Feeding Fresh Veggies, Cucumber, Celery and more . . .

[Stuart whiting]

lovezebs
Hi Elana. . You're birds are looking great! In the first picture is that a parrot finch? What unusual coloring.

The bird in question is a pied red faced parrot finch, we do get a few of em over here in England

[lem2bert]

Elana, that looks good !!! I do something similar but not as much (I only have two canaries. As far as the egg I put crushed unsalted cracker mixed with boiled egg and my canaries love it. 1 boiled egg and 1 unsalted cracker.

[lovezebs]

lem2bert

I think it all comes down to figuring out what our birds like.
As long as we can get enough variety and nutrition, then that's what it's all about.

[JerseyGuy]

Elana ~ Do you have your birds indoors or in an outdoor Aviary?
How many birds do you have ?

I have offered my 2 Males Cucumber today - They are not interested I think this is going to be a very long process
with my 2 guys.

[lovezebs]

JerseyGuy

All of my birds are indoors. Our Canadian Winters, are not really ideal for out door aviaries, unless one has the money to build a heated, insulated enclosure ( which I don't ).

I have upwards to 80 birds (give or take).

[lem2bert]

Hi Elana, Wow, that is a lot of birds. They all look so healthy and they are very beautiful. As I mentioned in a previous post I put 1 unsalted cracker crushed with one boiled egg. Is that a good or bad idea ? They like it but I am sure that they would like a lot of food that may not be that good for them. I give them a plate of fresh fruit and vegetables every day and the egg food twice a week. (not trying to breed). My two canaries also like crushed raw cashews which I alternate with wet seed and egg food each day. I am wondering if they are getting too much protein. Any suggestions from you or any other breeder as to how I am doing for the health of my birds would be greatly appreciated , Thank-you again.

[Stuart whiting]

Hi Elana, Wow, that is a lot of birds. They all look so healthy and they are very beautiful. As I mentioned in a previous post I put 1 unsalted cracker crushed with one boiled egg. Is that a good or bad idea ? They like it but I am sure that they would like a lot of food that may not be that good for them. I give them a plate of fresh fruit and vegetables every day and the egg food twice a week. (not trying to breed). My two canaries also like crushed raw cashews which I alternate with wet seed and egg food each day. I am wondering if they are getting too much protein. Any suggestions from you or any other breeder as to how I am doing for the health of my birds would be greatly appreciated , Thank-you again.

Hi mate ,

I think that the unsalted crushed cracker is no doubt probably OK,

It's not really something that we do here in the uk, well to my knowledge

However some of us back in the early days Used to use crushed digestive biscuits and the hard boiled egg

Being perfectly onest with you if you're giving normal proprietary egg food then this on its own should be enough and not really need to mess about with the crackers, biscuits and hard boiled egg,

Always remember that hard boiled egg goes off very very quickly and is why many of us don't use it as much now and just stick with the propriety egg food, mainly because it last longer during hot weather

The cashew nuts ive not ever known anyone to feed these to canaries, I personally wouldn't bother and just stick with a normal seed diet but if you think it's ok and the birds seem happy in eating them then I can't see a problem,
Don't feed to many though as I should think these maybe quite high in protein

[lem2bert]

Thank-you so much Stuart, I have Higgins protein egg food and will offer that instead of boiled egg and crackers. I also will stop giving the cashew. Thank-you again for the advice and I am more than willing to listen to someone with so much experience in bird raising. That is why I joined this site , I want to gather as much knowledge as I can

[Stuart whiting]

Thank-you so much Stuart, I have Higgins protein egg food and will offer that instead of boiled egg and crackers. I also will stop giving the cashew. Thank-you again for the advice and I am more than willing to listen to someone with so much experience in bird raising. That is why I joined this site , I want to gather as much knowledge as I can

No worries mate, yer most welcome

[lovezebs]

lem2bert

My egg food recipe, consists of :
Fresh peeled hard boiled eggs, put through a garlic press
A bit of store bought egg food
Crumbled spray millet
And pulverized freeze dried meal worms
My guys usually eat this mixture very quickly, not giving it time to go bad.

I don't think there is any harm in an unsalted cracker now and again, but not sure about the nuts.

[lem2bert]

Thank-you so much Elana, I am gaining so much knowledge from this site !! So glad I joined.

[Stuart whiting]

Thank-you so much Elana, I am gaining so much knowledge from this site !! So glad I joined.

Glad you like the forum and learning mate,

Tis always good to have a thirst for knowledge

[JerseyGuy]

My 2 Males still refuse to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, which I offer daily. They are strictly adhering to a seed-based diet. I'm hoping I can
eventually get them to begin eating fresh foods, but up to now they have
not eaten what I have offered, including hard-boiled egg.

Years ago I had no problem getting my parrots to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, but I'm finding my finches are just highly resistant.

[Stuart whiting]

My 2 Males still refuse to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, which I offer daily. They are strictly adhering to a seed-based diet. I'm hoping I can
eventually get them to begin eating fresh foods, but up to now they have
not eaten what I have offered, including hard-boiled egg.

Years ago I had no problem getting my parrots to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, but I'm finding my finches are just highly resistant.

Hi Patrick,

Incidentally mate if you are able to get yer Gouldians to eat any form of egg food this will be a start,

sometimes a few of there favourite seed can be put into the egg food and once they start picking through the food and get the taste of the egg food this will be a big bonus because you can now try liquidising or finely grating some carrots and broccoli and add some of this to the egg food,

I also add liquid honey to the egg food as by doing this it keeps it moist and doesn't go off during the day.

I've been doing this mix for around the last 25 years and virtually all of my British and foreign finches that I've had have eaten this

[JerseyGuy]

I have a bag of Egg Food. It is a dry powder. How are you supposed to serve this ? As it is ?

Also, in terms of vegetables, are they supposed to be cooked or served raw ?

So far, they have not eaten the Salad mix I have offered them, with cucumber, lettuce, apple, red cabbage and carrot - all served raw.
It appears they do not like greens. But I continue to try and continue
to offer it.

So, I mix dry egg food with seed and add carrots and broccoli raw?
Is that it ?