FINCHforum

Over the weekend, I purchased a pair of orange cheeked waxbill finches. I bought them at the local pet store. The clerk said to give them Nutriphase Finch Formaula with ZuPreem FruitBlend Flavor. She said I could also give them Spray Mettle as a treat (but not too often) along with some fresh fruit or veggies. I guess I just wanted to make sure she truly knew what she was talking about. What is the best food for them, how much and how often? Thank you.

I love orange cheeked waxbills. What kind of cage do you have them in? They are very flighty finches and can be on edge if kept in a small cage. Give them as much room as you can. As for diet what people on this forum generally give their birds is very simple. Finch Seed, vegetables (carrots, broccoli, cabbage, etc.), egg food, fresh water daily, and a mineral dish with crushed oyster shell/charcoal/cuttlebone shavings. Some prefer to just stick a cuttlebone on the bottom of the cage, but no matter what, finches always need a source of calcium, especially hens who can get eggbound without it. Alot do give their birds pellets but mostly as a supplement and not a main source of food. You can try giving your finches fruits but most will ignore them and they aren't really necessary.

I wrote about eggfood up there. Eggfood is basically a thoroughly boiled egg that is crushed (shell and all) into a mash that finches can easily eat. Most finches love eggfood and people will usually mix veggies in with it or other supplements to get them to eat things they normally wouldn't touch. It may take a while for your orange cheeks to eat the eggfood (although they may dive into it) but you should continue providing it to them until they start eating it. It is very beneficial and has many vitamins and protein that insect eating finches can't get anywhere else. The shell when mashed with the other parts of the egg will provide a very good source of calcium. Here's a link on preparing eggfood, it's really simple.
http://finchaviary.com/Maintenance/Eggf ... foodRecipe

You also asked about portion sizes. You will discover quickly how much your birds eat. It's hard to say for sure how much one individual bird consumes daily, but I usually provide an aviary with 11 birds about 2-3 teaspoons of eggfood daily, 1-2 teaspoons of greens. They don't consume all of it either. Seed does not spoil so I fill the dish with it and blow the shells of the seed off the top of the bowl everyday. Minerals don't spoil either of course so provide as much as you want of that too.

Thank you so much for the information. I actually have them in a flight cage with perches on each side, and I have made sure their path is clear. There are also two hanging perches but they do not obstruct their path.

That's perfect.

I would guess that the bird has been trained to eat pellets, that is why the clerk said to feed them the pellet foods mentioned.

I feed my zebras primarily pellets, to cut down on waste (they did not eat 30+% of the seed mix I used to get for them) and mess (from the seed hulls all over the floor). They now get seeds as a treat. And I RARELY give them millet, cuz the millet seed hulls are even lighter and blow all over the place.

I use ZuPreem, Avian Maintenance, Natural Diet. This is the brown pellets. I used to use the Fruit Blend, but their poop was colored by the colored pellets and it stained the perches. Also the colored poop made it difficult to see problems. Blood on the perch is hard to see if the perch is stained red...unless there is a LOT of blood.

Although the mix that was recommended to you
Nutriphase Finch Formaula and ZuPreem FruitBlend Flavor might be a natural base pellet + fruit treat combination.

I am not a big fan of a just pellet diet. I think the bird both enjoy and need seeds. This is more natural to them.

Also, I give my birds millet every day. It is a treat at the end of the day, but I give it every day.

I also give my Goldbreasted waxbill and my society finch millet every day now. And a good finch seed mix, with just a bit of pelleted food mixed in.

Your OC's might also like some freeze dried bloodworms. They come in a can, found in the fish food section of your pet store. Especially if they don't take to the eggfood. If you sprinkle of bit of them on top of the boiled mashed up eggfood, they might show more interest in the eggfood. And it's loaded with good protein as most waxbills would eat insects in the wild, they could use the extra protein.

Thank you for all the good advice and information!