Vitamins?

[Chirpington]

How many of you use them? And what brand do you use? Currently I'm giving my gouldians Prime because I'm still working on getting them to eat more veggies and greens. My canary doesn't get any vitamins because I feel he eats very well, and eats his pellets out of his seed mix.
Are vitamins necessary even if our birds are eating a wide variety of food like greens, veggies, sprouts, egg food and so on.

[Mands]

I rang our company that sells the vitamins here in Australia. We spoke about which vitamins they thought would be best for my setup being inside.

They told me to put only the water with vitamins in it so they HAD to drink it. It turned the water blue. I put it in, in the morning, and as I sit in the room with them most of the day I noticed that no one had been drinking or bathing. I waited until late afternoon and took the vitamin water out and put normal water back in even though i was supposed to leave it for 24 hours.

It was like they had never seen water before, every bird was at the water bowls, they were so thirsty and had not had anything to drink all day. I felt terrible. I only did what i was told by the company but I would never do it again.

Obviously this doesn't happen to everyone but I sure had a bad experience and now have a heap of vitamins i wont use again. I have compensated with the extra greens etc in their diet they already had, so i am not so worried that they are missing out anymore.

[Bhatta]

Adult human drink bitter medicines because he knows it is for his good; he has the brain and maturity to judge it. A child, although human, don't drink bitter medicines; because he dose not understand its utility.
Birds in the wild get different kinds of food EVERYDAY of their choice. Additional vitamin or anything man-made it not required for them. A sick bird in the wild normally dies without any treatment. In the captivity, we can not provide their natural wild food. Further we do not want to loose a sick bird. We can not provide them natural habitat, open sky to fly, and many more. Therefore, medical supervision is a necessity. Bird/any other animal generally never like human/medical supervision. We just force them to do it. This does not always result in good things, but majority of the instances the end result is satisfactory. Many of the endangered wild species are doing better under human supervision. Perhaps, one good example is gouldian finch.
I use different brands (not all together, not always): F-Vite, Calcicon, Recovit, Ambiplex. Last three are available in India only.

[debbie276]

I don't use vitamins and vitamins in the water can go off quickly so it's usually not recommended.
Here is the page at The Finch Information Center that deals with nutrients and their sources.
http://www.finchinfo.com/diet/nutrients_and_sources.php

There are lots of other good readings so poke around a bit

[Learning Finch]

I to want my birds to have the best. I buy expensive custom finch seed mix not the comercial seed. I also add thrive, Hearn salad, three different vitamin mixes, bee polin, color up, sea kelp, spurlina, oyster shell, to my egg food that's added daily. I also try to feed fresh greens corn carrots kale sweet potato and spinach at least every other day. If the birds don't get all they need from all this..... IM LOST.

[cindy]

I agree with Debbie..vitamins in the water especially outside can go rancid fast, majority of the birds will not touch it plus most choose to bathe in their water cups and the water is changed out frequently..... and it is an unreliable way to administer them. If feeding a well balance pellet it is unnecessary to add vitamins to the water. As Debbie suggested the finch info center on nutrition has lots of good information.

[Chirpington]

Thanks everyone. Lots of great info. I'll be checking out the link Debbie, thanks for that.
I'm trying to get the gouldians to eat more veriaty. But it's slow going. They just nibble a their greens. I'm going to start sprouting seeds soon (just waiting for the seed to come in the mail). Hopefully they will take to that. I don't think the breeder gave them much more then seed.

[debbie276]

Hard boiled egg is just about the best thing you can supplement their food with so if you really want to focus on one thing it should be eggs, shell and all.
Good luck

[Chirpington]

Debbie, would I chop up the egg and shell into fine pieces or just put half an egg with shell still on? Are they able to nibble at the shell if I leave it on the egg?
They get egg food but I'm sure pure egg would be much better.
Going to boil some eggs now

[debbie276]

I put the shells large and small pieces in a separate dish so they can stay in the cage at all times. My birds love to play with and toss around the larger pieces.
The hard boiled egg I chop up (actually run it through a garlic press so they look like worms) but I've heard others that give them halves. My birds like the egg dried out a bit so I add a teaspoon of handfeeding formula (with all it's vitamin, minerals and protein) per egg. First thing in the morning I put the egg thinly on a plate so it dries out rather then goes bad, next morning I take out the egg from the day before and add fresh. That's why I keep the shells separate, so I'm not throwing them out with the egg. Over time you will learn how much to give so your not wasting too much. I feed about a tablespoon per pair, but depending on the season and mode they are in they eat more or less.
If your having a hard time getting them to try the egg try sprinkling a bit of their favorite seeds on the top, eventually they will try some.
good luck

[Chirpington]

Thank you Debbie, I'm going to try this

[Diamond Sparrow]

Mands,
I use a Vetafarm product called soluvite D Breeder.
For one week a month in the birds water,my fertility of the birds has increased heaps

[Sally]

Chirpington

I like Prime, and if you have birds that won't eat a varied diet with veggies, then I would supplement with the Prime. Birds that eat lots of veggies, eggs, different seeds probably don't need vitamin supplementation.