Best/healthiest finch seed brands for 2011?

[nswchainsaw]

Nothing just water , i will put photos on over the weekend and explain what i do.
Garry

[E Orix]

Finchy
Don't panic the difference between what you got and what you thought you got is minimal.
I do not read what the break down is, what I think about is what percentage of Plain Canary to other seeds and I make sure there are no filler seeds.
The next step is it clean, shiney and fresh. Once there just soak some and see what shoots.
I actually feed a Budgie mix rather than the Finch mix because my supplier puts Plain Canary in the Budgie mix and no black seeds like Rape etc.
It is feed out like that with Red Millet fed out in a seperate bowl.
In a nut shell if it is fresh and clean you are 95% there.

[nswchainsaw]

Finchy
What is your result from the longer soak.
Garry

[Shark]

it is quite safe to add a splash of plain bleach (not a lemon scented variety) this will ensure seed does not get smelly.

[SamDavis]

I've also soaked some of my Avigrain to see how it sprouts.

Oops, I forgot about this. The seed's been sitting on the fridge since Monday. I'd used two 500mL coop cups, one with a handful of Avigrain and the other with a handful of BirdsRUs white sprouting mix. Both have well and truly sprouted then dried out and died! Surprisingly the Avigrain looks to have more shoots but I don't think any of the canary had sprouted.
But I wouldn't take any notice of my results as let's face it, my scientific experiment is a failure - just like all my old high school science experiments!

[Finchy]

Garry, I haven't done a long soak yet. I'll get to that in the coming days and will report back...

[Finchy]

What a disaster! This time I did an 8 hour soak after very thorough pre-rinsing. I used a strong Chlorhexidine digluconate solution (i.e. Avicleanse, Multiclense, etc) instead of Virkon-S. After a total of 41 hours none of the samples smelled fresh and all had various degrees of visible moulding. They sprouted though.

- Best sprouters: Petbarn/HealthyBird Budgie Mix + Avigrain Canary Mix
- Worst sprouters: Petbarn/HealthyBird Finch Mix + Elenbee Greens & Grains

- Most visible mould: Petbarn/HealthyBird Budgie Mix
- Least visible mould: Avigrain Finch Blue + Elenbee Greens & Grains

- Worst smellers: Avigrain Canary Mix + Elenbee custom finch mix

Specific results:
- Petbarn/HealthyBird Budgie Mix: 90% sprouted | Smell non-descript | Lots of visible mould
- Avigrain Canary Mix: 70% sprouted | Smell slightly sour | Some visible mould
- Avigrain Finch Blue: 60% | Smell non-descript | Slight visible mould
- Elenbee custom finch mix: 40% sprouted | Smell slightly sour | Some visible mould
- Petbarn/Healthy Bird Finch Mix: 30% sprouted | Smell non-descript | Some visible mould
- Elenbee Greens & Grains: 15% sprouted | Smell non-descript | Slight visible mould

(Please bear in mind that the mixes have different seeds which can be expected to sprout at different rates.)

Next experiment... ???

[Finchman1]

Was the seed left in a warm area to sprout? If the ambient temperature is to low this will not help your sprout technique.
If the temp is warm enough the seed should sprout in 8 to 10 hours

[Finchy]

Yes, the weather was very warm. They did sprout; they just had so many mould spores in them that even a strong Chlorhexidine soak could not prevent its growth.

I may try F10sc next. I cannot imagine how anyone could sprout seed of this quality in plain water without mould growth being triggered.

[Fincho162]

Use nothing but Elenbee seed products, nothing but Multiclens from Passwells (dont trust anything from the other crowd) to soak it in and never had the problems you've encountered.

I germinate mine in my cricket breeding box which is around 28 degrees....................given the amount we do it can't be just dumb good luck......can it!!???