Tonic Seed Mix

[Matt]

I've been feeding my birds a tonic mix for a while now. The mix consists of everything I can find white lettuce, black lettuce, rye, phalaris, niger, bambatsi, green panic, carpet grass, signal grass, hulled & crushed sunflower, casuarina and maybe another one or two others that has slipped my mind. Question is - What ratio should I mix these in? When I started I just mixed an equal volume of each apart from phalaris which I doubled. I have been giving just a spoonfull per day in the same tray as all the rest of their daily goodies. By the end of each day there are husks everywhere from the sprouted and green seed and I can't really tell which seeds are being wasted. I'm curious to hear from others what goes into their tonic seed mixes and in what ratios?

[dano_68]

Hi Matt,

this is something I like to do a lot! lol - testing different seed mixes that is.

For starters, I always feed each seed in separate trays - so I can see what they like/dislike etc.

I carefully weigh out 10grams for example of each seed. 24 hours later I weigh the tray again and note the difference.

I do this every day for 2 weeks minimum.

This then gives me an idea about what ratios to use. Use a ratio of % ie. 25% of seed 1; 30% of seed 2; 5% of seed 3; 20% of seed 4 and 20% of seed 5.

This is easier to calculate than using weights or volumes.

This may sound finicky, but everyone that sees just how little seed I throw out is amazed!

I use small stainless steel dish (130mm diameter) that I wash every day. 6 of these (just for different seed mixes) feeds about 20 finches on average and my waist seed after 24 hours will fill about half of 1 of the dishes!

Doing it this way also alerts me when my birds are feeding young because suddenly the dishes are empty much quicker...so I know to up the amount I feed each day.

Hope this helps

ps. even though the birds love some of the high fat seeds try and minimise their use. These should only be used in winter (Hulled Oates) or in low quantities (Sunflower). Otherwise, you will end up with a lot of jolly, fat finches incapable of mating and dieing a premature death due to an over worked heart.

[Diane]

Do the birds have a mix they favour? Does this change depending on the season and if they have young or moulting?

[Matt]

Thanks Dano. Was kinda hoping someone had already done the hard yards and give me a starting point with percentages of each. When I designed my feed station, I kept it small and compact and didn't really consider a seperate tray for each seed type. Maybe an ice cube tray that fits inside the feed station with each seed in a different compartment might help see which ones are most popular.

Di, I have no idea of their favoured mix at this stage which is why I've asked the question. I've fed some of the pre-mixed tonics in the past but this was mostly wasted. I have no doubt their preferences would change depending on the time of year etc. I am primarily using the tonic mix to help get birds into breeding mode and give them the broadest possible diet I can give them. A lot of the seeds cost an arm and a leg though, so I don't want to be wasting too much of it and my feed station does not have enough space for a bunch of individual dishes.

[Diane]

Sorry Matt, didnt make my post very clear , I was asking dano if he had found any preferences. Hoping he had noticed something that we could all use.
Matt, where are you getting all these seeds from? I can only seem to find the basic finch mix at the feed stores I have nearby with some other seeds on offer such as pannicum, hulled oats, Jap millet, niger, linseed, rape seed and a few others but they dont have the names you have mentioned

white lettuce, black lettuce, rye, phalaris, bambatsi, green panic, carpet grass, signal grass, hulled & crushed sunflower, casuarina

Might have to start searching further afield, maybe Magill seed would have a better variety.

[Jayburd]

Issue 26 of Just Finches and Softbills magazine had an article in it describing a complicated tonic mix which apparently his birds devour... maybe you should have a look at it

[Diane]

Oh Toyota!
Thats one of the issues I havent got yet!
Im getting a few back issues now but ordered the older ones first to make sure I didnt miss out. Will get to it eventually.

[VR1Ton]

Matt, I did a bit of delving into this a while back & pinched a few ideas off of a few people, Graham Bull, Marcus Pollard (hope he's not reading this ), & the Lowes. After a bit of playing around I found a medium that mine would take. Final mix, mixed on volume not weight was:

4 parts Green Panic, 2 parts Signal Grass, 2 parts Bambatsi, 2 parts Purple Pigeon Grass, 1 part Tetila Ryegrass, 1 Part Pensicola Biha Grass, & 1 part of each Rape,Linseed, Maw & Niger.

To this is added a couple of mls of Breeding Aid, helps settle the dust & make it a little more nutritios.

My Tanimbars & Piccies love it, while the Masks have a pick. Even thinking of trying it with the Majors next season. I didn't breed any this season, but have to admit I didn't give them much incentive in the diet side this year. Also wanting to trial the Lowes milk seed, but they won't have any for about another 7 or 8 weeks. I also spoke to them about the Siberian millet, as I have never used it before, Ray told me that they use it instead of Jap as it was higher in protien. But I notice that a few of the tonic mix recipies also contain Barnyard Grass, wich is a similar species to Jap, so I never worried about adding this to the mix, but now am a little conflicted.

But I think the only way is trial & error to find out what your birds like, & you are not throwing money away.

[Matt]

Thanks VR, that's exactly what I was looking for - a starting point.

Di. I got most of the seeds mail order from Australian Wildlife Supplies and some from Nutriwing. The casuarina came from picking them myself and forcing my kids to pick them as punishment

[VR1Ton]

Yeh casurina seed is a little dear, around about $200 a kilo, but you get upto 1600 seeds in a gram & only use a small amount, really good for th Fire-tails & Redheads.