Mike Fidler's Soft Food

atarasi · Post by **atarasi** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 11:23 pm

Has anyone tried this food? It's quite expensive at $30 for for 2 lbs.

B CAMP · Post by **B CAMP** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 11:32 pm

I like to spoil my birds but at that price I will have to win the lotto first

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 5:24 am

B CAMP wrote:I like to spoil my birds but at that price I will have to win the lotto first

Same here.... too many birds to feed.

L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:33 am

dfcauley wrote:
B CAMP wrote:I like to spoil my birds but at that price I will have to win the lotto first
Same here.... too many birds to feed.

Ditto here

Or I need to start running my country so I can hoard all the money from the 'working people'

fairestfinches · Post by **fairestfinches** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 9:50 am

WOW!

You can buy 5lbs. of Miracle for a couple of dollars less.

Wonder if he uses gold dust to make it.

I don't think I could justify spending that much for soft food with all of the birds we keep, and our birds love Miracle Meal so much I don't know how they would like it even if I did splurge.

Sean

atarasi · Post by **atarasi** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 11:50 am

I believe this food was just released so it might drop in price. The Gouldian Molting/Breeding formula is more reasonable and my Gouldians LOVE it so I figured they might take to this food as well.

Post by **Sally** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 11:57 am

I'm thinking the Mike Fidler foods are so high because they are imported from Australia, so the shipping is what is spiking the price? Unless they are having the formula made up in the States for local distribution.

His foods are aimed especially at Gouldians, so it will be interesting to see how Gouldians do who have been placed on these diets. I wonder if Stars and Owls would benefit from these diets, since they are all Australian birds, or if they come from different areas of the country, and so eat a different diet.

GOULDYGIRL · Post by **GOULDYGIRL** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 12:20 pm

I'd definetly like to try the moulting/breeding seeds. I am happy with my morning bird products though and the soft food is also out of my price range.

Renee

nixity · Post by **nixity** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 2:29 pm

Sally is spot on - the cost of importing the product over from Australia is what drives the price.

If you have the Fidler & Evans book, Fidler even says that using a comparable soft food/egg food is fine.

I've been meaning to talk to Bill VP of Fabulous Finch about this soft food, because I wanted to try it as well, but I really wonder what is up with the "Beef Meal" it contains.

Also - since he says himself that a comparable product is fine to use, I'm happy sticking with the egg foods I currently have success with.

nixity · Post by **nixity** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 2:31 pm

PS: Renee, I will happily give you some free samples of the seed blends when I bring you Samantha and Jinx :)

nixity · Post by **nixity** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 2:37 pm

Sally wrote: His foods are aimed especially at Gouldians, so it will be interesting to see how Gouldians do who have been placed on these diets. I wonder if Stars and Owls would benefit from these diets, since they are all Australian birds, or if they come from different areas of the country, and so eat a different diet.

PPS: Sally, I use the Gouldian Pro blends exclusively for my birds (outside of the soft food).

I have all three blends, as well as the Premium Finch Blend for my societies, and the two sprouting blends as well and my birds and I both love it.
There is so little waste with these blends because the birds eat everything - and I've noticed my juveniles seem more robust and molt faster on the breeding/molting blends + the diet recommendations than they ever did on the Abba seeds I used before.
It's also just nothing (visually) like any seed blend I've seen before - there are so many different looking grass seeds in the blends picked because they are close in profile to the seeds they eat in the wild during the different seasons.
I love it - I'm so glad Lainey introduced me to them.

atarasi · Post by **atarasi** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:35 pm

I've been mixing my own seeds from Herman Brothers. I get the Japanese millet, white prosso, Siberian millet, Canary and a few others seeds. I'm sad to report that my Goudians actually prefer the Mike Fidler's blend to my own! Even though it has some of the same ingredients, his blend has at least 5 more different seeds in it.

GOULDYGIRL · Post by **GOULDYGIRL** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 9:47 pm

Yeah!!!! Thanks Tiffany!!

Renee

fabulousfinch · Post by **fabulousfinch** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 1:23 am

Hello All,

Yes, part of the cost of Mike Fidler's Complete Soft Food is the importation from Australia. As it includes Beef Meal, each shipment must be inspected and certified by the Australian Government to meet USDA requirements for the importation of beef products.

But the real reason for the cost is the concentration level of the Complete Soft Food. Whether mixed with sprouted seed or a homemade eggfood recipe, it is used as only 20% of the volume.

And while it was designed to be mixed with sprouted seed, it can also be fed ad-lib at a ratio of 1/2 teaspoon each day per 15 grams of body weight (the typical weight of a finch), or mixed as 10% of a commercial softfood such as Miracle Meal, as most commercial eggfoods/softfoods already contain some vitamins. It is highly economical when used according to directions.

Mike's soft food is designed for all high metabolism birds, including finches, canaries, budgies, softbills and small hookbills such as conures, and is the result of the most advanced nutritional research program for high metabolism birds in the world.

In addition to its use at the Save the Gouldian Fund for captive Gouldian and Longtail finches, it is fed to Mike's private collection of Parrot finches, Peters' Twinspot, Munia, Crimson and Painted finches. It is also used in the Macquarie University Zebra finch research program at Sydney. The formula will continue to undergo refinement as the research at these institutions evolves. So you might say it does contain gold dust...the gold dust found from scientific research

Cheers!

Bill Van Patten
Fabulous Finch, LLC
http://www.fabulousfinch.com/Mike-Fidle ... 0-163.html

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 6:04 am

Thank you for sharing that. As the saying goes...."you get what you pay for."