And so each day starts ... like this

Finch Fry · Post by **Finch Fry** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 12:14 am

It occured to me this morning that I wake up 1.5 hours before work to spend 1 hour preparing things for my finches for the day, and 30 minutes taking care of myself (shower, shave, pack lunch... etc). I dont even stop to make myself breakfast.

*I HAVE AN ADDICTION*

Now that that is out...
Here is the everything that goes into my gourmet finch dishes for the day.

And here is the final product that goes into the cages

atarasi · Post by **atarasi** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 1:15 am

An hour for each morning? You really do have an addiction!
I have 28 finches and I spend 10 minutes each morning. I don't do much in the way of preparing all that you do though.

FeatherHarp · Post by **FeatherHarp** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:03 am

What a spread....you are so good to your birds! The worms look kinda gross tho...

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:39 am

Good job Chris. I am glad one of my birds is coming to you!

I would not give them greens every day. I used to do that, but after a while it can cause them to have watery droppings. Two or three times a week is enough.

L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:00 am

I can identify with your schedule though I only spend about 45 minutes getting stuff ready and served to my 16 breeding cages, 2 single and 1 double flight cage and 15 mins for myself.

Looks yummy!

Finch Fry · Post by **Finch Fry** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:36 am

I forget to list all of the stuff in the picture.

From left to right...
lettuce/spinach mix, apple, blood worms (for gold breasts), avian trio, water soluble vitamins (specifically for D3 due to lack of UV from real light), feather fast (in the medicine bottle) for one of my Nakey hens who had a ruff time with her man, mashed eggs with shell on top of the grated carrots, and finally... meal worms on the right.

So the greens i should cut back to a few times a week? Not a problem. Any other suggestions for their diets? Aside from this, they all have fresh water, seed mix and millet.

The waxbills are the only ones that get mealies and blood worms.

Offer up any more suggestions if you see a hole in their daily nutrition please. One thing I am uncertain of is how many types of insects and high protein things to give my waxbills. Franny offers ant eggs, mealies, egg biscuit, insect egg food mix, and some others. I dont even know where to get ant eggs and no one carries insect egg food locally. What does everyone give their GBs and they seem to like. they are definitely my pickiest eaters and I know that 90% of their diet consists of seed... or they just dont eat a lot.

Finch Fry · Post by **Finch Fry** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:40 am

Forgot to say...

You know.. all of my finches, every single one of them, australian and african alike go BONKERS for the fresh green mix I give them. They REALLY enjoy that.

nixity · Post by **nixity** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:45 am

Lovely!!!

And the question I'm dying to ask.. where did you get your multi-colored glazed dishes??

I've just been using the generic $.79 terracotta dishes from Lowes/Home Depot, but I would prefer to used the glazed pottery as it's much easier to clean/sanitize..

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 10:08 am

Finch Fry wrote:Forgot to say...

You know.. all of my finches, every single one of them, australian and african alike go BONKERS for the fresh green mix I give them. They REALLY enjoy that.

Yes, my birds all love the greens too. That is why you have to be carefuly about the quanity you give them.

Finch Fry · Post by **Finch Fry** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 1:45 pm

nixity wrote:And the question I'm dying to ask.. where did you get your multi-colored glazed dishes??

From GLORIOUS walmart. Where EVERYTHING I dont get from Ladygouldianfinch.com comes from. Go to the gardening section, go to the potting aisle. They have these 4.25 inch diameter colored dishes for 2 dollars each. They also have larger 6 inch diameter colored dishes, same colors and glazed, for 3 dollars each. I actually bought 4x of the 4inch and 4x of the 6 inch. I use the 4 inch as you see for food, i use the 6 inch for their bath water which I put in as soon as I get home. Like clock work, they all see the dishes coming and then line up. I put it in and they all hop into their respective dish, do their bath and hop up to their perches to preen. I have them trained!

Also, a small suggestion, dont put the orange or yellow one in with gold breasts, they freak out with bright colors. They always get the blue dish.

nixity · Post by **nixity** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 1:54 pm

Finch Fry wrote:
nixity wrote:And the question I'm dying to ask.. where did you get your multi-colored glazed dishes??
From GLORIOUS walmart. Where EVERYTHING I dont get from Ladygouldianfinch.com comes from. Go to the gardening section, go to the potting aisle. They have these 4.25 inch diameter colored dishes for 2 dollars each. They also have larger 6 inch diameter colored dishes, same colors and glazed, for 3 dollars each. I actually bought 4x of the 4inch and 4x of the 6 inch. I use the 4 inch as you see for food, i use the 6 inch for their bath water which I put in as soon as I get home. Like clock work, they all see the dishes coming and then line up. I put it in and they all hop into their respective dish, do their bath and hop up to their perches to preen. I have them trained!

Also, a small suggestion, dont put the orange or yellow one in with gold breasts, they freak out with bright colors. They always get the blue dish.

I only have Gouldians but good tip, none the less!
We only have one WalMart within reasonable distance (for some reason NY and NJ appear, to me, to be "opposed" also to Super Wal-Marts, which I love and miss having 4 or 5 of from living in Tallahassee), but I now that I have a GPS I can easily get myself to and fro places!
I've only been to our Wal-Mart once, when we first moved here, and have no idea exactly where it is.. but I love those glazed dishes.
They have similar ones at Home Depot, but they are much more expensive and they do not have a large number.

franny · Post by **franny** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:01 pm

Finch Fry wrote:I forget to list all of the stuff in the picture.
... Franny offers ant eggs, mealies, egg biscuit, insect egg food mix, and some others. I dont even know where to get ant eggs and no one carries insect egg food locally. What does everyone give their GBs and they seem to like. they are definitely my pickiest eaters and I know that 90% of their diet consists of seed... or they just dont eat a lot.

Chris,
Here's a place in the US (PA?) that has the ant eggs:

http://store.birdiebitsnbites.com/catalog/index.php?manufacturers_id=10

It's pricey, but one jar lasts a long time with those little waxbills.

Also, the Petsmarts here carry Quicko Eggfood with Insects. So if your local store doesn't have it, I'll bet they'd order it for you.

DVBourassa · Post by **DVBourassa** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:09 pm

The ant eggs are out of stock.

franny · Post by **franny** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 4:23 pm

DVBourassa wrote:The ant eggs are out of stock.

OK, I'll look to see who I ordered from when I get home.

Here's the dry eggfood with insects that I get at Petsmart:

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754197

CandoAviary · Post by **CandoAviary** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:47 am

I feed my goldbreast waxbills orlux insect patee, or feast insectivorous, mealworms, termites(I drive wood stakes in the ground and keep the area damp. I pull up the stakes and knock the termites of into a feeder) Termites are there most favorite but hubb says I have to stop this....He is afraid that the termites will swarm and eat our house

I give them a finch mix but also found they eat canary and rape seed so I offer a canay mix as well. Lots of spray millet.
They finally have begun to eat a lot of boiled egg ... I shred chilled eggs in a grater making it look like worms. they eat about a third of an egg a day with chick feeding. This feeds about 20 goldbreast.
I offer greens and apples but they really don't eat much of it.