Endive versus Kale

For all your questions about diet and food for your finches
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davlee
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I placed a pot of each in my mixed aviary.

Endive was demolished while the Kale was pecked at conservatively.

Dave
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Alf63
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No idea of the relative food value of either. All I can say is my birds take Endive but show very little interest in Kale.

Alf63
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Tiaris
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I'm pretty sure Kale has a slightly wider range of nutrients but endive is softer and easier for finches to eat. Endive is still nutritionally superior to most other members of the lettuce tribe though.
The best way I found to use kale in a mixed finch diet is shredded in a blender (usually with other veges) & mixed with sprouted seed & other softfoods.
Also depends on the mix of finch species kept. eg. I always found Siskins (both species) will happily shred broadleaf kale & other tough-leafed brassicas whereas most estrildid species prefer softer broadleaf greens such as endive, bok choy, chicory, etc.
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Ian Hamilton
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I've found both pretty useless. I do grow salt-bush in the aviary ( small leaf variety) & they have a go that every now & again. I also grow a variety of grasses.

Lately however, I've been buying broccoli & cutting the very end 3-4mm off & mixing it in my soft food with sprouted seed. It gets eaten quite well !
(...& I eat the leftover piece raw - its quite nice ! )
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Shane Gowland
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Kale is a big hit in my aviaries, mostly because my kale crop is absolutely infested with aphids (looks worse than this) and the finches love picking them off.

As a green food though; endive is definitely more readily eaten.
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Tiaris
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Ian Hamilton wrote: 22 Jan 2019, 17:55 I've found both pretty useless. I do grow salt-bush in the aviary ( small leaf variety) & they have a go that every now & again. I also grow a variety of grasses.

Lately however, I've been buying broccoli & cutting the very end 3-4mm off & mixing it in my soft food with sprouted seed. It gets eaten quite well !
(...& I eat the leftover piece raw - its quite nice ! )
I strongly agree that regular green grass seedheads leave ALL broadleaf greens for dead as superior green food for most finches.
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finchbreeder
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I'm with T and Ian. Seeding grass heads, salt-bush, that's what I feed my finches. Just turn over a section of the garden to these, reticulate it and alls good with the world. And it looks interesting too.
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Finch Whisperer
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Yes saltbush grows in a cage in all avairies they eat the shoots. Also keen grass seed gatherer
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VR1Ton
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Try sprouting clover in trays, grows quickly, about 7 - 10 days old and is ready, devoured in minutes, everything eats it, including the quail.
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Ian Hamilton
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VR1Ton wrote: 09 Feb 2019, 18:57 Try sprouting clover in trays, grows quickly, about 7 - 10 days old and is ready, devoured in minutes, everything eats it, including the quail.
Interesting you mention clover. I've seen first hand other breeders that do this with the same result. Clover is supposed to be very good too - loads of enzymes I think ( loads of something good, but I cant remember).

But also, in those same aviaries there is no growing green life in there either, and frankly they would devour almost anything given to them.

So my question is, do you have anything growing in the aviaries as a source of food, and if so, how did you get them onto clover when they have choice ?

As you can probably suspect, I had no success with it & gave up after a couple of months !
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