FINCHforum

I currently have an aviary with several mixed pairs of finches. I have a couple of hanging feeders in the aviary which work rather well; except for one little bugger. I have a female cordon bleu that will sit there and just throw seed left and right. She can actually empty a single feeder easily in a single day. I am going through a ton of seed because of this single bird. I've tried other feeders and other seed with no luck. The seed I use now is called TH Special Finch Mix from Herman Bros. Pet Products, Inc. in Michigan. Do you have any suggestions? Please Help, Help!!

hi browneyed boy66
i have the same problem with my javas when they are looking for the paddy rice in the mixture.it is obviously looking for its favourite seed,thus emptying the feeder......what i do is geta 8 or 10 inch plastic saucer..the type that go under plant pots ,,drill 2 holes in and fix it to the bottom of the feeder then all the flicked out seed will land in it and you can fill it back up again without any waste.of course that will not stop it flicking the seed all over again...what i suggest is that you find out what its fave seed is by tring to place a handfull of all the different seeds in seperate pots and watch the one it goes too then when you buy your mix just buy a little extra of the one it likes best.i always buy a few pounds extra paddy rice for my javas and add it to the mix.you could always keep a pot seperate for your cordon ...and it will save all the seed waste in the first place...the importance here is always find out what the previous owner fed the birds as it is just looking in the pot for the seed that used to be there and now isnt in any great quantity

ken

I feed mine with the seed already spread out in a wide plastic ice cream container lid. I only feed a thin layer at a time, so they can see what they want without flicking. I mix the seeds by "eyballing" what they eat, what they leave, and if there is a lot of one kind left, I don't mix as much of that in the next time. I mix small batches at a time in a plastic pitcher. very little seed gets wasted that way.

My CBs are the worst ones about throwing seeds everywhere. I changed to the seed hoppers, and this has slowed them down considerably.

I have switched all of my bird to pellets. I use primarily Kaytee Exact Rainbow. My CB's still throw it around, but I make them clean it up. I only feed as much as they will eat in a day too.