Commercial egg food

[camorrow]

Do the commercial egg foods compare to just straight hard boiled eggs? I was looking at the Quiko, but the pictures make it look a lot like every other food mix with seeds and such.

[paul-inAZ]

No idea how it compares but I use Quicko. Its basically dried egg with vitamins. Relatively fine almost powdery consistency.
Finches like it and they do fine with that as a diet supplement.

There is an other brand whose name I forget sold at Petco. That has much coarser granules that finches won't eat. Hook bills do OK with that one.

[camorrow]

Which formula do you use, Paul? I was trying to decide between the Classic and the Exotic and the Goldy.

[paul-inAZ]

Classic. No special reason for that except that my birds like it.
Right now I have Gouldians and canaries.
What species do you keep?

Goldy has insects. My guys show no interest in insects. I know nothing about the exotic.

[camorrow]

I have Zebras. The exotic is labeled for "finches", while the classic is "all birds" and Goldy is "softballs and finches". I don't know that the labeling in this case really matters much of course.

The classic and exotic seem very similar on the ingredient lists and percentage analysis, but in the pictures the classic looks more like just crumbled egg biscuit while the exotic looks more "seedy".

I was hoping the egg food might be a good alternative to the boiled eggs, because my zebras eat so little of it that the egg goes bad too quickly to really make use of it. I've tried freezing the leftovers, but they don't seem to like the previously frozen egg as much as "fresh".

[Stuart whiting]

Hi there

To be onest I actually don't really have a need for egg food anymore as I specialise in waxbills and these birds don't really eat much of it,

They mainly rear on soak seed and live food,

However over the years when I've used it for other finches and canaries I've alway favoured the use of a quality propiorty egg food over fresh egg,

Yes for sure birds love the fresh egg, there's no denying that but I don't like the fact that it goes off ( bad ) very quickly

I've always fed top brands like Quicko, Emp, Ce-De, versa lagga etc,

I used to mix it with a very generous dose of liquid honey to keep it moist ( but not soggy ) and also mix liquidised carrot and broccoli with it, the egg food already has all of the essential vitamins and calcium supplements within it etc

With this mix one would be able to make up by the kilo and keep in a sealed tub in the fridge for upto 1 week, however I do strongly stress no longer than 1 week

[Dave]

camorrow@ Stuart whiting",

when do you worry about providing too many vitamins ?

I've raised birds (mostly canaries) for quite a few years without any added vitamins. The birds are offered these foods:
Seed
Mineral mix (mostly sea shells + minor minterals)
Mashed up boiled egg
Greens
Sunflower chips

According to some authors, everything they need is in that combination. If you offer a varied diet to your birds, aren't they getting everything they need from the food?

[finchandlovebird]

Would it be ok to use sunflower chips sold for wild birds

[Stuart whiting]

Dave

To be onest Dave I'm not really a lover of giving loads of multi vitamins etc because I onestly think that to many mixed drugs can actually have a reverse affect because I feel it weakens the immune system and the bird in return have to be reliant on such drugs

However having said this I do use a multi vitamin and calcium supplement powder on all live food when breeding as this is very important as my rearing foods are predominantly soak seed and live food, baby birds need as much nutrition and goodness as possible as this is the very start of their lives,

When a propiorty egg food is used it already has the added vitamins etc as I mentioned above, this is accurately measured out to the amount of egg food that is packaged

[Stuart whiting]

finchandlovebird

If you intend on using sunflower seed for canaries I'd actually buy the sunflower hearts, this is the seed that has already been shelled, basically the same as a peanut,

However sunflower seeds are not really a part of a canaries staple diet, I've had British finches that demolish this seed within seconds but have only ever had one or two canaries eat sunflower,

Be very careful if feeding this seed as they can put on weight in no time at all,

I used to use a lot of this seed for feeding to big exhibition British greenfinches during the winter months because the seed actually acts as an insulater by putting on a little weight

Come the breeding season the birds would of been taken off of the sunflower seed about 1 month before as all birds would be now placed into summer avaires so the birds can quickly loose the weight

Any birds are simply no good for breeding if they've got to much excess fat on em

[Sally]

I personally like using my home-made egg food, but I add dry commercial food to it to dry it out. I find that my waxbills readily eat this egg food. I have offered just dry commercial egg food when I've gone out of town, and found on returning that the birds didn't eat much of it at all.

A lot of it is what your particular birds like and will eat. Sometimes it is determined by what their previous owner fed. I have some waxbills that will devour freeze-dried bloodworms, but a few of them won't touch them at all. Offering a wide variety of foods ensures that they get what they need IMO.

[cindy]

sunflower seeds are high in fat and hens can have a spike in hormones causing them to drop egg even when not breeding. They do not need it unless kept outside in winter.

All birds need to be supplemented with vitamins and minerals especially D3 if kept indoors.... if not using pellets they need a supplement.

Dried egg food that my birds all love is Higgins ProTeen 25. It contains some seeds in it as well. My grasskeets especially love this and feed it to their young.

I stopped using "wet or soft foods" with my birds..... sitting/nesting/incubating hens should not be given soft foods since the food especially fresh egg sits in the GI tract/gut longer since the hen hens to not come off the nest to relieve themselves as often. This may cause bacteria/infection within the hen which can be passed onto the eggs... can result in a sick hen that either comes off the nest before the eggs hatch or goes down ill after chicks fledged. I can also result in DIS, chicks that die young after hatching or do fine for a bit, stop begging and die. Dry diet for sitting hens is recommended...no fresh foods. You can give fresh egg back once the chicks hatch, if the pair double clutch and dad is still feeding fresh egg food to the fledglings and the hen is eating some as well just keep an eye on her for any change. Discussed this with my avian vet and an avian specialist. drier the diet the better.

[Dave]

cindy, You and I disagree almost completely on nutrition. I feel like my birds are healthy and I'm sure that your birds are as well. It may well be that the birds that do well on each of our diets are the birds that become breeders.

Sally said it well: 'A lot of it is what your particular birds like and will eat. Sometimes it is determined by what their previous owner fed.'

Stuart: sunflower bits are what I feed. I don't feed much if any rape seed to my canaries. I'm not seeing fat bird problems. I've asked a lot of people why rape seed is fed to canaries--other than the fact that they'll eat it and it is available. I've never gotten a satisfactory answer about rape seed.

The Finch Information Center on this site suggests boiled egg, eggshell and sunflower seeds. '...notice how nearly every dietary requirement is covered by simply providing the birds with a boiled egg crushed shell and all mixed with finely-ground sunflower seeds.'


Nutrition is always a fascinating topic!

[cindy]

I use a good seed mix, sprout/chit seed (increases the nutritional value of the seed 3 fold), dried egg food (parent birds with young and fledglings have it 24/7), dried veggies and dried herbs, pellets. The 2 different avian vets I use caution about to much fat in the diets and why. Fat may or may not be an issue for based on how you have them housed so they can burn it off...most do not have big aviary flights, it also depends on the species as well some are more active than others.


As far as rape seed it is a waste in the seed mixes, find it is ignored, ever try sprouting rape seed?

A lot of the fruits and veggies are mostly water. soft foods should make up about 10% of the diet, it that and it is an option.

Indoor birds not exposed to sunlight need D3 supplements, you can not get that from artificial lighting.

[Dave]

Hi Cindy,

I've sprouted rape seed, and it looks like Rapini as it grows. There are huge fields of it grown commercially in North Dakota, and in Canada. It flowers a brilliant yellow, in July there. The foliage seems to be like soft broccoli foliage.

Canaries will eat rape seed, but they're the only bird that I've seen eat it. But, canaries will eat anything.

D3 is present in boiled egg. My birds are mostly housed in a large walk-in flight, so they do get a lot of exercise.

Another question: if offered enough kinds of food, will our birds balance their own diet? I know that pigeons will--they has been shown through large trials.