Wild Plants

[CathyCraftz]

Can I feed any plants that grow in suburban areas to my finches like grass? I am quite sure that the grass near me have never been sprayed with pesticide so will my zebras eat it? What other wild plants can I feed my finches?

[starman]

Cathy,
You can try them with any seeding grass heads that have not been sprayed. Also, avoid grass heads that exhibit signs of ergot (black, sticky deposits) and any grass that may have been fouled with dog urine or heavy exposure to motor vehicle exhausts.

[Finchnut]

I pick wild grass that seed my favourites are Winter Grass, Poe Grass and Chick Weed, yes you could run the risk of grass that may have been sprayed so get to know your area. Stay clear of any that have a milk sap.

[matcho]

Cathy,

Wildgrasses with seed heads are fine except for the paspalum, it is sticky and I have never used it, look for the finer ones and you will do fine. As mentioned wintergrass and chickweed are great but there is also dandelion and milk thistle which goes against the grain of the "milky" things. My birds love it, I collect and rinse and store in the green vege bags in the vegetable crisper and last for a few days. Just be careful of one that looks a bit like chickweed, it is called "petty spurge", not good. This site has many posts with identification of grasses and safe plants. Just use the "Search" and you should get near on all the info you need. It is amazing what you find when on a walk in the local parks and reserves and even things that spring up in your garden. Just tossing some of your seed from your cage around your garden can result in a welcome surprise after a few weeks.

Good luck

Ken.

[finchbreeder]

In my garden if it has seed heads it is not a weed, it is finch food. But pick the whole plant when it gets close to the end of its life and then they can pick through the roots too.
LML

[Tiaris]

Wildgrasses with seed heads are fine except for the paspalum, it is sticky and I have never used it, look for the finer ones and you will do fine.

I regularly use 2 types of paspalum (Giant Paspalum and broadleaf paspalum) as green grass seed & both are excellent grass seed for finches when used at the correct stage. This is detemined by the wild finches - when I see the wild redbrows eating them, I pick them for my aviary birds. This is usually in both cases when the green seed is just ripening off & some green seeds are just starting to turn from green to brown - at this stage they are not sticky at all but can be prior to this. As well as these two, one of my birds' absolute favourite grass seeds (signal grass) is also in the paspalum genus & has a very similar head to other paspalums - I feed it virtually every day for all but late winter/early spring when it is not in head. All grass heads are useful green seed when used at the right stage (and many grasses other than paspalum can at times be infested with smut/rust/ergot infestations) and using the widest possible range of locally available grass seed provides a more varied and IMO more nutritionally complete diet for our birds.