Feeding European Goldfinches

Includes Species Profile
Howldaloom
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Posts: 184
Joined: 16 Mar 2011, 03:29
Location: United kingdom

Im feeding my goldfinches canary seed mix with 30% niger seed, plenty of hemp and sunflower hearts. maby throw in some saflower seeds.
I also feed a wildseed/weed seed mix *european mix* And blue maw A little bit of foriegn finch mix . Also egg food store bought or boiled and mashed free range eggs.Mealworms/maggots. greens.brocalli is a firm fav. also have like 6 potted herbs on my windowsil that they get a clipping of nearly every day *coriander,tyme,mint,flat leaf parsley,curley leaf parsley and basil. And they love these.Rocket, spinage and kale ooooh and cress they mutilate in seconds

Also try feeding powdered kelp. My goldfinches look like they have been through the car wash and been polished rofl
please dont stand in my aura
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dano_68
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Posts: 262
Joined: 20 Jul 2010, 22:29
Location: Brisbane, QLD

They defiantly will do better if you get them onto a diet of Milk thistle, dandelions, and any sort of seeding weeds.

Goldfinches need a lot of greens, every day and also like a lot of egg food.

After about 6 - 8 weeks on this type of diet (with 30% Niger in seed) they will look well polished and be ready for breeding.
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sierranomad

I have 4 European Goldfinches at the end of (but still in quarantine). I have 10 finches in my aviary (Zebra and Society). Yesterday I put a dandelion plant in with each group. The aviary group nibbled at the dandelion, but the goldfinches devoured theirs. I just gave them another one and they look like piranhas on it.

I hadn't been giving them any greens, so this may be part of the reason for their interest, but neither has the other group been getting any. Shows me how essential greens are.
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nirep
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Posts: 114
Joined: 25 Jan 2010, 09:25
Location: Port Lincoln South Australia
Location: Port Lincoln SA

Hi buzzdot I am from SA and mine have just finished thier molt and looking slick.Definitely need to add fat to their diet like niger seed,sunflower seed, lettuce seed, hemp seed etc.Egg food as well ,I grind two boiled eggs,table spoon and half of pine nuts(or sunflower hearts) finely ground,some cooked cous cous soaked with some honey and your favourite veg shreded like broccoli or carrot.Irresistible!
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nirep
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Posts: 114
Joined: 25 Jan 2010, 09:25
Location: Port Lincoln South Australia
Location: Port Lincoln SA

Ohh and they are good at wasting seed as they are picky and thrash seed they don't prefer.Try find a feeder with a decent surface area yet shallow enough and change their mix once nearly all eaten.This way they won't become too fat and cause liver disease or poor breeding.Goodluck :thumbup:
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batuhan
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Posts: 29
Joined: 06 Dec 2010, 05:19
Location: Turkey/ISTANBUL

dano_68 wrote: 01 Apr 2011, 00:27 They defiantly will do better if you get them onto a diet of Milk thistle, dandelions, and any sort of seeding weeds.

Goldfinches need a lot of greens, every day and also like a lot of egg food.

After about 6 - 8 weeks on this type of diet (with 30% Niger in seed) they will look well polished and be ready for breeding.
Goldfinches need very little greens and very very little egg-food.
They need a lot of Milky seeds Because goldfinches are granivorous/seed-eating birds not insectivorous/insect eating birds.
batuhan
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