Gouldian Finches: Vegetables and Loose Motions

[Sam007]

Whenever I give vegetables (Roman Lettuce, Spinach, Broccoli, Carrots) to my gouldians, they start to have loose motions. I thoroughly wash, chop and mix these vegetables. I know that many of you give vegetables to your gouldians. Currently, I have 16 gouldians. I have purchased 13 of the them in last 6 months from different breeders and 3 of them were hatched at my home about 4 months ago.
Is there anything wrong I am doing? Are there any other vegetables which I may try? Or use some different combination of vegetables?
Please help me.

[debbie276]

It's not unusual for loose dropping when feeding vegetables. You might want to cut back on how much you give if it's too loose.

[Zebrafincher]

My canary has this issue quite often because he gorges on the greens. I don't give greens every day because of this I give mixed greens/sald mix. My star finches eat a lot less and tend to have firmer stools

[Sam007]

debbie276
Thanks for your reply. I gave one table spoon (full) of chopped vegetable mix to each pair and kept those vegetables in their cage for about 6 hours. Is it too much? Do you give vegetables daily to your gouldians? For how many hours you keep the vegetables in their cage?

[Sam007]

Zebrafincher
Thanks for your reply. How much vegetables do you give to each pair of your canaries and star finches?

[debbie276]

My gouldians don't eat vegetables

[Sam007]

That is an easy solution

[ac12]

I give a LOT less than you.

For breeding birds WITHOUT chicks, in separate breeding cages (2 birds in a cage).
Veggies, approx 1/4 rounded teaspoon
Chopped egg, about 1/4 - 1/2 rounded teaspoon
I actually use a tiny spoon that I found in a kitchen store and keep this spoon in the plastic tub with the veggie and with the egg.
This amount is based on how much they will eat in a few hours. Some will eat this, some won't. You have to adjust based on the individual birds.

I give it to them in the morning, then remove what is not eaten at the late afternoon/evening food change.

For non-breeding birds, they get veggies+egg 1 or 2x a week.

ps...where are you located? I'm in San Mateo, mid SF peninsula.

[Zebrafincher]

I give my birds a clump of lettuce leaves/mixed greens pegged to the side. Usually a handful. Kevin my canary eats pretty much everything. One of my star finches will eat some, and the other one pretty rarely.

[Finnie]

I give a LOT less than you.

For breeding birds WITHOUT chicks, in separate breeding cages (2 birds in a cage).
Veggies, approx 1/4 rounded teaspoon
Chopped egg, about 1/4 - 1/2 rounded teaspoon

WOW, I had no idea they ate such small amounts! I've been giving mine mounds of veggies and eggs on a saucer, and thinking they must not even be touching it. I bet they eat their 1/4 teaspoon without me noticing any is missing.

I'm going to cut way back and save myself time and money. (Throw away less.)

I'm glad Sam asked this question.

[ac12]

Finnie
You have to watch your birds, and how much they eat.

If you are throwing away a lot, then cut back.

If it is all gone, then give them more, if you want to.
But you also don't want to give them too much. The canary breeder told me to limit the egg food, or the canary will get fat. Also birds not breeding do not need as much protein and fat as breeding or molting birds.

When they are breeding and molting, the egg food I give them goes up and they get it at least 2x a day.

But birds will go through phases, where they will cut back on certain foods, then later start eating it again. So you still have to watch what they eat.

[Sam007]

ac12
Thank you so much Gary for such a detailed reply. I live in Pleasanton.
Yes I think I was giving them way too much vegetables and on 3rd to 4th day of eating so much vegetables daily, my gouldians started to get fluffed up with much more watery dropping and with very wet vent area. I have stopped giving them vegetables for last 3 weeks and their droppings are normal now. I will give them vegetable in smaller quantity as you recommended.
I tried giving chopped boiled egg but my gouldians did not eat it at all. Then I gave them dried egg food bought from Petco. Only few gouldians like to eat it.
Now I will mix the chopped boiled egg with vegetables and see if they eat it like you are doing.
Is there any other wayto teach them to eat chopped boiled egg?

[Sam007]

Thanks Zebrafincher

[debbie276]

You could try sprinkling their regular seed over the hard boiled egg to get them to try it.
Good luck

[ac12]

I will mix the egg + veggies, then as Debbie said, sprinkle seeds over it. The seeds will attract them to the dish. And over time they will try it, and once one starts to eat "monkey see, monkey do," and the others will start to eat. But have patience, it sometimes takes quite a while for gouldians to try new food. Mine took a LOOOONG time before they would eat egg, and now they scarf it up. But I still have to sprinkle a little bit of seeds on the egg+veggies to get their attention.

I would still try to get them to eat the commercial dry egg food also. That can be kept out longer w/o worrying that it will go bad. So it gives you an alternative egg food when you breed them.