Omega Feeds - Maxicoat (supplement)

[BluJay]

Good reading here. Back home, I used to add Alaskan Salmon Oil, to seed, mixing in a rock polisher. Birds had no problem eating it. I did have to regfrigerate any that was un-used.

[Fincho162]

We've been using sunflower kernals from Elenbee for ages mixed with Clifton Tonic & extra niger with all our cup nesters. Only ones thst don't appear to like the sunnies are the green singers.
Gather the ones they sell are actually human grade kernals.

My mate rears many red siskins here and swears by the sunnies and rarely bothers with extra Niger these days.

[finchbreeder]

I knew from past experience that Galahs would live entirely on sunflower seed if you would let them. We always refused to feed ours till the seed bowl was almost empty, so they had to eat other seeds for a period. But this is interesting.
LML

[Fincho162]

I guess we all have seen what too much sunflower does to parrots at one time or another.

My guess is the higher (much!!) metabolic rate of finches compared to their Psittacine cousins negates the ill-effects of sunnies on them..............certainly seen zero obesity & infertility problems in any of our cup-nesters currently getting fed this mix on a regular basis.

[west finch]

Thanks Fincho162 that just confirms what i have been observing in my birds . Now correct me if I’m wrong , But Galahs have evolved to eat a carbohydrate rich diet that they found in the Australian bush , How many native Aussie plants have an oil content any where close to sunflowers? . Evolution takes a long time to change things!!

[Fincho162]

Horses for courses................same problems as when people started treating Conures like they were Aussie parrots instead of tropical dwellers whne Jendayas were very expensive........Vitmain K12 deficiency killed an awful lot of them before people woke up.
Always stunned me why people would pay those $$$ they once demanded and not even research their diets.......odd stuff. Knew a bloke with Jendaya's that lost them like that - fed em like a Rosella........narrow, weak blood vessels, heart attack.....dig a hole!!!

Little tropical dwellers like Siskins must have a far greater choice of foodstuffs than your average Chestnut/Aussie finch living in the same area as your Galah u mentioned - and as such require/need/ must have the richer oil seeds they crave...........My Yellow siskins sit and wait for the Clifton tonic with sunnies yet the other Aussies couldn't care less.........

[Mortisha]

So it appears siskins may have evolved to eat sunnys after all.

Commercial crops these days are vastly different to their wild ancestors.
Sunflower varieties have been heavily selected over the years to produce more and more oil content to service food manufacture sector.

The wild ancestor of sunflower probably had a fraction of the amount of oil content and a very different nutrient profile.

[west finch]

Yes that is the case Mortisha they are huge compared to the wild type and the black sunny has been selected for high oil content, But the grey striped variety is used in bird seed mixes . I grow the wild type and it is much much smaller and has multiple heads that ripen at different stages so they are useless as a commercial crop , My siskins ,gold finches and green singers go wild over them.

Yes Fincho162 a little home work can save a lot of heart break.

[BluJay]

I would not feed sunflower seeds, to my cockatoos or cockatiels, when I had them.
1) They would not eat anything else, until sunflower seeds gone. (Most other seeds ended up on the floor, from their digging to get to them)

2) I did not enjoy the mess the birds made from the husks, or from spilling all other seed to get to sunflower seeds.