FINCHforum

The health food craze seems to have hit us with regards to birds as to ourselves. Vitamins,probiotics,homeopathy and god knows what. It becomes very clear when a novice like myself is trying to decide about a culinary regime for his lone canary , soon to have ,I hope a lady friend -and then...
It seems to be that in the old times birds were rared and bread in a straight forward and logical meaner. Right now I feel swamped by powders.
my little guy is being fed two premium brands of fortified seed (prestige and menu) with VAM pellets in them. I don't know if he eats the VAM - probably not if he is anything like me, but he regularly have egg food - fortified, and his fortified treat stick. He seems to have more fortification than the English - Scottish border in kings Edwards time. In addition to this he gets daily greens and once a week Sera vitamin drops in his water.
Now - I have made the mistake of looking up the field . So many products ,so many promises - and of course must haves. Can anybody tell me where to go. Besides the food I am looking for a simple regimen to use, preferably through the water and preferably once a week. I kind of been looking on Nukton-S and other products like Nukton-E and Nukton-Bio. Quiet frankly it all seems to me like a trauma room in a hospital than a reasonable bird cage.I am at a loss.
Yossi

I don't use vitamins.
Feed him a good seed mix, offer up some boiled egg occasionally, a bit of apple a few times a week, maybe some sweet corn once or twice a week, and as much greens as he will eat every day. He will do very well for you.

yossiantokolitz, that's a good line about the English / Scottish border.

The Finch Information Center http://www.finchinfo.com/index.php has a lot of good nutrition information.

Fortified seeds don't do much, as the bird shells the seed and the additions are on the cage floor. Birds have a dry tongue so it doesn't stick to their mouth, either.

People raised canaries for 350 years or so prior to having vitamins available to add to a menu. I don't feed them, myself. There is a LOT of crazy nutrition information on the web, so be careful. You can over-supplement with this stuff, and the bird will be damaged.

I think that the whole program is important, because they're getting a lot of what they need (maybe all of it) from regular foods. Canaries are among the easiest finches to have because they'll eat almost anything.

Water, seed mix, boiled egg, dark green vegetables like kale or collards, sunflower chips and a mineral mix like Abba http://www.abbaseed.com/Seed_Products/M ... neral.html. People who have studied cage bird nutrion, like Robert Black, say that everything they need is in this combination of foods.

yossiantokolitz

Hi Yossi,

Good seeds, greens, fruit, some hard boiled eggs, crushed egg shells, bird grit, and clean water.

I usually add some Necton Bio once a week.

lovezebs, by 'bird grit' you mean a mineral mix?

I think the word 'grit' is a problem for us, because pet stores also sell grit that is just little rocks in a box.

To clarify for new bird keepers: finches and hookbills don't need 'grit' because they don't need rocks in their gizzard to grind up food. Chickens and pigeons do.

Our birds do need mineral mix. It is mollusk shells or other calcium pieces, plus minerals like iron and copper etc.

Dave


Hi Dave,

I make my own mix.
I mix bird grit (not gravel), with oyster shell, crushed egg shells, bird charcoal, bird clay, grated cuttlebone, grated iodine block, grated vitamine block, grated mineral block.

This mixture, is offered freely, scattered on the bottom of my flights.

All of my birds enjoy it.

The idea of grit, is controversial, with two schools of thought. I lean in the direction of what finches in the wild do.

In the wild , finches do consume grit, sand, etc.
That's why I opt to make this mixture available to my birds.

It's my personal choice, and I don't recommend or not recommend it to others.
I'm just stating what I do.

lovezebs

Hi Elana,

Thanks for the reply. I know that there has been a long discussion on to grit or not to grit.

My problem is with the word itself, 'grit'. I wish our hobby distinguished clearly between grit (small sharp bits of rock, like granite) and 'mineral mix' (mollusk shells plus trace elements).

When you say 'bird grit, not gravel', what are you using?

Thanks,

Dave

Can'tt for the life of me think of the name of the stuff, but it's very fine textured.

I used to use the stuff in the picture below, but hard to find it now days for some reason.

https://goo.gl/images/TUnPS9

Dave

Can'tt for the life of me think of the name of the stuff, but it's very fine textured.

I used to use the stuff in the picture below, but hard to find it now days for some reason.

Abba mineral mix, cuttlebone, mineral block, crushed egg shell in a treat cup. That way if they go "off" one calcium source there are others to make up for it. My finches loved their cuttlebone at first but since have gone off it. I have to score the mineral block and/or knock off the corners else it is too hard for the finches to start on. I believe canaries can manage a mineral block just fine as-is, but I've not kept canaries for almost 50 years now so my memory may be faulty on that point. Scoring certainly wouldn't hurt. The ABBA mineral mix provides calcium as well as a bunch of trace minerals.

Keep using the vitamins. Unless your guys are in an outdoor aviary year round, they do not and CANNOT get enough D3 without using a vitamin supplement. If your current vitamin mix includes D3, stick with that. I use Oasis Vita-Drops, $6 or so on Amazon and lasts my 4 guys about a year.

Give them a good canary mix and PLENTY of greens. My guys eat a "Spring Salad Mix" of kale, brussel sprouts, chicory, and broccoli strands. Plus I add baby kale and arugula to that. I offer shredded carrots and sweet potato but so far only my budgies will eat the orange stuff, LOL!

I make a bird bread that is corn free using eggs, the above veggies, a (skinned) baked sweet potato, sometimes half a banana and a handful of grapes, a little hemp oil, spelt and buckwheat flour and teff if I can get it. Plus 5 grain cereal and hulled millet. Oat bran, wheat bran, and/or wheat germ if I have them on hand. It's pretty much a kitchen-sink sort of a mix. A vita-mix is heavily involved, LOL!

Following these lines you'll be good to go. No need for powders and potions, just seed, veggies from the grocery store, and calcium/minerals/vitamins. Well and clean water, obviously.

Sojourner, that's a nice post.

Here is more information on vitamin D3, written by Robert Black. He has studied and written about bird nutrition for many years.
http://www.ladygouldianfinch.com/features_vitamind.php

Dave

I enjoyed the article, thanks for sharing it.