Fruits And Vegetables To Feed your Birds

[lovezebs]

Hello All Fellow Bird Lovers,

I have always fed all my birds varied fruits and vegetables, along with a good quality Finch/Canary seed mix, wild grass seed heads, spray millet, hard boiled eggs, dry egg food, pulverised freeze dried mealworms, live foods, mineralized grit, egg shells, cuttle bone, plus some birdie vitamins, etc. and they have done very well on this diet.

Now I am not one to say, that my way is the only way, but it has worked for me for many years, way before I ever got on our Forum.

There seems to be an opinion going around, that veggies and fruits are nothing but water and sugar and should not really be fed to our birds on a regular basis. I find myself questioning that opinion.

If fruits and vegetables, are nothing but sugar and water, why are we advised to eat them?

Now I know that we are not birds, and birds are not human, but as living creatures, we all need the Vitamins, Mineral, and nutrients which they contain.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that we should overdose our feathered friends with fruits and veggies, but I sincerely believe that fruits and vegetables are important for them, as they are for all of us.

Here is a site, which you might find interesting, plus a list of fruits and veggies which I feed or have fed to my birds along with their nutritional contents...

https://www.omlet.co.uk/guide/finches_a ... fresh_food

Romaine lettuce:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaine_lettuce

Red Swiss Chard:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... ce&dbid=16

Broccoli:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broccoli

Spinach: (in moderation)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinach

Kale:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kale

Cabbage:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbage

Cucumber:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucumber

Beet Greens:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetroot

Parsley:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsley

Corn:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/veg ... cts/2415/2

Carrots:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrot

Peas:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea

Bok Choy
http://foodfacts.mercola.com/bok-choy.html

Rapini:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapini

Dandelion:
http://foodfacts.mercola.com/dandelion-greens.html

Chick Weed:
http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce ... d_9823.php

Watercress:
http://foodfacts.mercola.com/watercress.html

Alfalfa Sprouts:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/veg ... cts/2302/2

Sweet Peppers:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?dbid ... =foodspice

Green Beans:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... e&dbid=134

Beets:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... ce&dbid=49

Apples:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fru ... ces/1809/2

Oranges:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... ce&dbid=37

Banana:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... ice&dbid=7

Blueberry:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fru ... ces/1851/2

Pear:
https://draxe.com/pear-nutrition/

Grapes:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fru ... ces/1920/2

Cantaloupe:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... ce&dbid=17

Watermelon:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fru ... ces/2072/2

Honeydew:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fru ... ces/1956/2

On some of those sites, you may need to scroll down a bit to get the break down of Vitamins, etc. but it's worthwhile checking it out.

Hope this is helpful for all of you, to help you make an educated decision on what to feed or not feed your birdies.

to all.

[lem2bert]

lovezebs

Wow, thank-you for posting that, that must have been a lot of work, so thoughtful of you. What a great reference page.

[lovezebs]

lem2bert

Glad you like it, and hope it will be helpfull .

[cindy]

"There seems to be an opinion going around, that veggies and fruits are nothing but water and sugar and should not really be fed to our birds on a regular basis. I find myself questioning that opinion."

Let's clarify...I did mention in a topic young baby birds(parents feeding) do not need to be fed apples due to the water and sugar content. They DO need more protein than fruits and veggies early on in development, veggies can be added into the food when babies are closer to fledge or at fledging.

Too much sugar, carbs in a birds' diet can cause yeasts and health issues.

(Softbills do require fruit more so than other species)

Fruits - yes are more water filled and do contain more sugar than veggies, you are better off using veggies over certain fruits. If using fruit use sparingly, more of a treat.

High content water filled fruits/veggies can actually displace good nutrients the birds are taking in... in other words you are washing the nutrients from other foods right through them. Some fruit and veggies are 85 to 90% water so pick your food choices carefully.

There are veggies that are more nutrient dense, others are more water filled than others, avoid those and go with ones such as dark leafy greens such as kale, turnip greens, dark leafy romaine, spinach (fed in moderation). Example...avoid head lettuce/iceberg lettuce... high water content, little nutrition.

If feed a lot of veggies and birds' dropping are loose, watery cut back on how much your are feeding them, see if the droppings improve... veggies are like a supplement to your main diet.

(Example :Main diet seed mixed pellets if you are using them... pellets like Roudybush contains herbs, and alfalfa...rich in a few vitamins.) Feeding veggies in moderation along with a good base diet is fine.

Finely chopped or grated carrot, broccoli florets... nutrients are rich 1/4" down the stem...(include a little stem if finely chopping in a Ninja chopper). Yams are good as well, cooked. If not using pellets you can toss a good powdered vitamin, mineral, amino acid supplement into your finely chopped veggies as directed. AviVita Gold by AviTech is excellent and pretty complete

Feeding veggies in moderation along with a good base diet is fine.

Chitted or sprouted seed is also an excellent food choice and an option to not using store bought fruit and veggies... chitting/sprout seed triples the food value of the seed. Try growing wheat grass... also high in nutrients. Sprout/chit millet strands. (the seed is the most nutritional when the little root tail is starting to show through the hull of the seed. Grow it to long and the nutritional value becomes less. I prefer chitted seed over store bought produce for my birds.

Also look into a product called Naturally for Birds... it too is nutrient rich, can be added to soft foods, egg foods, chitted, sprouted seed. I add it to chitted seed, my birds like it.

Glamgouldians.com carries it.

http://www.naturallyforbirds.com.au/

just a note: You can introduce bacteria, pathogens to your birds via produce, even organics can have specific pesticides used on them that are considered allowable... always wash produce well.

[Stuart whiting]

cindy

Very true indeed Cindy,

I never give me finches any fruits as I feel there's just Simply no need to do so,

Out of the large list of veggies that we can give our birds I've now narrowed it down to finely grated carrots and blended broccoli florets,

incidentally I also blend a good part of the stem of broccoli aswell, about a good 1-2 inches beneath the floret heads, this contains potassium aswell as other nutrients,

I never really feed this to me birds all of the year round and generally only feed it during the breeding and moulting season and mix it into me egg food mixes,
For the second half of the year being late autumn, winter and early spring I prefer to keep me birds on an austerity diet of nothing but quality seed,

I've seen and spoke about diet and nutrition for many years and seriously often think that we can over complicate matters by giving our birds far to much variation of foods,
To me this also often proves a lack of experience in really knowing and fully understanding in what certain birds really need and require,

Half of the stuff that many people give to their birds of today are just simply not needed, yes the birds will eat it but don't necessarily need it,

The only real exception to birds where I'd feed a few selected fruits would be if I had foreign softbills but other than this I simply don't bother feeding fruits to finches because there really not needed,

Look at it this way, we all eat take away's but we certainly don't need it and could most probably live a far better life without it.

Nowadays I tend to just stick to the few selected veggies that I know are very nutritious and more importantly actually serve a purpose and generally leave the rest and as mentioned only use em for breeding and moulting purposes, birds certainly don't need green food everyday,

This is just my belief as it's obviously each to their own, ones only gotta take a look at Doug Taylor's " green day diet " and this completely throws the equation out of the window
But end of the day if this principle of everyday green food works for Doug then that's obviously fine and good for him but in my view I personally and most definitely wouldn't wanna feed green food every day,

In truth I'll leave it here because I could write me own article on the subject but at the moment is not the time or place,

Apologies for babbling on Cindy .....lol

Be lucky

[cindy]

Stuart years ago I did the Green Day Diet for most of a summer (we have an endless supply of sentinel chicken eggs during that time of the year)... to me it was far to much protein and greens....and I found the birds tired of it often not eating the egg or ignoring the veggies. Also noticed heavier birds even in flights.... stopped it and simplified things.

Discussed diet with my Avian Vet.... her response time and time again "keep it simple" and in some cases "drier the better". I discussed that I see people giving huge plates of greens to just a few birds... first the ratio of this is off, they need small time amounts not a salad dish full of food for just a pair, feeding in an aviary multi-bird situation is different. You can literally cause more harm than good when the veggies and the fruits become a larger ratio than seed and pellets, base diet (I use and organic pellet, some do not use pellets I respect that. Mine contains herbs, alfalfa).

I also never feed sitting hens (prior to egg being laid and during incubation) soft foods especially veggies and boiled egg (easier to do when individually breeding pairs vs an aviary situation... they tend to hold their droppings, that food sits in the GI tract and "stews" it can grow bacteria... which can be passed to the egg/embryo. Chicks can become ill, begging becomes less and less until they become quiet, they can pass early on or right before or after fledging. Sometime the mother will come off the nest when the chicks are young and go down, pass. Discussed this with my avian vet as well... again "keep it dry" was said.

I ran my entire list of food items by my vet... she said the pellets will provide what the bird needs, add seed to it, veggies do not need to be done daily they can be done 2, 3 times a week or even once a week. (they have found birds also need seed in the diet along with the pellets vs the old way of only pellets). Went away for two weeks and had someone in caring for the birds... only used the base diet and nobody died, they all were just fine and healthy. I did have her give a bit of Goldenfeast Australian Blend twice a week in treat cups. Between that and the base diet it met their needs... ran this by my vet and some of the manufactures of the diets.

I love the sprouted/chitted seed... it is nourishing, replaces the use of commercial produce which I mentioned earlier can also introduce pathogens, chemicals/pesticides to your birds. I do not feed fruit. If done the Mike Fidler way it is basically dry when fed. Plus if you make large batches you can freeze it just make sure it is completely dry before doing so. the chitted/sprouted seed is considered plant material... 3 times or more the amount of nutrition than plain unsprouted seed. The Naturally for Birds is also pretty complete along with a separate nutrient package you use as well.

Millet strands are also so easy to chit. Tried different brands too, good way to make sure the seeds are fresh, if it chits or sprouts, it is fresh... have 50 lb bags of brown top and proso millet fresh from growers that chits well and those seem to be the two favorites. Higgins plain finch and keet seed also sprouts. Plain hulled oat groats sprout and can be planted as grasses that can be clipped and fed to the birds as can wheat grass.

By the way Dupont now has another company handling Virkon, the rep/chemist there told me that in 2018 they are hoping to get Virkon H2O into the states for use, it needs to be approved by the EPA (standard). It is for use in water but may also be used in sprouting...will be following up on this one!!!

The veggies if I do on occasion use them would be kale, broccoli, darker leaf romaine, carrot.... the grasskeets relish peas that were frozen and warmed on the stove to thaw.

[Sheather]

I feed green food almost every day, usually romaine, kale, mustard or broccoli. I feed frozen corn and peas occasionally and egg every few weeks. Day to day, I alternate seed mix and Roudybush pellets as the staple.

My only birds which will eat really large quantities of greens are canaries, the others only eat moderate portions. I have never had an issue with the canaries eating too much green food though, and they still eat their dry food, because the greens are only offered for a few hours.

I offer apple slices every now and then to my canaries, these are the only fruit they will eat, and none of the others would ever touch fruit.

I used to feed something like the green day diet, and when I was breeding my large flock at the time would clean their plates every day and raised lots of healthy youngster. Most of it went to waste when nobody had chicks to feed.

But considering Doug raises exotic waxbills on egg and vegetables alone, I would not knock his diet.

[lovezebs]

Sheather

Hi Dylan,

How are the kids?

I just read an article by Doug Taylor, and found it quite interesting.

http://www.gulfcoastfinches.com/the_green_day_diet

Although I don't follow this particular diet, i also believe that birds know what they need, and instinctively eat what they're bodies crave. That's why their intake of different foods changes over different seasons throughout the year.

Because our birds are captive, they don't have the options that birds in the wild have. That's why I believe in offering different choices, allowing them to pick and choose what appeals to them.

[Stuart whiting]

cindy

Spot on Cindy, agree there with everything said

Is always so very good when yer read a post that actually makes sense and exhales experience

[lovezebs]

Stuart whiting

Hi Stuart,

In what Universe do fruits and vegetables compare to "take out" or fast foods ?

We make choices to eat fast food, or junk food, which is def not good for us, because we are oblivious to our body's true needs, and distanced and deaf to our natural instincts, which is why we make such bad choices.

I believe that our birds, are much smarter than we are in that department. Given a choice, they do listen to their bodies, and do follow their 'natural' instincts as to what they need.

[lovezebs]

cindy

Thanks for the site you posted Cindy, it makes for interesting reading.

[Stuart whiting]

I feed green food almost every day, usually romaine, kale, mustard or broccoli. I feed frozen corn and peas occasionally and egg every few weeks. Day to day, I alternate seed mix and Roudybush pellets as the staple.

My only birds which will eat really large quantities of greens are canaries, the others only eat moderate portions. I have never had an issue with the canaries eating too much green food though, and they still eat their dry food, because the greens are only offered for a few hours.

I offer apple slices every now and then to my canaries, these are the only fruit they will eat, and none of the others would ever touch fruit.

I used to feed something like the green day diet, and when I was breeding my large flock at the time would clean their plates every day and raised lots of healthy youngster. Most of it went to waste when nobody had chicks to feed.

But considering Doug raises exotic waxbills on egg and vegetables alone, I would not knock his diet.

Hi Sheather,

Yep Doug Taylor may well breed waxbills on egg food and veggies but so does world class's breeder Paul de Neil of Belgium,

Yes of course waxbills and exotic finches can be bred with egg food and veggies but as far as I'm concerned it's definitely not a natural way of breeding,

Take a look at many of Australia's top finch experts, some of these people are known to be the very best finch breeders in the world and this is fact and been proven, they wouldn't dream of using egg food and bundles of mixed veggies,

They all use what finches in a wild state would use to rear their young IE fresh wild seeds, soaked seed and live food, this is all that is needed and is generally regarded as the most effective way to breed waxbills and most of the other asiatic finches,

All my waxbills are and will be bred the same way as what the Aussies use, soaked seed and plentiful supply of live food,

However most of the Australian finches don't necessarily need to rear with live food because egg food is perfectly OK to use but we are now talking about a different category of finches now.

Be lucky

[Sheather]

Keeping to a natural diet is ideal if you are conserving birds with the end goal to return them to the wild. It is not the goal in producing lines of these birds suited to captivity. Canaries, societies, and zebra finches don't eat boiled eggs and lettuce in the wild, but their adaptability to convenient alternatives to natural food sources has allowed them so much success in captivity. If waxbills can be similarly domesticated, the first step is to wean them off of insect food, or they will forever remain a pet of the specialist.

[Stuart whiting]

Keeping to a natural diet is ideal if you are conserving birds with the end goal to return them to the wild. It is not the goal in producing lines of these birds suited to captivity. Canaries, societies, and zebra finches don't eat boiled eggs and lettuce in the wild, but their adaptability to convenient alternatives to natural food sources has allowed them so much success in captivity. If waxbills can be similarly domesticated, the first step is to wean them off of insect food, or they will forever remain a pet of the specialist.

Sheather, it's absolutely nothing to do with conserving or conservation etc, it's all about understanding what birds need and require to successfully breed, I really don't ever see the point in trying to breed birds by giving em stuff that is inferior and artificial, yep I obviously know that some birds accept some artificially made foods like egg food but I'd much rather use the real thing.

Although I know that some waxbills obviously have been bred on egg food etc I really can't for the life of me ever see all of the waxbill species ever breeding like this, it's just simply not in their nature to be domesticated as easily as some other birds,

Yea sure it's all very easy with zebies and then bengalese and canaries which to be fair the latter two are not only domesticated but are man made birds

Breeding waxbills and other rare exotic finches is far different to breeding than say yer domestic line bred finches and canaries etc

[lovezebs]

Stuart whiting

I do believe that Sally has bred a few different species of Waxbills, by feeding eggs .

I bred my Strawberries, by feeding eggs, mealworms, greens and seeds....