The First 90 Days of Life

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fabulousfinch
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The First 90 Days of Life

Post by fabulousfinch » Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:25 am

I originally thought of posting this is under "Diet and Nutrition" or "Breeding" but I mention products I sell so I decided to post it here in the Marketplace. I simply don't know how to describe the following without mentioning the products as they are very precisely tuned. The products aren't a good generic blend of seed, veggies and eggfood, they are a precise balance of carotenoids, plant and animal lipids and proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals...all things. They are a system of all nutritional elements that make keeping and breeding Gouldians quite easy, as well as most seed eating finches assuming otherwise good husbandry practices appropriate for a given species. Gouldians should be free and easy breeders for anyone with access to these products, not a difficult puzzle to figure out as they are so often considered, so here goes...

During my visit to the Save the Gouldian Fund in 2008, regarding the feeding schedule and foods, Mike Fidler told me to give them a try and let him know how things were coming along in 2 or 3 years (we actually chat several times a month). But his point was that diet is so important it takes several generations to rebound from a deficient diet.

Finches are pretty much everything they are going to be in the first 90 days of their lives. Gouldians are sexually mature at 6 to 8 months of age and completely developed in every way. The nutrition they have received during this period determines their overall life health to a large extent (and future breeding performance). It is very hard to fix a finch after this time period.

To meet their nutritional needs during this critical first stage of their lives you simply increase the amount of the White/Black/STGF Softfood blend when they are first born. Feeding the parent birds at the rate of 1 well rounded teaspoon per day, double that amount when nestlings are born. Then continue to increase the amount of the blend as they feed their nestlings making sure there is always a little left the next day when you replace it with new. By the time the nestlings fledge you will be feeding a huge amount of the blend, and the parent birds will be feeding much less of their dry seed blend as they instinctively know to feed the nutritionally rich blend instead.

Continue to maintain enough of the White/Black/STGF Softfood blend in the cage after the nestlings fledge that the parents and juveniles never run out, and replace it daily. Once the juveniles are weaned and removed from the breeding cage return the parent birds to their normal ration of 1 well rounded teaspoon per day, but continue to feed as much of the blend as the juveniles can eat daily until they have completed their adult molt. When the parent birds produce their next clutch, repeat the process. Through this schedule you will have provided the most nutritionally rich diet possible to your juvenile finches which will support development of their entire body as they mature from hatchlings to their adult plumage.

Your Gen 0 birds (those that you first introduce the STGF diet to) will do less well overall than the Gen 1 offspring they produce on these foods. Your Gen 1 birds that have been raised on these foods will in turn feed it to their offspring (Gen 2) much more readily and completely than their Gen 0 parents fed them and your Gen 2 birds should be stellar free and easy breeders of exceptional size and condition. You should move to breeding through several generations of birds as quickly as possible, keeping only those birds from the prior year that were superior performers. Gouldians only produce well in their 1st and 2nd years of life and then fertility will decline at 3 years of age. They can still produce at 3 years and beyond, but you will have smaller clutches and more frequent problems with infertility.

You will notice that spray millet is not described as part of the STGF diet. Spray millet is something fun to do and its psychological effect is the benefit. But, one spray per pair per week is the most you should offer. Mount it from the top of the cage in a corner where they have to hang sideways to eat it just as they do when eating half ripe seeds from the stem in the wild. Change it once a week even if they have already devoured the spray long before. Spray millet is foxtail bristlegrass which is already included in the Birds R Us seed blends. Allowing them more than one spray per week per pair will throw their diet out of balance, particularly when breeding. Spray millet is a high carb, lower protein, lower fat seed and during the breeding season the emphasis needs to be on the higher protein, higher fat foods (both animal and plant) included in the Breeding & Moulting Blend, Black and White Sprouting Mixes, and the STGF Complete Softfood Concentrate.

The Save the Gouldian Fund and Mike Fidler are not in the bird food business. The STGF is a registered non-profit organization with an annual research budget of 1M and a staff of 7 researchers. Approximately half of their time is spent working with a captive population of 2000 Gouldian and Longtail finches. I know of no company offering products for finches that comes close to this level of research on finches. But aviculturists can benefit from the STGF dietary research while at the same time providing a $1 per kg donation to the Fund through the purchase of the STGF Complete Softfood Concentrate. The STGF dietary program is state of the art and absolutely works, but it will take time for all of the above reasons, just as it did for me.

Bill Van Patten
Fabulous Finch

The Only Foods You Need For Breeding Most Seed Eating Finches, And Of Course "Plug and Play" Gouldians. Have Finches That Require Live Food? Same Diet Plus Bugs. This diet requires no supplements and no guess work...

Fresh Water
From water your birds require...water! Nothing else.

ABBA Premium Mineral Grit
An excellent blend of grit ingredients including sterilized oyster shell, mollusk shell, egg shell, sea sand, charcoal, and bone meal. This is the closest product I could find in the states that is similar to what is used at the STGF as their free choice calcium supplement. The STGF calcium grit is a blend of eggshell, seashell, river sand and charcoal.

Breeding & Moulting Blend
Comprised of high germination rate live seeds formulated for their different nutritional benefits to birds. This is the higher protein, higher fat dry seed blend your finches require for breeding and moulting. Offered in a seed hopper which is more sanitary and more efficient than seed cups and seed trays, seed hoppers will cut your seed cost by about 70% through much less wasted seed.

White Sprouting Mix
The White Sprouting Mix is a blend of high germination rate seeds formulated for their unique nutritional properties and selected for their similar germination time. These are the high carbohydrate seeds you will be sprouting. Sprouting seed increases the nutritional value of seeds by approximately 300%.

After sprouting, combine 2 parts White Sprouting Mix with 1 part Black Sprouting Mix and 1/2 part STGF Complete Softfood.

Black Sprouting Mix
The Black Sprouting Mix is a blend of high fat, high protein seeds also selected for their unique nutritional properties. Lipids support reproduction, the immune system, body cell walls, nerve tissue, and have a striking effect on the growth of nestlings.

For the above reasons, the Black Sprouting Mix is an extremely important part of the diet with benefits that cannot be derived from sprouting the millets and grass seeds from the White Sprouting Mix alone.

STGF Complete Softfood Concentrate
Formerly known as Mike Fidler's Complete Softfood, the STGF Complete Softfood Concentrate is the magic pixie dust that makes the STGF diet complete. It includes everything else your finches require in the proper proportions other than live food for insectivorous finches:

All 20 essential amino acids

All essential vitamins and minerals

All essential carotenoids

Animal lipids and protein from whole egg and fishmeal

Everything...

All provided through natural foods in the proper proportions.

Want to learn how to sprout seed. It's easy!

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lovemyfinch
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Re: The First 90 Days of Life

Post by lovemyfinch » Mon Jun 11, 2012 7:12 am

Thanks again Bill, for another very informative post =D>

I am going to place this in nutrition as well, just in case some don't read it in here because they are not searching in the marketplace :wink:
Janine

shaftails,gouldians,societies,green singers,owls,cubans, and 1 parrotlet
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Sally
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Re: The First 90 Days of Life

Post by Sally » Mon Jun 11, 2012 9:58 am

And I think I will move this copy from Marketplace to Resources, since it will be an ongoing source.
3 Purple Grenadiers, 1 Goldbreast + 1 cat.

National Finch & Softbill Society - http://www.nfss.org

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L in Ontario
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Re: The First 90 Days of Life

Post by L in Ontario » Mon Jun 11, 2012 10:19 am

And I think I will move this... naaaa - just kidding! :mrgreen:

Sounds good! =D>
Liz

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fabulousfinch
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Re: The First 90 Days of Life

Post by fabulousfinch » Tue Jun 12, 2012 12:35 pm

Thanks everyone :)

Bill

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