Fruit and vegetables

[Tiaris]

Fresh Iceberg Lettuce is fine in a varied greenfood diet. You don't get slime on fresh stuff. I know a couple of very good inch breeders who feed it every day to their finches with good results.

[mickw]

.......Baby Spinach....... ..........

[Tiaris]

Leb cucumber, Bok Choy, Dandelion & brocoli are some personal favourites. Can really do no wrong with fresh green veges.

[Bmac27]

Apples were mentioned earlier but what was not mentioned is that you must remove all seeds prior to feeding , they contain cyanide and can be fatal ... as for other fruits and veg I've tried just about everything mentioned and now all I feed is sprouted seed , corn , green grass seed , milk seed (from finch mix grown in pots and harvested before ripened), silver beet , broccoli dandelion , chicory and slav cabbage ... the last five I have growing in pots and are left in the aviary .
Its all about trialling different things and eliminating those that are not taken , when feeding certain f & v be sure to use in moderation ... if in doubt , google "safe foods for birds"
Brad

[finchbreeder]

Iceburg lettace problem only tends to arrise in hot humid situations where the lettace that is not eaten is not removed. So yes Fresh is the point.
Apple seeds are highly sort after by cockies, as in small quantities the arsenic they contain is a conditioner. But I would not let small birds eat the seeds as the quantity would be higher per body weight. (Reminds me of a friend who used to own a caravan park and to get rid of all the dumped moggies started putting out bowls of milk laced with arsenic. Couldn't figure out why the cats instead of dying where looking nice and sleek. Till a friend who's chemistry was a bit better explained the arsenic to body weight rule. = low dose good = high dose bad)
LML

[USAFinch]

I have success with shredded carrots, broccoli, spinach, kale, brussell sprouts , Romaine lettuce and occasionally apples. Basically anything dark, leafy & green is a good bet . No luck w/ sticky sweet fruits

[KiwiBigD]

We do Iceberg about once per week as the canaries love it, otherwise the likes of Celery they all love and absolutely smash

[Bmac27]

http://birds.about.com/od/feeding/tp/poisonousfoods.htm

Not wanting to nit pick finchbreeder but arsenic is not detectable in apple seeds , it is cyanide that is present and when eaten by birds can be fatal , above is a link to the top 10 foods proven fatal to birds ... apple seeds makes the list at number 2

[TomDeGraaff]

I have found those green bags for storing lettuce in the fridge are very good. At one stage I needed to make up daily lots of greens and keep them in the fridge. They lasted up to a week okay.

I would mix up leafy greens from the garden: dandelion, endive, parsley, nasturtium, cos and asian greens; place daily portions in each bag, compress them lightly to remove as much air as I could, tie the top with a twisty-tie and place them in the fridge.

Actually, now that I think of it, I would make up 5-7 bags at a time so they certainly kept it fresh for a week at a time.

I would then finely chop them as I found less wastage doing it that way.

Tom

[Danny]

Sweet potato grated is readily taken by all my birds. It is one of the richest forms of beta carotenes and unlike carrot, has a balanced Ca:P ratio. Duckweed is also extremely useful.
I have fed halved apples for 20 years plus - finches just ignore the seeds.