FINCHforum

Posted on health board as well....

This weekend my husband and I are going to be feeding our fledglings some eggfiid. I got a recipe from Sally on the health board, but I also looked up the the one on finchinfo. The one on finchinfo says chopped vegetables can be added, "optional: additional safe fruits and vegetables of your choice, chopped fine." Is this okay for the little ones, or is this just for the adults? We need to come up with a good solution as 3 of 4 of our munchkins are now being boogers about the formula. (I think the last one would eat the formula for the rest of "her" life! It's like crack to "her!") What is the best thing to do? I am a little terrified to do the soaked seed. The whole "could result in death" thing makes me a little nervous. Not to mention the rinsing their food in a bleach solution. Any words of wisdom?

Also, when storing eggfood for the three days, do I microwave the portion to be served to warm it up?

I'm going to answer this here and delete the duplicate post under 'Health', as it really isn't a health problem at this point.

I would keep offering formula to the fledglings, but put a dish of eggfood in the bottom of the cage. Also, put a spray millet in the bottom of the cage. They will check things out in their own good time. I don't think I would offer chopped veggies in the eggfood just yet, but you could always put a small dish of just the veggies to see if they will sample them. They probably will only try the spray millet and the eggfood at first. BTW, spinach should not be offered every day, it should be fed in moderation--something about too much iron, but darned if I can remember it now. And if you aren't comfortable feeding soaked seed, don't--they'll do fine without it.

When I refrigerate eggfood overnight, I warm it slightly in the microwave--just be sure to stir it so it is only warm and no hot spots. You will appreciate this--my Societies have started feeding the BCCB babies (yay!!). Yesterday, the only baby that had a really full crop had a dark green crop! Had me worried till I realized what it was--the Societies had ignored most of the eggfood, but ate all the veggies, which had a lot of broccoli and especially collard greens. So my little African baby was stuffed with southern collard greens! Tonight, all five babies were stuffed full by their foster parents.

Sally- I am so glad your babies are being well cared for! When our babies were still with their parents, they often had green crops from the veggies. We tried the eggfood and spray millet this weekend, but they were not totally interested. I actually held little bits of the eggfood up to their mouths, but they just pecked at it. Little bit of a learning curve I guess. It looks like a couple of them have been slightly successful in eating the spray millet. We did have a big developement this weekend though.... our precious little angels can fly! I was such a proud mamma. We had them out for their feedings, and they started flying to my hands to be fed. We laid out a towel on our bed, and let them stretch out. They buzzed around a little, and kept landing on my head. Of course poop followed.... eww. After their feedings, I always do some preening with a q-tip. I laid across the bed to do so, and they fluttered over to cozy up and sleep. One actually crawled down my shirt and slept there for about 20 minutes. That was tough to take. I told my hubby I am going to need professional help after this because I am so bonded to these babies. We are going to have to keep trying to get them to eat on their own, but all else seems to be well. Thank you again for always taking the time to answer my questions! I hope your little ones continued to have a good weekend, and will have a marvelous week! Let me know about their progress.

That's great news from BOTH clutches! Great going to both of you!! Keep up the good work!

mrshorn - your babies will start trying food on their own sweet time. They will need to be fed formula for at least two weeks after fledging. They will gradually try real food, then eat more and more of it, and then one day they will break your heart when they refuse your offerings! You get so attached to those handfed babies--that is just precious that one curled up under your shirt for a nap.

My babies only needed one supplemental feeding yesterday, and none so far today. I gripe about how tied down I am when I have to handfeed, but yesterday evening, when I had to nudge them to wake them up, only to have not one open mouth raised up to me, it was also a little sad to not be needed any more.

Sally, that's what we call cutting the apron strings. It's hard for whatever species you're raising including humans.

Yes, but these guys are just about a week old, or maybe a little more for some of them. They finally all have their eyes opened. Only having to supplement feed three times a day was a real treat--not too tied down, but loved being greeted by those open mouths! Today they completely ignored me. However, they will be healthier, won't have to worry about sour crop.