Pellet food?

[Dave]

Ricardo Ronsini, that is interesting. Were your canaries raised on pellets? I heard once that what they eat when young really affects what they'll eat when they're older. Although, generally, a canary will eat anything.

I gave pellets a good trial here, and didn't just whimper and give up.

The change in canary attitude when I did give up really surprised me.

[Ricardo Ronsini]

Dave

I keep the pellets, along with seeds and everything else, so, they are used to it since ever, i think it might help, and when breeding, the parents will eat it and feed the chicks too.

Did you try more than one brand? initially i offered a very good one (expensive too) but it did not appeal to them, it was brown and hard, them i tried a different brand, with some colorful and soft granules, they loved, have been using it for 3 years now.

[ac12]

I feed my gouldians Lafeber finch food (mini pellets).

When they are breeding I will give them a buffet; Lafeber, seed mix (canary seed, nyger, white millet, red millet), chopped hard boiled egg. Then I leave it up to the birds to select what to eat. Some will switch to primarily seeds, others will continue eating pellets, and some split. It is interesting to note that they change their diet as the chicks grow. Now close to weaning, they eat very little of the egg food, that they used to scarf up when the chicks were young.

Once breeding is over, the parents go back into the Male and Female community cages and Lafeber finch food.

After weaning, the juvenilles go into the male community cage, with Lafeber finch food.
With the juvenilles getting ready to molt or molting, I suppliment the Lafeber with chopped hard boiled egg 3x a week.

When any of the adults (M or F) are molting, I increase the chopped hard boiled egg to 3x a week.

My societies are fed Roudybush nibbles (the smallest size Roudybush makes). When they are fostering, like the gouldians, they get a buffet to choose from.

I used to use Zupreem pellets, but Zupreem stopped making the natural (brown) pellets in the smallest size, only their colored ones. And I do not like the colored pellets, as it colors the poop, making it stain the perches and difficult to evaluate their poop.

My wife's canary is on seeds. I tried, but was not able to convert him to pellets. Though I did not try hard. The pellets was the brown Lafeber canary pellets, not the colorful pellets that Ricardo uses.

[Fraza]

Hi a good good to feed zebras especially for the babies when they hatch is:

1st mix is :
Hard boil egg and mash up with a tsp of honey then freeze

2nd mix is :
Boiled apple then mash up again after that freeze again

Hope this helps I have used this with all my clutches and all these chicks have survived and grown full.

[Ricardo Ronsini]

ac12

Sounds like a good diet.

Does the pellet food affects the gouldian's color in any way?

[Ricardo Ronsini]

Fraza

Thanks for sharing with us

[ac12]

ac12

Sounds like a good diet.

Does the pellet food affects the gouldian's color in any way?

Not that I have seen.
The Lafeber finch food does not have coloring like the commercial red egg food that is fed to red-factor canaries.

[ac12]

Hi a good good to feed zebras especially for the babies when they hatch is:

1st mix is :
Hard boil egg and mash up with a tsp of honey then freeze

2nd mix is :
Boiled apple then mash up again after that freeze again

Hope this helps I have used this with all my clutches and all these chicks have survived and grown full.

dumb question

How do you thaw the frozen food?
I've never frozen any of my food.

[Icearstorm]

ac12
I usually throw it in the enclosure and they eat it as it thaws. Otherwise you can leave it on the counter for a few minutes or warm it up by putting it in a bag and dropping that in warm water, or just pour the water on it for a quick defrost and then squeeze the excess water out of the food.

[Fraza]

Ac2 not dumb question obviously you don't feed it frozen you freeze it so it doesn't go bad then you cut a bit off leave to de frost then give it them so think next time.

[Canary]

Hi guys.

I'm thinking about switching the base of my birds' diet from seeds to pellets, but i have some concerns.

Does anybody here have experience with an all pellets diet?

Also, breeding is important to me, so i could use some feedback about breeding finches with pellets.

I appreciate the attention

I am new to the forum but my passion is Canaries, I am in the Uk and have not come across pellets for canaries that is. I am wondering why you are thinking of this, surley good seed and fresh veg and seeds and eggfood is better. But i agree with others, put a seperate dish in and see how things go. How many birds do you have. I am always interested in other ways for the good of the birds. Look forward to hearing from you Ceri.

[ac12]

Canary,
My reason is for preferring pellet diet is seed hulls flying around inside my house. The cages are in the corner of my family room/kitchen/hall.

It would be nice to have the cages in a separate room, where the mess could be contained. But the family room is the only room with a linolium floor. The rest of the house is carpet. And you can imagine the problem of cleaning seed hulls and bird dust in carpet.

[Icearstorm]

ac12
Several companies sell mess-free/hulled wild bird seed; perhaps they also make hulled canary and finch seed? If not, that could be a good business opportunity for someone.

[Ricardo Ronsini]

Canary

Hi Ceri.

The three main reasons why i have been thinking about switching their base diet from seeds + pellets to just pellets are time, cleaning and health.

Here it is common among breeders and pet owners to keep canaries and other birds (from small finches to large macaws) with a pellets only diet, i have heard good things about it too, from friends and avian vets.

So i'm curious to know how this type of diet works in practice.

[Fraza]

Canary,
My reason is for preferring pellet diet is seed hulls flying around inside my house. The cages are in the corner of my family room/kitchen/hall.

It would be nice to have the cages in a separate room, where the mess could be contained. But the family room is the only room with a linolium floor. The rest of the house is carpet. And you can imagine the problem of cleaning seed hulls and bird dust in carpet.

You can actually buy a net that goes around the bottom quarter of the cage this catches all the seed hulls and stops them getting on the carpet as I had this problem.