Feeding Fresh Veggies, Cucumber, Celery and more . . .

[Stuart whiting]

Stuart::

What does the phrase "Goes off" mean???
I'm not understanding that phrase.

Since my Gouldians will not eat hard-boiled eggs, I've stopped offering them. I'm running out of money to buy eggs

As for the Quiko Egg Food, I am offering it to them dry, with their Red Siberian Millet.

At the moment, my Gouldians have refused to eat fresh foods, whether it be fruit or vegetable, they will not eat it.

I continue to offer it, but each day I end up throwing it out.

They don't like leafy greens or broccoli, or cucumber or cabbage or carrots. Today I will be offering them canned Corn and Peas.
I'll see what they do with that.

I never had this level of frustration when I owned Parrots.
They were much more willing to accept fresh foods.

What I don't understand is that the Bird Store that they came from
also offered them fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis, and
the owner never told me that My 2 Gouldians were not eating it.
Go figure

Patrick,

" What does the term go off mean "

being onest mate I thought that was pretty obvious

It means : stale, sour, ransid, mouldy etc,

Ever smelt a bad egg, you don't wanna be within 20 ft of it, in other words it's basically " gone off "

[w.l.]

Apologies if I am repeating something that has been said before, but I have only read the last page!

To me the most obvious solution to offering something nutritious to birds that just don't want to accept anything but dry seeds is offering them their familiar seed mix sprouted. This is accepted by pretty much all, but if they prove stubborn, the dry seeds could be removed for a while and only the sprouted seeeds left in front of them until they get the taste of it.
Of course, sprouted seeds means seeds just growing a maybe 1 mm long white tip of a sprout. This is already quite nutritious, but by gradually offering sproutes that have grown longer and longer, it can also become proper green food.

As for eggfood, plenty of my birds never take to it.
Many of those will accept livefood though, but there are also some dedicated vegans!
Some of the latter will take livefood when rearing chicks, though some species can apparently raise their young with just sprouted seeds.

[Stuart whiting]

Apologies if I am repeating something that has been said before, but I have only read the last page!

To me the most obvious solution to offering something nutritious to birds that just don't want to accept anything but dry seeds is offering them their familiar seed mix sprouted. This is accepted by pretty much all, but if they prove stubborn, the dry seeds could be removed for a while and only the sprouted seeeds left in front of them until they get the taste of it.
Of course, sprouted seeds means seeds just growing a maybe 1 mm long white tip of a sprout. This is already quite nutritious, but by gradually offering sproutes that have grown longer and longer, it can also become proper green food.

As for eggfood, plenty of my birds never take to it.
Many of those will accept livefood though, but there are also some dedicated vegans!
Some of the latter will take livefood when rearing chicks, though some species can apparently raise their young with just sprouted seeds.

Another good post, quite agree, well said

[JerseyGuy]

Stuart::

What does the phrase "Goes off" mean???
I'm not understanding that phrase.

Since my Gouldians will not eat hard-boiled eggs, I've stopped offering them. I'm running out of money to buy eggs

As for the Quiko Egg Food, I am offering it to them dry, with their Red Siberian Millet.

At the moment, my Gouldians have refused to eat fresh foods, whether it be fruit or vegetable, they will not eat it.

I continue to offer it, but each day I end up throwing it out.

They don't like leafy greens or broccoli, or cucumber or cabbage or carrots. Today I will be offering them canned Corn and Peas.
I'll see what they do with that.

I never had this level of frustration when I owned Parrots.
They were much more willing to accept fresh foods.

What I don't understand is that the Bird Store that they came from
also offered them fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis, and
the owner never told me that My 2 Gouldians were not eating it.
Go figure

Patrick,

" What does the term go off mean "

being onest mate I thought that was pretty obvious

It means : stale, sour, ransid, mouldy etc,

Ever smelt a bad egg, you don't wanna be within 20 ft of it, in other words it's basically " gone off "

Sorry, Stuart, the phrase and terminology "go off" is not a phrase we would use here in the USA to refer to a food item that has gone sour or bad.

[JerseyGuy]

I feel the topic of "Diet & Nutrition" is a fascinating one, and I also discuss these topics regarding my 2 dogs.

I have found a lot of conflicting information on the Internet regarding avian diet and nutrition. One article often conflicts another. I find this common all over the Internet.

Here on the Forum, I have read the article "Safe, Toxic & Unsafe Foods".
It states many of the "Safe" foods should be offered "in moderation" yet
are to make up 80-100% of the Finches diet??

If a food item is to make up 80-100% of a Finches diet, how can that possibly
be considered "in moderation". A food item is either good and nutritious or it
is not. So I am often times perplexed with the List of Fruits & Vegetables that
should be fed to our Finches.

I am going to go ahead and feed my Finches Romaine Lettuce, Red Leaf Lettuce,
Beet Greens, Chinese Cabbage, Broccoli, and Grated Carrots, which are all listed
as to only be offered "In moderation", but these items are supposed to make up
80-100% of the Finches diet.

[Stuart whiting]

Stuart::

What does the phrase "Goes off" mean???
I'm not understanding that phrase.

Since my Gouldians will not eat hard-boiled eggs, I've stopped offering them. I'm running out of money to buy eggs

As for the Quiko Egg Food, I am offering it to them dry, with their Red Siberian Millet.

At the moment, my Gouldians have refused to eat fresh foods, whether it be fruit or vegetable, they will not eat it.

I continue to offer it, but each day I end up throwing it out.

They don't like leafy greens or broccoli, or cucumber or cabbage or carrots. Today I will be offering them canned Corn and Peas.
I'll see what they do with that.

I never had this level of frustration when I owned Parrots.
They were much more willing to accept fresh foods.

What I don't understand is that the Bird Store that they came from
also offered them fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis, and
the owner never told me that My 2 Gouldians were not eating it.
Go figure

Patrick,

" What does the term go off mean "

being onest mate I thought that was pretty obvious

It means : stale, sour, ransid, mouldy etc,

Ever smelt a bad egg, you don't wanna be within 20 ft of it, in other words it's basically " gone off "

Sorry, Stuart, the phrase and terminology "go off" is not a phrase we would use here in the USA to refer to a food item that has gone sour or bad.

Really, sorry mate didn't know that, normally here in England if you've say got a pint of milk for example and it's turned sour, we just say something like " oh the milk has gone off "

Funny how different phrases travel around the world

[Stuart whiting]

Apologies if I am repeating something that has been said before, but I have only read the last page!

To me the most obvious solution to offering something nutritious to birds that just don't want to accept anything but dry seeds is offering them their familiar seed mix sprouted. This is accepted by pretty much all, but if they prove stubborn, the dry seeds could be removed for a while and only the sprouted seeeds left in front of them until they get the taste of it.
Of course, sprouted seeds means seeds just growing a maybe 1 mm long white tip of a sprout. This is already quite nutritious, but by gradually offering sproutes that have grown longer and longer, it can also become proper green food.

As for eggfood, plenty of my birds never take to it.
Many of those will accept livefood though, but there are also some dedicated vegans!
Some of the latter will take livefood when rearing chicks, though some species can apparently raise their young with just sprouted seeds.

Another good post, totally agree Laszlo, well said

[Sojourner]

Many of our pets almost eat better than we do. Some members cook quinoa or couscous to add to the veggie mix. Possibly not all these veggies and/or fruits are offered at the same time, although Jason Crean has a whole facebook group devoted to raw avian nutrition, in which people mix up virtual salads for their birds. Patricia Sund goes around giving talks at various conventions about offering "Chop", which is where several people get together with a huge amount of veggies, they chop everything up, mix it all together, and then freeze batches for their birds.

Variety definitely can be the spice of life for our birds!

Surely greens don't freeze well?

[justread]

I've just been giving them kale, spinach, lettuce, apples and cucumber.
I place it on the "shelf" and they happily peck away. They go through the millet sticks rapidly, wherever I peg or hang them. I haven't tried chop and blend. Or eggs. They ignored fresh blueberries.

Curious. They have dragged spinach into the bath, the feeding box and the nest. Does that mean they are hoarding because I am not feeding them enough?

[Sojourner]

.... Curious. They have dragged spinach into the bath, the feeding box and the nest. Does that mean they are hoarding because I am not feeding them enough?

Naw. They may be trying to build a nest though.

Really, they are just messing with you. Finches are like that. All cute and cuddly on the outside - but on the inside ...

PURE EVIL!

[lovezebs]

justread

A lot of birds, will throw some of their greens into the water.
My way of thinking, is that they are trying to keep them fresh, but the reality, is that it tends to turn into a gross soup very rapidly, lol.

Dragging it into the nest box, is just attempting to use it as nesting material (which is ok if it's dry, but rather revolting if it begins to rot).