Canary and Finch owners, what is in your birds diet?

[Mr Peepers]

If you're looking in Toronto Links Road Vet Clinic definitely sells Harrisons. You don't have to be a client, you can just walk in and buy it. They don't keep the high potency on the shelf so you have to ask for it.

We also order it from T4W sometimes. Shipping within Canada isn't usually too bad and then we can justify adding some toys to the order too

Thank you so much for posting the information I appreciate it Links sounds like a great place to keep in mind should I ever need them for anything avian related if my avian isn't available it seems they have an emergency after hours clinic available at another location as well this is something I should know about.

Great minds think alike I got a pm from someone mentioning T4W having Harrison's so I can order online. Good to know!
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[mythic55]

Daily seed mix is XtraVital- comes with 24 seeds and has powdered egg. They are often sold out, so I mix in Encore and Trill often. (pellets are in the mix)
Every other day they get a mixture of egg food (smashed hard boiled egg with crushed shell and sunshine factor) and a array of chopped veggies and herbs: carrot, peppers, parsley, cilantro, squash, or whatever I have on hand.
Twice a week I put in sprouted or growing seeds from their mix. They love to munch on them... but I have to be careful as they spoil quickly.
On occasion I throw in a big piece of fruit for them to poke at- peach or apricot

In preparation for breeding, I also add a half dose of vitamins to the water every other day. This helps ensure the proper amount harder to come by vitamins and minerals because I am slightly OCD with nutrition.

Treats:
They have cuttlebone and millet- but won't touch those 'treat sticks' that are held together with honey. In fact- they don't eat as much millet- they prefer the wild grasses here that the wild indian silverbill finches feed on. But it makes a HUGE mess.

 

[wyrinth]

Here they are eating some quinoa and chopped kale...I accidently made too much for dinner ....hey you never know, the kids might spontaneously start eating bunches of the stuff. Froze the extra in an ice cube tray and the birds love it (wouldn't want good food to go to waste )

The intensive bird is the female daughter,

who gets booted from her meal by her mosaic dad

and she has to have an argument....kids

 

[Mr Peepers]

Here they are eating some quinoa and chopped kale...I accidently made too much for dinner ....hey you never know, the kids might spontaneously start eating bunches of the stuff. Froze the extra in an ice cube tray and the birds love it (wouldn't want good food to go to waste )

The intensive bird is the female daughter,
View attachment 192973
who gets booted from her meal by her mosaic dad
View attachment 192974
and she has to have an argument....kids
View attachment 192975

Nice idea, I offer quinoa to Mr Peepers with some egg and carrot and he pigs out on it I think I will give it a try with some kale and see if he likes it.

The female daughter is beautiful, is she a red intensive agate? Dad's gorgeous, any other chicks? what were the like and what was Mum canary's coloring like?

 

[wyrinth]

She is red black intensive. Mom is also a red black intensive, but not as deep red...it's why I kept this baby, her color is almost purple red although i can't really get the color on film. The other chicks were either red black intensive or non intensive.
This particular male was bred by my father, who accidentally put two intensive birds together and of their total of 9 chicks (two clutches) two were mosaics, a male and a female.

 

[Mr Peepers]

She is red black intensive. Mom is also a red black intensive, but not as deep red...it's why I kept this baby, her color is almost purple red although i can't really get the color on film. The other chicks were either red black intensive or non intensive.
This particular male was bred by my father, who accidentally put two intensive birds together and of their total of 9 chicks (two clutches) two were mosaics, a male and a female.

Very nice chick, will you breed her this year?

I love the mosaics, so many new colors and variety's these days.

 

[wyrinth]

No, I wont breed any canaries this year. The only male I have is her father and she is actually too small and has some longer feathers on her body that show white tips, so she's actually not a really good specimen, technically speaking. I originally kept her because she was a single chick hatched from an early clutch and I handled her a lot which made her very tame (although she picked up all nervous, naughty behaviors from her parents ), she was female and too small to be a good breeding specimen, so I kept her. Her deep, dark color was a pleasant surprise for me since she had a couple of odd golden feathers on her fledgling feathers (combined with her Sunday hatch day ) earning her the name Sunni/Sunday.

Also, for some reason, people are not really attracted to the bronze canaries, preferring clear colors. Either that, or I just think there are too many breeders in NYC.

And, I really want to keep them all because I think my canaries, which I've raised and help feed, are the most beautiful, smartest, best canaries in the whole world and have a hard time letting them all go. So I have my fake eggs ready to go this year!

 

[Mr Peepers]

Awww I see, she certainly sounds like a lucky little spoiled cutie. Good that you aren't going to breed her if you don't have another cock bird that's not her papa. Strange thing about colors and people wanting the older or clear colored birds, I would have thought the intensives and agates be so sought after as they are so different.

There are so many canaries for sale in my city, 3 months ago I couldn't find a bird if I tried now I can have my pic of hundreds of them.

 

[~Drini~]

My euro goldfinch LOVES to eat garden weeds. I used to feed them a lot to my smaller parrots (budgies & cockatiels), but I stopped offering them once the only parrots I had were much larger (conure and a BFA).

Now that I have a finch, I've been offering them again, and he loves them! Dandelion, chickweed, winter grass, and whatever else you may find (make sure it's safe to eat before).

 

[pajarita]

My canaries eat ABBA 1700 and my finches ABBA 1900. They get a different green everyday (Romaine/Boston/butter/green leaf and red leaf lettuce, chicory, escarole, green/red/savoy/nappa cabbage, red/regular and rainbow Swiss Chard, red/regular and dino kale, celery, carrot tops, endive, watercress, dandelion, fennel and sweet basil -no collard greens, spinach or parsley) and either a piece of fruit (apple, pear, orange, grapefruit, pumello, papaya, mango, cantaloupe, grape, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, cherries, watermelon, honeydew, golden melon, peaches, nectarines, etc but they don't like pomegranate seeds) or a veggie (corn on the cob, red/yellow/orange pepper -they don't like the green ones- all types of pumpkins and squashes, cucumber, zucchini, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, yucca, malanga, white and yellow potatoes -some of the veggies are raw and some are cooked). I only feed a very small portion of grated hard-boiled egg during breeding and chick raising -as well as soft food like polenta, couscous, birdie bread, soak seed and hemp). I don't even feed any red food to my red factors...