Aussie Finch Forum

My Green Cheeked Conures are professional 'seed shovelers', so my feeder sits in another bowl to catch what they shovel out, which is winnowed and put back into the feeder
Thanks
Noah Till

The quail dig arround for mealies and seed under the edges of the finch food bowls. But worth a "follow up" check.
LML

Before I winnowed the seed, I removed at least two dozen mealies and as many beetles and pupae. There is a complete subculture going on down there. The mealies are breeding better than in my tubs, which is a good job because the tubs are at a transitional stage, lots of beetles, not so many worms.

The mealies have always bred well on the avairy floors here. That is why my floors always have husk areas. I clean a patch at a time never the lot at once.
Not everyone has a suitable environment to do this however.
LML

I don't have seed husks or anything on my floors (because the aviary is swept twice a week), but the earwigs crawl under the bricks where the water dish is and the finches love them
Thanks
Noah Till

noah.till wrote: ↑08 Nov 2019, 19:25 My Green Cheeked Conures are professional 'seed shovelers'

So are the wild cockatoos at my place, they only go for sunflower seeds and throw out anything else on the ground for the native pigeons and turtle doves to eat.

I've been winnowing for yrs in some cases I get back over half the seed which would otherwise be wasted. If you can determine which seed in the mix they prefer you can add this to the winnowed seed before feeding it back to them. I find in a mixed aviary every species tends to like one type more than another and due to this there is a lot of waste as they flick through the mix chasing their favorite. My gouldians when rearing young like millet, my bigger birds not sure which ones could be grennies or diamonds like canary seed. One breeder I met had different trays with separate seed types to get a better understanding of which they preferred.

Local supplyer is selling imported "prospo?" which is almost the same as aussie white millett. And one brand is over 50% white millett in the mix while the other is just under 50% plain canary. Real red panicum is selling for $100/25kgs - and suppliers are starting to send a "red milett" which the finches would not eat the first time they tried this. Might work OK as sprouted seed.
LML

I hope you all remember the suppliers who are cashing in on the shortage of seed and once again when it becomes available again remind them.
I am fortunate my mate is still getting it from a local grower and yesterday dropped off White Millet, Canary and Finch mix all at $37.50 bag and a 25kg bag of Rape for $25. Good irrigation grown. I am lucky to have a mate able to pick it up.
Fortunately all my bins are full including about 4 bags of Red Millet which will see me through to the next harvest.
I think you will find more and more Dakota Red Millet going into mixes and being offered, it is a seed in my opinion to be too hard and inferior

Our local supplyer is apologetic, any time we point out deficicencies in the seed supplied. And passes the complaints on to their suppliers. Sometimes this results in improvement, sometimes it does not. But then the alternative is to drive 450kms to the City. Wish I had a treasure of a mate like you EO
LML