. I will look at all the brands and see what seems best.

Some of our Canadian members will know what is available in Canada. For pelleted diets, I like Lafeber finch granules, and Roudybush also makes a finch pellet. For seed mix, I had always just bought locally and was never happy with it. I recently placed an order with Herman Brothers Pet Supply, and wow, this finch mix is wonderful--smells good enough to eat!! They are in Michigan, but don't know if they ship to Canada. TammyS already gave you some good information, and Zebra finches also love spray millet and greens (dark green, like romaine, spinach, broccoli).

The seed Tammy is talking about I believe you can purchase from her website: http://www.justbirdstuff.com/product.ph ... t=0&page=1

Herman Brothers Pet Supply I have purchased from in the past. I purchased I believe a 50# bag of the fortified finch #1. My finches loved it, it is just laziness that keeps me from ordering from them again. I also ordered 10# of millet from Herman Brothers, and it came as a big bag of millet seeds off the spray... not what I expected. They are really nice though. You can divide the big bag up into smaller portions and freeze the ones your aren't using to get rid of insects, etc... Here is their website:
http://www.hermanbros-seed.com/finch_se ... FINCH%20#1

As far as when I am lazy and don't feel like ordering seed online, I purchase Roudybush pellets (which are offered in a seperate dish), and I buy the KAYTEE Forti-diet Egg Cite (I offer in main feeding dish), which my finches also love.

There are truely A LOT of brands out there... just make sure it looks fresh and that it hasn't been sitting forever.

I used Trill at first which was a good basic seed mix, but then I switched to a more expensive brand (at least it is here) cause it contains egg food in the mix and my birds seem to really love it:

Ingredients include: 15 varieties of seeds, grains, fruit, bakery products, oils, fats, sugar, vegetable extracts, minerals, vegetable protein, egg and egg products

I use the EM Special Finch mix from Hermans.

The EM Special Finch mix from Hermans is what I ordered. I really like the fresh smell and appearance of the seeds. I have used seed bought locally in the past, and it was just blah. I always felt that shipping charges made ordering seed so expensive. Well, it is worth it! The birds relish it, there is less waste. Happy birds = happy Sally!

I love that mix too, as do the birds. And really, it's about $65 to ship 50 pounds of seed (I think it's more for the shipping than for the seed itself!). But think about what you pay at the pet store for a 2 pound bag - what, about $4-5? And you don't know how old it is. Not to mention that it wouldn't last out the morning in my house! That said, a friend loves the Abba, and I'm thinking of getting that as a "treat" for the goulds....

We blend our custom seed mix. Michele spent two years developing a mix of seed our birds would eat and waste very little of. That doesn't mean it's the best mix on the market -- just that our birds actually eat it and I know it's a blend that provides a good supply of protein, fat, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. Plus, it's fresh (which means it sprouts well) and doesn't contain any preservatives, artificial colors/dyes, pellets or other additives like a lot of commercial seed blends do. You can check it out on our website.

Sean