Greens what is your gouldian eating?

[paintedfiretail]

MY Gouldians are hammering the chickweed , sprouted seed with cod liver oil and wheat germ and saltbush at the moment all so feeding dandelion leaves and heads, flatweed leaves, parsley ,lebanese cucumber ,corn on cob , shepherds purse and what ever pops up in garden.

[E Orix]

I must really neglect my poor Gouldians, dry seed, soaked seed and that's it unless they find something in the aviary.
Painted do you feed that all year round or do you give them a break from such a varied diet.
The last 2 weeks of Aug and first week of Sept. all my birds are fed just Red Millet and White Millet as an austerity diet.
After that I then give my other species a full on breeding diet but soak seed still replaces green food (except Leb Cucumber)
I can not supply enough seeding heads through out the season. Once the breeding season starts then all food must be available every day.
A missed day would/could result in lost chicks.
By the way I do not cage breed which may require a different method.

[Craig52]

Tend to agree David,my crimsons are breeding at the moment. The only greens they are getting is frozen green french white millet mixed in their frozen sprouted seed,thawed out of coarse but frozen when they get it and they are producing 5's out of the nest.
I know the weather is cold but they are hard wired to start breeding from now. Craig

[paintedfiretail]

is there a size limit as my reply was not posted.

[Craig52]

is there a size limit as my reply was not posted.

If you are talking about pics yes, 640 x 380

[paintedfiretail]

Tend to agree David,my crimsons are breeding at the moment. The only greens they are getting is frozen green french white millet mixed in their frozen sprouted seed,thawed out of coarse but frozen when they get it and they are producing 5's out of the nest.
I know the weather is cold but they are hard wired to start breeding from now. Craig

HI Graig out of interest what live food do you feed your crimsons when breeding.

[paintedfiretail]

twice i have replyed to E orix in length (text) and has not posted .

[Craig52]

Tend to agree David,my crimsons are breeding at the moment. The only greens they are getting is frozen green french white millet mixed in their frozen sprouted seed,thawed out of course but frozen when they get it and they are producing 5's out of the nest.
I know the weather is cold but they are hard wired to start breeding from now. Craig

HI Graig out of interest what live food do you feed your crimsons when breeding.

Only bushfly maggots PF, tried mealworms and termites but they want take them. Craig

[paintedfiretail]

I must really neglect my poor Gouldians, dry seed, soaked seed and that's it unless they find something in the aviary.
Painted do you feed that all year round or do you give them a break from such a varied diet.
The last 2 weeks of Aug and first week of Sept. all my birds are fed just Red Millet and White Millet as an austerity diet.
After that I then give my other species a full on breeding diet but soak seed still replaces green food (except Leb Cucumber)
I can not supply enough seeding heads through out the season. Once the breeding season starts then all food must be available every day.
A missed day would/could result in lost chicks.
By the way I do not cage breed which may require a different method.

Yes I do do a austerity diet for the last two to three weeks of August depending how long I am away but it is not as severe as yours as I
just supply straight finch mix (avi blue) as main breeding season I to am avid believer of giving as much as possible seeding heads my
main ones are panic veldt ,johnson grass which is grown inside aviarys and out ,grown finch mix seed heads and what ever else is
growing at the time.I like to feed greens all the time because of all the minerals and vitamins they have eg dandelion leaf minerals
iron ,magnesium, potassium ,zinc,manganese,copper,boron,silicon ,and calcium,and vitamins A,C,D,K,B.and its all free in your garden.
As for soaked seed it has no more value than dry seed accept they can process it quick for feeding.

[E Orix]

All I was doing was giving another perspective. Not everyone has access to green feed at a regular basis.
I was not being critical of your program at all, but not everyone is able or willing to do what you do and if they
got the impression that they had to do what you do they may not bother keeping the birds.
With what I feed and what they pickup my birds seem to do reasonably well and produce good quality chicks.
Once again don't take offence because posts like yours are so valuable to the Forum and bird keeping.