FINCHforum

Good morning all -
I am trying my best to prepare for going out of town for a week next month. I make up my own egg-food, HB eggs, TurboBoost and Harrison's Super Mash, all in a blender.
I know it will only stay 'fresh' a day or 2 in the fridge.
Can I freeze it, and have the bird-sitter use it?

OR - should I just buy a good commercial egg-food, that will be just as good?

These would be for finches - have Forbes, Cordons and Goulds nesting.

Recommendations on brands?

Thanks

Cede is great.

If they are nesting, I'd make some and freeze in a sealed plastic container. If you have a bird sitter, put the portions in an ice cube tray or bathroom size paper cups, so they can serve the right amount at each feeding. I like the paper cups, which holds a perfect amount for a nesting pair. Then, pull out each morning and dump onto food dish, break up with fork and your set to go.

If that is too much trouble for the sitter, buy freeze dried bloodworms and have them sprinkle that over the store bought dried eggfood.

I like Volkman's Gourmet eggfood, but I normally freeze my homemade eggfood anyway, so my birds are used to it. I would go ahead and freeze some, then you can make sure your birds will eat it. You can freeze it in small portions, then ask your pet sitter to take out one day's portion each day, put it in the fridge, and then the next day it is all thawed and she doesn't have to do anything to it. If she does this each day, there will be a fresh thawed supply in the fridge every morning. Especially for the Cordons, I would have the pet sitter mix some f/d bloodworms into the eggfood each day if they might be feeding babies or hatching out while you are gone.

Two years ago, I was gone for 9-10 days, and my pet sitter was able to care for all my birds and add eggfood to those cages that needed it. I didn't have her do eggfood for all the cages, just those with eggs/babies. I told her it was not necessary to clean cages, they would get dirty but the birds were not going to die from a little nastiness for a few days. She decided to clean anyway, and a male Purple Grenadier got out! Fortunately, she was able to catch him and return him to his cage, but it could have been another story. She realized that it was better for a little dirt than a disaster with a loose bird.

I loved the ABBA egg food, birds loved it, it was an even consistency but it was costly to ship in. I use Higgins ProTeen 25 Snack Attack egg food.

I get it in a few 25lb bags, the hookbills go through like crazy when feeding young. Javas handle it well, owls love it....the smaller finches are ok with it but some of the larger pieces might need to be crushed or ground a little.

You should have no problem freezing the egg food in the right portion size.

I freeze my bird's eggfood. I make small foil packets that hold enough for two days. I only have six birds so two days worth is a couple of tablespoons. You can tear off a six inch strip of foil, fold it in half add the eggfood then fold over the edges to seal (like ravioli). I then place the foil packets in airtight plastic freezer bags. Your caretaker can then pull out the frozen packets a day in advance and thaw them in the refrigerator. I have always done this and I've raised canaries and goldfinches. I hope this works for you too!