Feeding Dandelion

[Razasings]

Would you all feel it is wise to feed Dandelion greens every day to be finches, my avairy consits of
European serins,European greenfinchs,European goldfinches, grey singers, canaries, black Siskins. I alernate between Dandelion greens and broccoli heads. Every three days I will put some mealworms to who ever wants to eat them. Any suggestions?

[DamonIRB]

Variety is best. There are certainly things my waxbills like best (they love cilantro and will devour carrot tops within minutes, but aren't all that keen on lettuce or spinach), but I don't feed only their preferred greens to them, as it is best to provide as much of the nutritional spectrum as possible. Dandelion is a very good choice for fresh greens (as long as it is coming from a lawn that hasn't been treated with any pesticides or herbicides), but I wouldn't give it every day. Rotate it with other greens to make sure they are getting a good variety of things.

There is some great info on the best/better greens to provide (and which ones to avoid) in the Finch Info Center. Link below...

Finch Info Center - Safe & Unsafe Foods

[Razasings]

Thank you, I was going to try to rotate them with some spinach or carrot tops, my canaries love the carrot tops but no other bird in the avairy will touch them. I was just worried it would bother the stomachs if i feed them everyday greens in general.

[Barbara]

Razasings All my birds get fresh greens every day my waxbills love cucumbers where my society love corn the picky ones are the gouldian's especially a pair I rescued,They eat differnt greens daily examples are dandelion greens,brocolli,spring mix,peppers,Swiss card,pea and alfalfa sprouts along with egg mix,sprouted seeds.some only get a very little others that are molting or breeding or feeding babies get more.The all get something.Very cute they know after there cage is cleaned and fresh water,seed next come the salad bar some of them especially society and canary I can barley get it in without them landing on it

[isobea]

Razasings - What a wonderful collection you have! I grew up in Germany with serins, goldfinches and greenfinches everywhere. Also European siskins and linnets which I kept and bred while I lived there. Here, in the US, I had goldfinches, red hooded siskins and yellow black-headed siskins years ago but never the black siskins. I fed them the half-ripe seeds of the dandelions (more than the leaves of the plants), sow thistle seed heads, chickweed, shepherd's purse, seeds of marigolds, broadleaf plantain, evening primrose, mugwort, seeds of alder trees, mountain ash (sorbus aucuparia) and many different grasses.
Do you by any chance speak German? There is an superb book out there (mine was published in 1983) by Karl Sabel: Naturgemaesse Finkenzucht.
More than you could ever want to know about how to feed your birds properly approximating their natural diet. It has some color photos of those 'weeds', tres and wildflowers, their Latin names, tables at the end of the book about which bird will eat which kinds of seeds.
I hope this is helpful.
Iso

[Razasings]

Thank you, I do not speak German but possibly if I found the book online I could have it translated, I was asking, as all the birds go crazy over the Dandelion greens more than anything I offer to them.

[lovezebs]

Razasings

My crew, get dandilion when it's available around here.
Also chickweed when I have a fresh batch.

I try not to offer the exact same thing everyday, because (as was mentioned above), I am a firm believer in variety and moderation (except when it comes to chocolate and cheese cake..... but that has nothing to do with my birds )

My bird grocery list, consists of:

Eggs
Baby Spring Greens
Kale
Spinach
Romaine
Broccoli
Red Swiss Chard
Parsley
Cucumber
Rapini
Carrots with tops
Corn
Bell peppers peppers
Sweet potato
Bok Choy
Apples
Oranges
Mandarines
Banana
Pear
Red grapes
Melons
Blueberries
Cherry
Strawberry
Raspberry

Now obviously, I don't buy all of these things all the time. It depends on season and availability and prices.

Do all the birds eat everything on this list?
Different birds, tend to have different tastes. Some will eat one thing, while others will prefer something else.

What I have found, is it's usually a monkey see-monkey do thing. If they see another bird eating something that they were hasitant to try, they suddenly have to try it too, lol, and that's how it starts. Once they try something once, they are much more likely to try it again on a different day.

Here is a picture of yesterdays salad.
Now this is a large bowl.
The contents were gone in a matter of two or three hours.

And here are the sprouted seeds, that were served along side...

[Dave]

Dandelion is good food to a bird. But, the leaves wilt so quickly. I finally figured out to just dig the plant with a few inches of root attached, and set root part into a glass or dish of water. The leaves stayed fresh all day.

[Razasings]

Thanx for everyone's info definitely helpful.

[Sheather]

Interesting you mention this now, I just decided to try some dandelions from our yard (nothing sprayed there).

The society finch fledges like to chew them, but only my female canary seems to actually eat some so far, and not as much as her other greens.