FINCHforum

OK - what do you finchers do? From my reading and research, grit FOR FINCHES is not required for digestion. But, it serves as a mineral dietary supplement. And, some say grit can actually be bad for them, and may cause impactions.
"Cando" has an awesome post, with pictures for a great recipe.
http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11830

But, I am wondering specifically about finches.
Really good article here: http://www.efinch.com/grit/grit.htm

Egg shells and cuttle bone are always available for my guys here. I also use "F-Vite" powder in the egg food mix.
"F-Vite is a combination grit, protein, energy, vitamin and mineral supplement, which is especially beneficial for breeding and young molting birds, but is used all year round."

I have run out of the blue Higgins grit. Wondering if I need to get some more, or if it's unnecessary.
What do you all do?

Sorry if this is a redundant subject, I did a search, but didn't find a topic specific for finches.


Lauren

I agree that finches don't need grit for grinding or digesting food. As you said, I feed minerals in "gritty" form. My birds always have the following available to them:

Cuttle Bone
Oyster Shell
Finely Ground Charcoal
Egg Shells
ABBA Mineral Mix

They take all of the above in varying quantities at different times - and will eagerly attack anything that has been missing from their flights for a while - so I reason they like it - they look good - there have been almost no cases of egg binding in many years - and so they can have all they want!

A lot of people mix their minerals together. I don't do that - but put little piles of each in 3" clay pot saucers. The birds do the mixing for me.

This may be a topic that has been discussed many times before, but it is so important, so bears lots and lots of repeating in my book.

Thank you for bringing this out again.

no grit or gravel here...I do use the Blue Higgins Grit...sometimes. I grind it and add powdered oyster shell (Bird Supply of NH), finely shaved powdered cuttlebone and mineral block and some charcoal

Well they say grit in form of little rocks is harmful...i personally use F Vite as well...i think you should stick to FVite

I use egg shells. When cooking with eggs I then boil the shells for a while and put the half -or more accurately 3/4- shell in for them.
Gouldians will nibble away at the edges for days until it gets small enough to fall through the floor wires.

They don't seem very interested in oyster shell.

I only give them crushed egg shells with their egg food.
Gouldians get charcoal.

What is confusing with "grit" is that each manufacturer has a different list of ingredients in what they call "grit." Some are all bird edible, others include rocks, which are not.

I know this is irrelevant.. (i give them eggshells)

but each time I see Grit for finches... I always read it as :

"GIFT for finches" lol.
How cute!.. Gifts for finches!

I just picked up some oyster shell and charcoal today. I'm interested to see how my finches take to it. They already love eggs.

Martie wrote: Cuttle Bone
Oyster Shell
Finely Ground Charcoal
Egg Shells
ABBA Mineral Mix

My mineral mix is similar to Martie's except I also add a bit of Morning Bird's trace mineral mix and some of Hagen's claycal. I don't grind all the ingredients together, because I may vary what I offer from one cage to another, but all the ingredients go in one cup for each cage. I will start by putting Abba's mix in first, then adding ground oystershell, then topping off with a small amount of each of the other ingredients. If birds are breeding, I will put even more crushed eggshells in their mix. I then stir it all together with my finger and let the birds pick out what they want. For those birds that eat a lot of cuttlebone, I hang a cuttlebone in their cage--my Strawberries are probably my best cuttlebone devourers.