FINCHforum

have read this twice and plan to read it again soon. not to many words that required the dictionary for once.

the article is called " Some lesser known ASPECTS OF NUTRITION" by Mike Fidler.

http://www.birdsrus.com.au/?page=162

What a fabulous article! Thanks again for a great link, mick. I feel like such an amateur, I feed without knowing what I'm doing half the time. It all makes so much sense, and explains many of my problems. I've never done a true austerity period, as I still fed eggfood, just not on a daily basis, but did give veggies or greens all the time. I need to put a little more thought into a true plan.

Ditto - I can only echo Sally's note as I'm in the same boat. Thanks for another very informative link.

Great link. Thanks for sharing.

Well here's my 2 cents...

Some of what he says explains why I've been reading about things I should be feeding my birds, like kelp/spirulina, etc. But I don't know about this austerity period. I think that even in the wild, during the off breeding season, birds wouldn't go without ANY greens, and some form of insects... Unless they live in Winnipeg!

And didn't I also read in lots of other articles about how finches DON'T need "grit" to digest their food? So why give them the calcium free grit? Why not just remove the oystershell mix? And I suppose the cuttlebone? I've never seen a bird drop dead of starvation because it couldn't digest it's food without grit. Many people don't offer oystershell, only cuttlebone, and from what I understand, that isn't used for the same purpose.

I just don't know ... there is so much conflicting stuff out there. Do they need grit or don't they! Seems I can find plenty of sources on the web that will support either argument!

And is this a recommendation of his for ALL finches, or just Gouldians? I'm afraid that I don't think I could make my GBs go without anything but seed and water for 6 weeks!