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Breeding the Yellow Hooded (Mexican) Siskin?

Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2016 7:26 am
by Fraudster
Hi all, just wondering what is the best way to achieve breeding results for the yellow hooded siskin. As in, what sort of diet do they need? What season do they breed in? Are they willing to use a cup nest, etc? Cheers.

Re: Breeding the Yellow Hooded (Mexican) Siskin?

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2016 9:32 pm
by Jen
Fraudster
Sorry I don't have experience with this species but wanted to wish you the best. Hope for your success and you can tell us how it's done!
My favorite saying when all else fails, "Google....it's a girl's best friend" !!! :)

Re: Breeding the Yellow Hooded (Mexican) Siskin?

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2016 1:10 am
by Stuart whiting
Here in England a number of us keep hooded Siskins,

We tend to feed em on a straight canary mix, you can add some foreign finch seed aswell but have found that they mainly eat the canary mix,

Breeding I'd give em this mix but soaked,

I also use a very easy to prepare proprietary egg food mix and use a small 250 ml bottle of liquid honey to 1 kg of egg food, this is to keep it continuesly moist,
I also add grated / liquidised carrot and broccoli,

This is all mixed together and can be kept in a Tupperware box in the fridge for up 1 week or so,

Incidentally I never use a hard boiled egg mix anymore as fresh egg needs to be changed regularly as they wil go bad very quickly, especially in hot weather, the use of fresh egg I suppose is ok providing you've got the time to change it 2-3 times each day,
I personally would not have the time to continuesly change it and wouldn't want to risk my birds becoming ill because of it, hence why I use the propriety brands of dried egg food :mrgreen:

The soaked seed is soaked for 24 hrs, drained the water and rinsed in a sieve and fed straight to the birds,

I keep the soak seed separate from the egg food as this is prepared on a daily basis,

You can supply some live food like mini meal worm or small maggots etc but we've found that live food is not really essential.

Fine Oyster shell and crated cuttlefish bone aswell as daily fresh water is all the Siskins will need,

I've bred and exhibited British Siskins for over 30 years and which in many ways are pretty much the same when it comes to requirements :-BD