What Do You Feed?

[fabulousfinch]

If my brother runs out of chitted seed he will offer them egg food plus Miracle Meal in lieu of the chitted seed.

Hi Tiffany,

Yep, for folks who won't/can't sprout chitted seed (or just run out short term) I think Miracle Meal is the next best thing to mix with the STGF Complete Softfood. I've got lots of customers doing just that. Miracle Meal is just oily enough that they blend together real well. After thinking about it I've suggested they try the same ratio as if they were using chitted seed: 3 cups Miracle Meal, 1/2 cup STGF Complete Softfood. They say it is working out real well for them. So much so that I may start carrying Miracle Meal again. I had stopped carrying Miracle Meal because too many people were buying it thinking it was an eggfood. But when combined with the CSF it's the next best thing to chitted seed that I know of.

The new maintenance diet actually suggests a mixture of sunflower oil plus the STGF Complete Soft Food in lieu of the chitted seed but I have kept forgetting to get organic Sunflower oil so for now the chitted seed plus Soft Food works.

Me too. I had to go back to the old method on accounta the new way of blending maintenance seed/sunflower oil/CSF was clogging my seed hoppers. I have too many cages to not use seed hoppers, so until I find hoppers with a larger throat I've gone back to the chitted seed/CSF blend twice a week during the maintenance period also.

Bill

[Kamoodle]

For fresh greens I give to my birds, I have given them something they absolutely love. For a while, instead of throwing the old seeds away, I throw them out on the ground, hoping that any birds outside might eat them. Instead, they don't get eaten (we honestly don't have very many wild birds out like we used to like sparrows) and they end up growing. So far, only three different types of seeds sprout into plants which later make new seeds. Whenever I have the time to do it, I will go outside, remove a few leaves off of the plants, chop those up into smaller bits, and leave it for them in a dish. My birds love to eat up those leaves. Since I mentioned three different types of seeds sprout into these plants, that means a different variety of salad, too. The other big benefit to growing their seeds is when they start to make new seeds, instead of allowing the new seeds to fully mature, I'd give my birds the seeds when they are still green. The seeds that are still green have more nutrition than after they are all matured.

I have given my birds spinach, romaine lettuce, broccoli (both as buds and the leaves), greens (mustard, turnip), even arugula over time. For calcium, they've gotten egg shells which I crush up for them, cuttlebones, and oyster shells. Millets they love obviously. Lately, I've been starting to give my birds clean, filtered water rather than the regular city tap water out of a faucet. I have been thinking of wanting to give my birds fruit like apples since I want to do the same thing as rare treats for my turtles but I usually hate it when animals let foods go to waste.