Commercial egg food

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Stuart whiting
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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by Stuart whiting » Tue Aug 23, 2016 2:09 pm

Dave cindy

To find proper info regarding rape seed you need to ask a specialist from England / Europe :lol:

There are generally two types of rape seed black rape which tastes a little bitter and then there's the slightly smaller red rape which is normally sweater,

It's the red rape that is often found in specialist soak seed canary and British finch mixes,

The black rape is normally found in the dry canary and British mixes.

The reason for using the rape seed is because it's an oil seed and has a reasonable protein content and and balances the seed nutrition when fed with plain canary seed with is incidentally a carbohydrate seed,

Most canary mixes are predominantly the plain canary and rape seeds with a little bit of hemp and linseed thrown in for good measure,

Cindy states that this seed is a waisted seed, well this is actually far from it :roll:

One needs to understand that only certain birds will eat rape seed IE canary and British finches and is not fed to foreign finches, I've never seen rape seed in a foreign finch mix, also grasskeets are not renowned for eating rape seed eaither,

Certain seeds are definitely only associated with specific birds , like you wouldn't feed British goldfinches on a foreign finch mix of red, yellow, French white and panicum millet mix, they'd soon become out of condition because there not fed the right seed diet.

Incidentally rape seed does soak very well and is is used in vast amounts here in England and also does sprout if done properly :mrgreen:

I've been doing this now for some 36 years with no problem :-BD
Last edited by Stuart whiting on Tue Aug 23, 2016 2:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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cindy
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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by cindy » Tue Aug 23, 2016 2:13 pm

Stuart it is a wasted seed with most my species.... they will hands down choose fresh grass seed over the rape seed. It is very common in most seed mixes here and the most tossed into the trays here. I have been very tempted to use a very fine strainer and remove some from some of the mixes here and sprout it....glad you said it sprouts well.

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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by Stuart whiting » Tue Aug 23, 2016 2:26 pm

cindy

Hi there, to be onest if there are foreign finch and parakeet mixes in the states that have rape seed in em then I really can't understand that because as mentioned above , the birds that the mix is actually meant for generally wouldn't eat the rape seed,

As far as I'm aware I be leave you keep zebras, Javas and grasskeets etc and I'm not at all surprised that yer birds don't seem to wanna eat any rape seed,

This is exactly what I meant in my previous post, I agree that yes the seed no doubt will be waisted because it's not really meant for the birds you have,

Now I've come back into the bird game this year I won't be going back to keeping British finches, in truth to much trouble with all of the laws and regulations etc,

I'm now totally specialising in me waxbills and because of this I obviously would never be having rape seed no more in me seed mixes :mrgreen:

Incidentally if you wanna sprout rape seed you ideally want the red rape rather than the black,
The red rape soaks and sprouts better and is also softer.

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cindy
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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by cindy » Tue Aug 23, 2016 2:34 pm

I have been resorting to blending my own mixes when the fresh seed is available, when in short supply I blend it with commercial mixed which I know are fresh since I occasionally sprout it. I can combine what I know they will eat and also sprout what seeds they enjoy the most sprouted.

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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by cindy » Tue Aug 23, 2016 2:39 pm

Stuart, we have a few place where I can get the rape seed, will try sprouting it as you suggested!!!

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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by finchandlovebird » Tue Aug 23, 2016 5:14 pm

Cindy wrote:
dried veggies and dried herbs,
Cindy, thanks as always for your advice. I added dry egg food to my grasskeet cage today (they only hatched one baby). I also give sprouts/chits & all the rest of the good stuff. I usually add dry herbs to the crushed hard boiled egg.
My questions to you is ....... do you dry your own veggies :?: And which ones do you dry :?: Or do you buy them; I've never heard of dried veggies.

Stuart; if you look at my signature, you'll see I don't have canaries :)
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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by cindy » Tue Aug 23, 2016 5:28 pm

The dried veggies and fruits are in an mix I order in for my small hookbills. The finches get dried herbs, all get the sprouted seed. Some of the mixes I do order in for the finches are available with dried fruits and veggies. Also Australian Blend by Goldenfeast is really good as well. If you go to Goldendenfeast's site they too also have dried fruit and veggies... all organic.

I am looking into buying dried food grade veggies in bulk. You can also find organic dried herbs on line in bulk also.

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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by Stuart whiting » Tue Aug 23, 2016 8:26 pm

finchandlovebird wrote: Cindy wrote:
dried veggies and dried herbs,
Cindy, thanks as always for your advice. I added dry egg food to my grasskeet cage today (they only hatched one baby). I also give sprouts/chits & all the rest of the good stuff. I usually add dry herbs to the crushed hard boiled egg.
My questions to you is ....... do you dry your own veggies :?: And which ones do you dry :?: Or do you buy them; I've never heard of dried veggies.

Stuart; if you look at my signature, you'll see I don't have canaries :)
Hi there, yes I know you don't have canaries :mrgreen:

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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by lem2bert » Wed Aug 24, 2016 9:18 am

Camorrow

I have 3 yellow canaries and 1 red factor, I use Quiko special Red egg food for my red factor as it is the only dried egg food I can find that has Canthaxnthin in it. My yellow Canaries get Higgins Protein egg food and all my canaries love both egg foods. I mix Pretty Bird finch food and Abba Canary Standard food together. I change my birds seed every night and always add Twin Beaks Aviary Herb Salad to their seed. It is suppose to promote avian wellness so I am not giving Vitamins to my birds. All my birds love this Herb Salad which I purchased on Amazon. I only give fresh egg food twice a week as I am not breeding but all of my birds are going through a molt at this time. I have the dry egg food in their cages all the time. I hope this info helps you . :)
Betty 1 toy poodle and canary.

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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by Dave » Wed Aug 24, 2016 10:34 am

Abba makes a canary egg food with Canthaxnthin in it. Your source may not carry it, though. Try Abba itself: http://abbaseed.com/Seed_Products/RED_93/red_93.html
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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by lem2bert » Wed Aug 24, 2016 12:55 pm

Thanks Dave for that link . I am going to check the bird supply where I shop and see if they have it or can order it for me. They carry the abba seed so it may not be a problem to get it. Thanks again for the info :D
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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by Sojourner » Fri Sep 02, 2016 4:32 pm

camorrow

I use CeDe eggfood. I didn't like the looks of the Quiko, but no longer remember why. I have used the Canary and one of the Finch blends. When I'm out of the Finch blend I'll go back to the canary - it looks like its just egg food with no other gunk in it, and there is other stuff, including seed they won't eat, in the Finch blend. My birds - a pair of Bengalese - obviously prefer the "plain" stuff packaged for canaries.

I tried feeding fresh smooshed boiled egg and they won't eat it. Tried moistening the dry stuff as per directions and they won't eat that either. They will only eat the dry when it is still dry.

The CeDe stuff is not powdery at all, it is in bigger chunks than that. I do get some powdery residue after they've eaten it down to the bottom of the cup but that is only to be expected.

"Stuart whiting"

Vitamins are not drugs. Vitamins are a dietary supplement necessary for proper nutrition. Let me repeat: Vitamins are NOT DRUGS.

I routinely use a liquid vitamin supplement in the water - one that has D3. I do occasionally give them a vitamin vacation - and just give them plain water. I use a tube type waterer.

I free feed a parakeet mix of millet, oat groats, and canarygrass seed, a separate feeder has sunflower hearts and chips, and they always have the CeDe dry egg food as well. They do not pig out on any of it and they do not get fat, nor are they breeding like mad things. Not a single egg, thankfully, since I removed the nest. I have the 2 Bengalese.

I rotate through "treat" seed such as oats in the hull, hulled hemp, sesame seed, and a few other things for variety. There is always mineral mix, crushed egg shell, a mineral block which they do use (though you need to sort of rough it up so they can get bits off) and a cuttle bone in the cage at ALL TIMES.

I was feeding crushed charcoal but they really didn't touch it and on further investigation it turns out there is no evidence that feeding charcoal every day does anything positive whatsoever, and it WOULD interfere with the proper intake of vitamins and medications, should such be necessary. I keep it on hand in case it should ever be needed - but I've never seen a need for it with any birds I've ever kept.

They get fresh veggies every day, or did up until a recent move. Ditto nyjer seed - at first they wouldn't touch it, then they finally decided they like it after all and I was free feeding it. They are currently still in my son's house so no veggies or nyjer until I finish painting over here and can move them in with me - but when I actually have them they do get fresh veggies (and nyjer) every day.

I'm confident their diet is good for non-breeding birds.

Nonetheless, better safe than sorry, and as D3 is something they don't get from seed or fresh veggies, I use the vitamins. There just isn't any reason whatsoever not to, and plenty of reasons to provide a vitamin supplement.

If you don't want to supplement with vitamins, that's your business, but its not because use of a vitamin supplement constitutes drugging your birds.

Dave

Not all birds will always eat what is best for them in the correct ratios, and the plain truth of the matter is that living in a cage is so far from natural for them that we shouldn't totally rely on instinct to be sure they're getting proper nutrition, even when providing to the best of our ability a "balanced" diet. My guys are doing well on the variety I feed them and with the vitamins - but who knows what they eat in the wild that we don't know about and they aren't getting?

Also - in the wild they are much much much MUCH more active and burn up a whole lot more calories. It is not only possible, but likely, that there are trace elements they get in the wild from eating lots of high-calorie foods when they can find them, calories that they then naturally burn off. In a cage, they can't burn that much off so they have the choice of either eating those foods and getting fat, or limiting the total calorie intake and then ending up short on some vitamins/minerals.

Thus for caged birds I think vitamins are no risk and all gain when properly utilized. More is not better. None is also not better.

cindy

My solution to all those seeds my finches won't eat that are in finch mix - the 2 main ones are rape and flax seed, oh yeah, and pellets and bits of neon-colored fruit - is to use a parakeet mix and then supplement with other stuff they WILL eat (from bulk bins at the grocery) rotated through their treat cups.

The parakeet mix I use has 2 or 3 kinds of millet, canary grass seed, and oat groats. They will eat all of that, though not necessarily all with the same enthusiasm. It has almost entirely stopped seed scattering because they no longer pick around trying to toss all the stuff they don't want.

Mixing your own seed is great if you have affordable access to the individual types of seed, but using a parakeet mix is easiest and quickest for me, plus supplementing with other stuff on a rotating basis (not to forget fresh veggies).

@ everybody (LOL!)

My guys won't eat anything excessively wet. I've not found a fruit they will eat much (if any) of, and they won't eat boiled smooshed up eggs either. I don't like to leave anything in the cage that will go bad quickly anyway. I'm not trustworthy when it comes to remembering to remove it before it goes bad. (In my desert climate, the veggie mix I feed them just dries out before it can go bad.)

I haven't tried grapes yet but I'm sort of afraid to. They're one of the most pesticide-and-fungicide ridden fruits available. I'm not convinced the "organic" label means much either.

They will peck at strawberries a bit but not enough to warrant the waste of the strawberry. I've not tried banana.

Perhaps Bengalese in general just don't care for fruit all that much. Mine sure don't seem to.
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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by Stuart whiting » Fri Sep 02, 2016 5:47 pm

Sojourner

You repetitively stated about multivitamins not being a drug, I think we all know that !!!

I mearly stated to Dave that I'm not a believer in using multivitamins and mixing drugs basically at the same time, apologies if it wasn't to be read that way but that is what I meant, probably a predictable text error,

As I've stated that I do actually use some multivitamin sprinkled on top of live food when breeding but this would be the only time I'm ever likely to use it.

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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by Sojourner » Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:09 pm

Stuart whiting

It's a pet peeve of mine, and I was getting the impression (apparently false, LOL!) that you were equating vitamins with drugs. It REALLY annoys me when people do this and no, "we all" do NOT know the difference. Sorry for the confusion.

The other thing that really gets my goat is people complaining about "chemicals". EVERYTHING is chemical in nature. Willowbark tea is every bit as "chemical" as processed aspirin, LOL! "Naturally produced" vitamin C is the same as "artificially produced" vitamin C. Chemicals are not all good or all bad, whether we're talking cleaning supplies, medication, or food. Context matters, but source rarely does.
Molly Brown 11/22/15
Pyewacket 6/15/17
Trudy 2/24/18

Turn towards home, and go there. Many overs, over woods and fields, streams and hills, many overs. Just turn towards home. How else would one go there? Perhaps it was a dream, and you have awakened from it. May the earth rise up beneath you, with home in your heart, and your person waiting.

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Re: Commercial egg food

Post by Stuart whiting » Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:46 pm

Sojourner

Ok mate, fair do's :mrgreen:

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