FINCHforum

I know a lot of you finch enthusiasts order bulk seed online through bigger distrubutors and such, but for those of you that have a 'handful' of birds such as myself (8) and pick up bags from your average pet store, what would you rate as your FAVORITE, your top pick, for seed/seed & pellet food? and for what reasons?

this is aside from providing them with the adequate diet of greens/herbs, eggfood, calcium/mineral mix, millet...etc.

i've used kaytee premium seed mix, zupreem+ diet for finches....both of these were primarily seed based, with a reasonable ratio of colored-pellet-things-to-seed. the latest 'complete finch diet' i've seen of zumpreem's is 100% pellet-based, however, which i'm really not into. i do offer lafeber pellet diet on the side, but i prefer to give a (primarily) seed/pellet finch mix as their core.

so i wanted different opinions from fellow finch keepers on their favorite.

***not looking for arguments over what the "proper" diet to feed is, just looking for different recommendations***

I use the stuff I get for 1.82 at the walmart. Dont know how 8 would do with the size though. bigger bag is like $5.

I think this is a great question.
I'm still looking for the 'perfect' mix (I only have 12 birds). I have tried several different ones over the last 30 years but found that there is always some waste in each and everyone of them (e.g. none of my birds eat pellets) and they eat more of one kind of seed at different times of the year (like rape seed - more in the spring than at any other time). Vitakraft used to have a good mix but it's not available in any of my local pet stores anymore.
Iso

Instead of a mix, I offer individual seed varieties in each dish. Almost no waste. The birds just hop from cup to cup, picking what they need and no longer do the beak flip looking for the seed they want.

And yes, isobea, they do change their preference seasonally.

Canary seed, millet, rape (I have canaries), and sunflower chips are the main offerings. Sometimes a second millet variety.

GouldieFledge

I do buy by bulk, however....

For a long time, I bought bags of Canary seed and Finch seed, and simply mixed them together (seeing as I have both Canaries and Finches).

Now I have started buying bags of Canary, Finch, and Budgie seed mixes and mixing them all together.

I purchase plain seed mixes, no little coloured seeds and bits which the birds never seem to eat anyway, and which I think is just adding unnecessary food colouring to their diets.

With the addition of egg, wild seed grasses, greens, veggies, fruit, sproted seeds, sprouts, coconut, egg shells, fortified grit, bird charcoal, grated iodine, cuttle bone, mineral blocks, oat groats etc, my birds seem to do quite well.

I buy my seed from ladygouldianfinch.com. They have plain canary seed, japanese millet seed, white prozo millet or you can get blended seed mixes. My birds love their California golden millet. They won't eat store bought. I also feed Roudybush nibbles pellets that my Javas like. I get that from Drs. Foster & Smith. I only have two birds. They also like Harrison's Power Treats. They have to be crushed for finches though. Also offer Higgen's Sunburst Egg food. They like Australian Golden Feast from King's Cages once a week.

I buy my basic seed mix from our finch club (for the waxbills and whoever wants to pick and chose what they like), Kaytee Songbird Treat (mostly for the goldfinches) and a mix from Walmart (can't remember the name but it has oat groats in it which - surprisingly - several of my birds like. On top of those three mixes the usual add-ons similar to what Elana listed.
Wish I could find perilla seed and niger that hasn't been radiated so it would sprout.
Iso

I am forced to either mix my own, or supplement commercial brands. I buy desperate packets of hulled amaranth seed, as well as extra rape seed in late winter to mid spring as if I don't, they will waste the entire contents of the feeder in search of these two seeds. They seem to eat the loose millet-type seeds the least, but they love the spray millet. There are always several types of seeds that my finches reject, but luckily I have hungry little quail who love those seeds and happily gobble them once the dish is stripped by the zeebs and ignored.

I think that, as long as you make sure to give them a good vitamin drop and other foods (scrambled egg, greens, fruit, eggfood, chicken, calcium etc) then you won't have to worry about them being malnourished.

I don't know much yet, but I got my eyes on JR Farm, it has more diversity than the other bands I can find around here, I am familiar with the brand, as I have hamsters too and I relly like the quality of their products, even though I am not a big fan of their hamster food, I can't deny the quality of the ingredients, however, it is expensive, but I don't have many...

I would like to know your opinions on it, here is the food I am interested in (It's labeled for canaries as I can't find anything for exotics from JR Farm...):

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/birds/bir ... arm/331970

Would this be a good base food along with fresh food (vegetables, eggs, and all the rest) in your opinion?

I use the Finch mix from www.hermanbros-seed.com No waste, my birds eat it all. You can as little as 5 pounds if you don't need alot.

GouldieFledge

I use Kaylor of Colorado. Their Sweet Harvest line. They sell it in everything from 2.5lb bags to 30lb bags. (I get the latter.) They tend to be more common in smaller pet stores, though--have never seen them at, say, PetSmart.

Their Sweet Harvest mix has more than just seed--it also has miniscule dried pieces of carrot and spinach. I don't find the finches eat it quite as voraciously as the seed itself, but they do actually enjoy the veggies. Add to that the fact that I'm living in Colorado and I feel like I'm shopping local. (Plus, I get it from a little family owned pet shop.)