FINCHforum

Hi All,

I recently visited the breeder I got my silverbills from and I asked him what he fed his birds during breeding/moulting. Egg food was obviously there along with the usual seed, millet, calcium sources etc. Then he showed me this odd orange and green pellet stuff that he was soaking in water. After some research, I believe it is this product:

https://www.fabfinches.co.uk/product/or ... e/#reviews

Can anyone who's tried this weigh in on whether it's a worthwhile investment, or is there something better? He said his birds love it and eat tons of it.

Thanks in advance.

Hyansith

I have and my birds (society finches) didn't like it. Granted, they tried it dry, but I'd only purchase a processed product if it means I could feed it dry. Otherwise I'd rather stick to fresh food since it is cheaper and easier for me to obtain. That being said, if the birds you have require sprouted seed and it is too risky to sprout it yourself due to a warm and humid weather or other factors that risk foodborne illness, then perhaps perle morbide would work as a replacement.

Here are the ingredients. It looks like mainly cheap stuff, fillers, and byproducts, plus supplements. This isn't necessarily bad, I just don't know how well it replicates the nutritional profile of sprouted seed. It also has artificial flavors and colors; once again, not necessarily bad, but I don't get the point. I'd get the uncolored version if you can, since certain colorings result in colorful bird dropping, which can make it more difficult to judge health.

Since the breeder you got the birds from was successful breeding birds by including perle morbide in the diet, then it shouldn't hurt.

Icearstorm

Great info, thanks for the link. I'll see if I can find the stuff without the colouring, I'd rather not be putting that into my birds.

Really, I'm just looking for options to diversify my finches diet. They don't go for egg food unless it's dry and mixed in with there seed and they rarely go for the veg that I put in for them.

They're also sitting on eggs and should they hatch, I want to make sure I've got the right foods going into the cage.

Hyansith

Couldn't hurt to try then. Dry eggfood usually doesn't contain much protein or fat, but plain dry powdered egg (they market it for people) might work a better if they will eat it.

That’s an interesting point about the plain powdered egg vs the egg food!

Well, I've started crushing up dried mealworms and adding that to the food mix to try to up the protein content. Whether or not they are eating it is hard to tell. But I will keep including it nonetheless.

I've started including several mixes in the cage while they are nesting simply to provide different options. There is a fresh broccoli/parsley & dry herb mix over which I sprinkle mealworm and dry egg food. A second bowl is mainly seed/dry egg food. Third bowl is seed/dry egg food/mealworm/dried herbs. They do seem to eat from all the bowls.

The second I think there is a chick I will start using actual boiled egg daily and work on getting them to eat that. Time will tell I suppose.