Birds fight over this seed....

[debbie276]

Spray millet is foxtail or finger millet, milo is sometimes sold as "jumbo" millet from what I have found online.

[fabulousfinch]

That's very interesting. Maybe it's just 'spray millet' (I have no idea what kind of millet it actually is) that is full of fat. At least that's what I always hear. "don't give your bird too much millet! They'll get fat!" So there must be differences in nutritional value of different millet.

It's not that spray millet is extremely high in fat, it's that they can get too fat on the carbs in the spray millet from gorging on it trying to find trace levels of nutrients if their overall diet is not well balanced. Finch obesity often comes from the carbs in a poor quality finch blend with nothing else in the cage but vitamin water and a cuttlebone; the standard exit package from a pet store for many new finch owners.

In general, a finch will thrive on the following:

1. A wide variety of top quality seeds including oil seeds.

2. Fresh Water.

3. Sprouted seed mixed with eggfood (add your vitamins here if needed).

4. Calcium/mineral grit.

5. Greens

6. Insects (as needed for insectivorous finches).

Done

Bill

[ranchnanny]

Bill what oil seed are you talking about?

[debbie276]

A few of the oil seeds that I can recall are:
sunflower
thistle - nyjer
safflower
peanut
rape
flax
hemp
poppy
sesame
black lettuce

Anybody know any more?
Oily seeds should not be more then 5% of their diet.

[cindy]

One thing to consider when giving your birds carbs is if the bird is more sedentary and consumes a lot of carbs the carbs which are stored in muscle turns to fat. Finches usually have a higher metabolism than say a parrot the tends to sit more and is not actively flying to burn up carbs. As with anything it should be given in moderation depending on the type of bird and how active the bird is.

You may provide all the right foods but if the bird is not an active bird or older you may need to adjust the diet accordingly.

[fabulousfinch]

Bill what oil seed are you talking about?

Hi Sherry,

Deb's got the oil seeds covered in her list above and of course the smaller ones are best for finches (although you can use crushed sunflower hearts, etc. also).

And 5% of the diet is pretty much the conventional wisdom for most finch species, although the STGF uses them differently. During the breeding and molting season oil seeds make up 1/3 of the sprouted seed mix which is then mixed with an eggfood (the CSF). They feed this mix at the rate of one well rounded teaspoon per day per breeding pair.

When nestlings are born they increase the daily allocation of sprouted seed/eggfood mix to as much as can be eaten in 24 hours. As the nestlings grow larger the amount offered continues to increase. The rule of as much as can be eaten in 24 hours is maintained until the juvenile birds are weaned at which point they are removed from the parent bird's cage and then returned to the daily ration of 1/2 well rounded teaspoon per bird per day until they complete their adult molt.

When you keep the sprouted seed/eggfood mix always available all of the birds (parents and fledglings) slow way down on the dry seed mix. I was struck by the fact that from the point of birth to the point of weaning the nestlings are receiving the richest diet I had ever seen fed to Gouldians. This was also true for Parrot finches, Longtail finches and Zebra finches.

Of course this rich diet is offset by the maintenance and austerity diets during the non-breeding and non-molting periods of the year.

There are unique properties in oil seeds which help birds through periods of stress and rapid growth. They should be included to some extent in the diet year round except during the austerity period.

For some finches such as Siskins and European Goldfinches oil seeds are used in the staple diet in much larger proportions than for other species.

Bill

[ranchnanny]

Thanks Bill

[dfcauley]

I just ordered two bags of the Birds R Us Premium seed mix from Laraine. She is feeding this to her birds now and says that they eat all of the seeds. It is an awesome quality of bird seed in my opinon. I will say it is more expensive than the deluxe seed mix so not sure how long I can keep feeding it.