Need advice on seed to feed my finches - Hecks, Bicheno etc

[finchbob]

I recently invested in a batch of hecks finches, i'm also getting a few pairs of Binchenos and Gouldians soon and I want to make sure i'm feeding them correctly. There's also a few pairs of bengalese and zebra finches in there too.

I recently bought a 25kg bag of tropical finch mix for £18.99, here are the ingredients:

Versels-laga Standard Tropical Finch Mix 25kg
Ingredients

Yellow panicum 48 %
Yellow millet 33 %
Canary seed 8,5 %
Red panicum 6 %
Red millet 3 %
Niger seed 1,5 %

I also give them crushed oyster shell, millet seed, egg food and fresh water.

Is the finch mix i'm using ok for them, and is there anything important that i might be missing? I'm looking to let them breed to pay of on my investment.

Oh, I was originally going to buy the following seed mix:

Versele-laga Aviary Mix 25kg
Ingredients

Yellow millet 31 %
Canary seed 23,5 %
Rapeseed 17 %
Peeled oats 8 %
Yellow panicum 5 %
Wild seeds 5 %
Red millet 5 %
Linseed 4,5 %
Red panicum 0,5 %
Hempseed 0,5 %

But I ended up buying the first one I listed, how about this one? Is it good for the breeds I have? Better/worse than the first listed one?

[dfcauley]

Welcome to the forum. It sounds like you are getting a nice collection there. We would love to see some pictures!

I think either of those finch seed mixes will be fine.
I would add to what you are feeding them some crushed egg shell especially if you plan to breed them.

For the gouldians you will need some charcoal and powdered kelp.

Good luck and congratulations!

[finchbob]

Haven't seen any sites selling charcoal or powered kelp, got any examples of the product so I can find a seller in the uk?

As for breeding, should I just leave them all in the mixed aviary? I read that gouldians don't breed well in a mixed aviary so was wondering if I should have those caged.

The birds in my aviary will be hecks, bicheno, zebra, bengalese, javas and gouldian if I leave them all together, i'm looking to breed all of them but not sure if it's wishful thinking to get them all to breed in a mixed aviary. That the hecks, bicheno and gouldians breed is paticuarly important because those arn't cheap to buy.

One more thing, i'm worried about inbreeding, but I don't really know exactly how important is to to prevent it or if there is any systems I could use to do so. I have 15 hecks finches in all, I bought a pair from a pet shop a few years ago, turns out they were both males, though i've seen them trying to hump each other anyway, they act like a true pair, even build nests together, they'll never lag eggs though. I recently bought 13 more hecks finches from a breeder, he said they came from 4 different unrelated sets of parents. I've no idea which ones are brothers and sisters of each other. Pet shops around here sell hecks finches for £45 a pair, and that's when they get them in, which is rare (i looked for 2-3 years before I finally decided to find a breeder online, and then I had to drive 130 miles just to pick them up because hecks finches seem impossible to find around here. It was worth it because he was selling them for £15 each or £12.50 each if I bought 10 or more.

As for bicheno and gouldians, i'm going to buy 2 unrelated pairs of each from a breeder tomorrow.

[Sally]

The Bird Care Co. is based in the UK and is one of the leading companies in bird products. Google them and you should be able to find an online source in the UK. Poohbear is one of our members from the UK, and he has tons of experience with Hecks and Gouldians, I'll let him chime in with his experience with those. I do cage breeding for several reasons--I don't have an aviary, one pair to a cage lets me keep track of siblings, and I don't have to worry about compatibility. But cage breeding also has disadvantages--harder to get the birds comfortable enough to breed, lots more work.

I feed Hagen's VME Finch seed mix, and it has yellow finch millet, red finch millet, red millet, canary grass seed, white millet, rape seed, niger seed + various vitamins and minerals. Hagen lists a UK address as Castleford, W. Yorkshire. It seems that finch keeping is much more popular in the UK and Europe than in the US, so you should be able to find good products there. To me, the most important thing is that the seed is as fresh and clean as you can find. In my area, it seems that some of the sacks of finch seed, especially large bags, stay on the shelf quite a long time.