Daily feed outs?

[finches247]

Is this diet i have out for my finches and doves below ok

Normal dry finch seed mix
Tonic seed mix
Lebanese Cucumber
Jap millet seed heads
Corn
silverbeet
grit
chick starter
very fine softfood
egg yolk and shell
and water
with livefood maggots,mealworms and waxmoth larvae and dry insectivore mix
and grass and thistle and piminex

[Tiaris]

The main benefit of Lebanese Cucumber which I've found for breeding birds is its moist, pulpy consistency which is the perfect medium for parent finches t regurgitate & feed their young. Many finch species which you wouldn't normally regard as avid green food eaters will keenly take to Lebanese cucumber when feeding young. Many species in my aviaries will go to their termites and milk seed first but then straight to the leb cucumber for a top-up before going to feed their young. Incidientally, Gouldians which I do regard as avid green food eaters, don't tend to bother much with it.

[SamDavis]

Variety is the spice of life I say! So my breeders get a heap of stuff including
- various fresh and frozen diced fruit/veges/greens (whatever I'm feeding the Eckies the finches get). This morning the fresh stuff was lettuce, spinach, apple, plum, peach, carrot, leb cucumber and also frozen peas and corn which are a definite favourite for most finches with chicks.
- maggots and termites. There's also a vinegar fly bucket in each aviary and moths are chucked in every day or so.
- sprouted seed and fidler softfood (from the freezer).
- small quantity of greens n grains
- extra dish of niger/canary in the siskin aviary
- seeding grasses/millets each afternoon
and of course dry finch mix in self feeders and grit, PVM and cuttlefish.

I wouldn't bother with all the fruit and veg if I wasn't feeding Eckies, but I'd continue with the green leaf stuff, leb cucumber and the peas and corn. The only parrot finches I have are tri-colors and they have the smallest clutches of all my finches (routinely just one or two) so I suspect they're a bit fat.

[Jayburd]

forgot greens and grains and cuttlefish ;)

[kimberley breeder]

Thanks for the comments everybody. I guess I should have mentioned that I only give out very small amounts of the forementioned greens (vegies and fruits) never more than 1/4 cup between 30 birds. I have been keeping an eye on the parrot finches as I know they are prone to obesity. They have a 6 m flight to excercise and the males chasing the females around.

I like to give my birds a good selection so all species are well looked after and the fussy ones get enough to feed their bubs