Aussie Finch Forum

Today we have added the last species of finch to our collection - a pair of RC CB (red cheeked cordon bleu). The breeder highlighted that red panicum is their main diet so we added a separate container with just red panicum. Before long several other birds were diving into it, especially the St Helenas. If i understand it correctly, it has lower nutritional value than other finch seeds. Bearing in mind that they still have their staple finch mix in the aviary, is there a problem with the birds eating a lot of red panicum?
Thanks.

Don't know about any ill effects, but I do know that my rccb's do just fine without any extra red pannicum. They get the standard finch mix (and live food, green seed, sprouted seed, leb cucumber etc) which only gets replaced when all seeds have been eaten. In your position, I would probably just put ever decreasing amounts of extra pannicum through the finch mix til they are "weened off" the extra. Not at home at the moment to check nutrition, so can't comment on that aspect.

Congratulations on your new pair Flap, I didn't realize its nutritional value was less and always offer a small amount each day as a treat as have also found my birds really enjoy it, so will also be interested in hearing some responses here.

Hi Flap,

I actually use a mix of 50/50 red & white panicum as an austerity diet. This helps them lose weight and tone up in preparation for the next breeding cycle. Sometime just for *hits & giggles I put a little bowl of this mix in with their breeding diet - and guess which bowl get's demolished first!

I have wondered about this often and think maybe the colour, size, shape may be appealing - and because panicum is low in nutritional value they need to eat a lot of it to feel full (like Chinese food laced with MSG lol).

BTW, I have kept and bred RCCB's for many years and have never supplied a separate dish of red panicum. What they do like (like most species) is freshly picked Green Panic or other seeding grass heads. My RCCB's are also the first into the meal worm bowl whether they are breeding or not - when they have chicks BOTH parents are hanging on the wire waiting for me to hurry up with the live food already!! lol

I have always found Red Pannicum to be the most favoured seed by far for my mix of finches. Small African waxbills in particular (such as Cordons, OBs, etc) are very partial to it but so to are most other species. For this reason I use extra red pannicum compared to the other seeds in my basic dry seed mix and use it as a medium for supplements due to its widespread appeal across a range of species. By tailoring our mix and proportions of seeds according what our birds eat we can significantly reduce feed waste. I don't see the point of weaning them off their favoured foods especially one which is non-fattening. Red Pannicum is nutritionally identical to Yellow but if both are offered the red is always favoured due to its slightly softer kernel. I regard it as by far the best of the available dry seeds. Highly favoured by the birds with no adverse side-effects (such as obesity). One of the greatest causes of infertility in finches is obesity, so if you can offer your finches extra seed which they prefer to eat more of & which is not fattening I can't see why you would intentionally deprive them of extra.

I wondered what a RCCB was so I googled it:
A Residual-Current Circuit Breaker (RCCB) is an electrical wiring device that disconnects a circuit whenever it detects that the electric current is not balanced between the energized conductor and the return neutral conductor.

Red-Cheeked cordon bleu

Sorry, wasn't thinking when I wrote the abbreviation. Will edit the original post for clarity. However it was interesting to read about the circuit breakers! Jay, thanks for clarifying.
Everyone else thanks for the replies. A few of our birds are getting on the plumper side so maybe I will continue to offer the red panicum to help them slim down.

I feed Red Millet in a seperate dish,there is some Red Millet in my mix but the seperate dish of it seems to stop the constant flicking of other seeds out as they looked for the Red Millet
When you go to most Asian bird markets most are either fed the small Red Millet or the small Yellow Millet and sadly thats it for the seed eaters.
It seems bad for the fruit eating Softbills as they are generally expected to live on the small local Bananas.

Come onguys,red millet has been the best millet to come on the market and the birds love it,yellow millet has been substituted for years with pannarama which looks similar but tastes bitter to the birds.When i winnowed used seed 90% was untouched pannarama.With red millet being orange in colour you know what your getting so i now longer feed yellow millet Cheers Craig