Foods rich in vitamin A and E

[Rob]

Can people let me know what they feed their finches rich in these vitamins? Any tips

[gomer]

Vitamin A carrot, Peas, Kale Cod liver oil, spinach, dandelion, bok choi, pak choi
Vitamin E spinach again, broccolli somtimes, Kale

Personally I dont have alot of luck getting the birds to eat Kale.

[Craig52]

Personally i think every body has gone mad feeding vegetables to finches, they are grass finches not vegetable finches. I have been breeding finches for some 50 years with good results just feeding good quality seeds and seeding grasses plus livefoods during the breeding season that contain these vitamins and many more so they should not be lacking.
Twice a week during the breeding season and once a week out of the breeding season they are fed a good vitamin/mineral and amino acid powder dusted over their sprouted seed.
As i use frozen green french white millet i am able to use this when seeding grasses are not available for the finches that may breed through our cooler months so they don't lack this when they are not breeding or in a holding aviary, after all it is a green seed full of nutrition.
I know every one is just trying to give their finches the best diet they can but over feeding them these additional vitamin extra's is a waste of time as they just excrete it in their droppings as their internal gut can only tolerate small doses.
To get finches into breeding condition, all you need to do is feed copious amounts of seeding grasses and livefoods and direct sunshine to start the internal breeding cycle, this is where they get most of if not all of the vitamins/minerals and other essentials from.
Craig

[Rob]

The battle for me is finding these foods that my fussy birds will actually eat. They don't like the taste of the vitamin powder I've tried to sprinkle. I've finally got them eating lots of lebanese cucumber but if I sprinkle vitamins on it they hardly touch it, same with sprouted seed. My millet heads are only just seeding up and I'm constantly at war with the doves raiding my crops and the missus keeps removing the wire I put around it for protection for some reason that only she'll understand.
I read seed is lacking in important vitamin A, which can help with parasite resistances like scaly mites etc.
The vitamin E definitely made a difference when I used to breed canaries so I believe in that.
Thanks I'll give some of those a try.

[Craig52]

Owps, i do feed a vegetable cucumber. I don't think there is a finch that wont have a go at it. Imo if you have tried V+M powder on your sprouted seed and the birds don't like it you are using too much. A very fine dusting and a toss/mix to coat the seed is all you need or get a liquid V+M and add a couple of drops and mix before feeding.
I wouldn't bother putting it on the cucumber as it's too wet and yellow staining which is probably why they don't touch it. Cheers Craig

[Masterfincher]

I feed a handful of mixed salad leaves from Aldi - beetroot, lettuce and spinach leaves - into each aviary in the morning (along with soaked seed and mealworms) and they love it; the gouldians especially love the beetroot leaf stalks (and first clutch for the season will be fledged in a couple of days). I also feed green panic and other grass heads every second afternoon as I get the time to collect it then.

[Rob]

I thought lettuce would give them the squirts?? I know the white part is toxic to rabbits too. Seems though to be a big difference in nutrition between different varieties. Cos lettuce seems to have alot better values than the iceberg.

[Tiaris]

I strongly agree with Craig's post re the value of natural foods ie seeding grasses &/or sprouted seed as both being far superior to virtually all other veges.

[Rob]

Do you have links to nutritional value to back this up though. Without scientific data you don't know what vitamins may be lacking. You may be rich in some and lacking in others.

[Tiaris]

No links, sorry. Just 4 & a bit decades of experience in producing thousands of finches.