FINCHforum

I just bought the Birds R Us Gouldian pro maintenance mix and fed it to my birds today. The variety of seed along with the quality looks really excellent. I even soaked some last night and fed it this morning, when I got home from work I rinsed the remaining seed and gave it back to them. It was already chitted and the birds were loving it! Has anyone been feeding his brand? I'm impressed so far but how about long term results?

I love Bird r us seeds!!! Specially Austere mix. My parrot finches never get fat again!!! And they love it too. I'll give then reg seed mix also...It's their choice what they eat. I don't buy a Breeding mix but maintenance &resting...for breeding, I put oil seed mix in to it. Shipping are pain but when I cheeted with bulk seeds from another store ...I got extra..seed moth Im a little paranoid now.

I did buy austere as well, but was planning to use it in a couple of months for 4 weeks right prior to starting the breeding formula. I had been feeding a general finch brand from Petco thinking that it was Ok, but when I compared protein and fat levels with the birds r us formula the Petco one was considerably higher. It was infact on par with the breeding formula of Birds R Us. Fat was 8% vs 5% Birds R Us. Also, the BRU formula has much higher range of variety of seed types without the nasty little neon crumbles.
I have my pair of RTPF in with a pair of gouldians and provide copious greens so I wouldn't do austere on a reg basis because of the goulds, but would have thought that the austere was too restrictive in nutrition to be good for most of the year??? Obviously the austere is working for you if you are successfully breeding. Interesting. Are you parent raising too? Do you feed greens or chitted seed too?

Oops, BRU maintainence has 3% fat vs 8% of my Petco product

The BRU seed was very fresh and clean when I bought it. Sprouted perfectly, has a nice variety of seed in their mixes and none of those colored pellets that most box store seed mixes have.
The austere mix is not for year round but meant to be fed for 4 weeks prior to the Breeding Season to halt hormone flow and rest the reproductive organs and should not be fed to juveniles.

Debbie, have you been feeding BRU very long? It does looks amazingly fresh, and my finches seem to love it.

The cost for me with shipping was a little more then I could handle with the number of birds I feed, I have found a local seed mill that is much more cost effective for me.
I would highly recommend BRU to anyone.

debbie276 wrote: The cost for me with shipping was a little more then I could handle with the number of birds I feed, I have found a local seed mill that is much more cost effective for me.
I would highly recommend BRU to anyone.

I am in the same situation. With the numbers that I have, I must find the most economical yet nutritious seed available locally, so I am in a seed co-op. But most seed packages available in feed and pet stores is not as fresh, and freshness certainly counts! You have no idea how long a package of seed has been sitting on the shelf, and unless there is a large finch owner population in your area, there may be slow turnover.

I use Austere for my Gouldians 4 weeks before breeding and 2weeks right after breeding..they start to molt right away!! For Gouldians that the only time I feed Austere mix. But, for my parrots I allways give them a choice of Austere or reg ....with eggfood and veggies. Mine loves Brrocoly!!! About breeding, I don't set up my parrots for breeding yet..they're all new birds. Right now Im on the Gouldians (5pairs had 6 clutch s so far). Oh I forgot about my Blueface parrot Finch pair!!! They do breed very good on what I feed them..I have to take a nest away !!!! I don't wanna killed hen! When I got him his bellied was all yellow fat..not anymore!! I love BRUseeds I wish I can buy them from a local store ...

It's what we use for all of our Gouldians.
I do not use the Austere mix unless I've got fat birds prior to breeding, or if I'm unsure before setting a pair up if they're actually ready to breed. But I don't use it to trigger a molt.

I also do not use the White Sprout Mix.
For the Sprouted Seed + Complete SoftFood I use the Maintenance Mix + Black Sprout Seed at the ratios you would use for the White Sprout Mix but I can't stand the safflower seeds that none of my birds eat being in there.

i just received some insect seed mix and finch mix from the site Fabulous Finch.com............my birds love it!! but the shipping is sort of expensive............ill see how long it lasts since i have like 25 finches...............otherwise i buy seed from Walmart, less expensive

Tiffany, I don't use Austerity diet to trigger a molt ether. I use them for 2weeks in order to drop them out of condition .but, they begin their molt right a way.

I wonder if theres any place in Canada I can buy BRU (or similar) seed? Prob not eh?

nixity wrote: I also do not use the White Sprout Mix.
For the Sprouted Seed + Complete SoftFood I use the Maintenance Mix + Black Sprout Seed at the ratios you would use for the White Sprout Mix but I can't stand the safflower seeds that none of my birds eat being in there.

The size of the safflower seeds freak me out. There are too many of them in the mix to pull out. I will switch to another seed mix for sprouting once I run out of the stuff.

Wonderful, thank you all for your feedback. I was glad to see a use by date on the bags and they expire a year from now +/-
I only have a few finches, so the extra price is not a big deal. However, my 4 adult dogs go through a 30lb bag of food every 10 days and I had been feeding Orijen which is an ultra premium dog food. It's just too pricey so I've had to downgrade.

Thanks Nixity, that makes sense and there's no point wasting seed. Perhaps the safflower is in there for other Australian species? I have safflower in my conure mix I'll try my finch guys out and see if they eat it. As for maintainence diet mixed with black sprout mix, that sounds like a smart blend. I dont like the filler stuff in the eggfood mix. Huge Thanks for the tips!!