FINCHforum

Hey everyone!
I made up a printable for anyone who's interested.

It's an easy reference list of safe and toxic food for birds.

I had one on my fridge sent out by one of the online bird supply sites, but alas, it fell off and got shredded by a mischievous someone. *cough* Malley the Min Pin *cough*

So I made up a new one. Much easier to read and more comprehensive.

I'll try to paste it up here; it's an 8.5x11 sheet, so not sure how well it will show up.



You can download it here for printing:
http://www.petfinchfacts.com/wp-content ... dFoods.pdf

Thanks for the list. Im going to post it on my fridge as well, using heavy duty magnets because I also have four legged paper shredders.

MiaCarter.....awesome job

Thanks for making a user friendly poster!

Mia that's an amazing list . Thanks it will be very helpful when making new mixes for them.

Thank you very mush for the list Mia. That is a great big help. I was wondering about the cat food though. Can I give it to my finches that are having their babies?

Great info! Thanks.

you may want to add chives, shallots and garlic to your toxic list...they are in the same family as onions and our avian vet recommends not using them. They have been discovered to cause red blood cells to rupture (haemolytic anaemia)

http://www.parrots.org/pdfs/all_about_p ... arrots.pdf

MiaCarter That's a great list. It's good to have a reference list, especially for caretakers who might be tempted to give them something and then can refer to the list. (my son) I had to laugh at the "no doughnuts" Poor finches! You forgot maggots...just kidding! Remembering our crazy maggot post!

Melanie Gagnon -- Cat food (dry) should be just fine.
Just peek at the ingredients.
I'd opt for a high quality/premium brand so there are no colorings/dyes, as the babies in particular can be sensitive to the dyes (I believe it's the one of the red dyes that's most problematic.)
I always say that those colorings/dyes aren't there for the pet's benefit; they're there for the human's benefit (especially since dogs/cats can't see well on the red/orange spectrum! They see mostly blue and greens.)
If you have babies, I'd opt for a kitten formula, as those are higher in fats and other nutrients that promote growth.
The kitten formula may be too rich for regular use, but for babies, that's what I'd pick.
Just crush it up as best you can. Or you can moisten the kibble in hot water, let it swell, then serve (but you'll need to pull it within a couple hours to prevent bacteria formation).

@cindy -- Good call! I'll update it to include chives and garlic.
Hemolytic anemia also occurs in dogs and cats from foods in the onion family, so I'm very familiar with that risk.
In fact, onions and garlic are often found in baby foods (most often in the actual pureed meals, like lasagna in a jar, whereas peas and carrots wouldn't usually have extra ingredients). So you need to be sure to check the ingredients on baby food!

Updating the lists to include a few new items!!

Hey finchey friends!
I updated to include some new foods.

Here's the PDF for printing:
http://wp.me/a4JWrl-6x



There's a complete overview of which foods were added here:
http://wp.me/p4JWrl-6n

I'm also making up a couple of additional printables with safe plants and dangerous plants.
If you can think of anything else that would make a good printable, let me know!

I just found this list you might find useful!
http://www.parrot-and-conure-world.com/ ... birds.html

Great list. I'm sure we'll all get a lot of use from it.