Aussie Finch Forum

Hi All,

My finches have proven to be not that fond of standard egg and biscuit mix or the Paswell Softfood although they love sprouted seed. I have recently mixed some finely chopped sprouted lentils (or mung beans) to the sprouted seed to increase the Protien levels and have had very good success. I want to try to introduce some chick starter to this for some extra protien (20% I believe) and see if they accept that a bit better. I have read about medicated and non medicated chick starter, is there any real problem with feeding the medicated type? Also I have read about game starter or turkey starter that I believe has more like 30% protien in it and if I have good results with the chick starter trial I may try that for the increased protien. I mix about 35% sprouted seed 35% chopped lentils and 30% chick starter so that is a fairly dry but moist crumbly mix.

Thanks.

I put chick starter down for the baby quails and have seen the parrots having a peck at it .

The medicated one will help with cocci however when I enquired I was told to get the unmedicated one which I did.

The medication that is added is usually salinomycin sodium and is a pretty good disease preventive for very young chickens that maybe in a a stressful environment - like high density living.

The thing I would think about when giving it to birds like finches that are reared by parents is salinomycin sodium will clear out the good gut bacteria as well. The parents would have inoculated their young with the gut flora required for living in their environment & eating the food supplied.

So if using the medicated form, when weaned of it i'd introducing a probotic to help re-establishment the good gut bugs for food processing and general health.

Someone else will have to weigh in on where there there are any side affect of feeding salinomycin sodium to finches for an extended time.

Couple of general warnings.
Don't let your dog get into it as it will make it sick, extremely toxic to horses, and don't treat with another antibiotics like tiamulin at the same time or there will be severe growth retardation. Feeding medicated food continually can lead to resistant and hard to treat protozoa & bacteria establishing in flocks so it needs to be managed properly.

I am unaware of any trials using salinomycin in finches and parrots, but the variability in toxicity in game birds worries me and I would not use medicated feed in aviary birds for this reason.

eg: Laying & breeder pullets- no effects at standard doses (60 ppm) except when suddenly introduced to 16 week olds caused 5% mortality!!
Laying hens: 25 ppm caused decreased feed intake & egg production which was reversed when medication withdrawn. RESIDUES found in the eggs!!
Breeding hens: significant reduction in hatcahability at standard doses
Adult Turkey hens: toxic at levels as low as 10-15 ppm.
Guinea Fowl: sudden introduction at 3 weeks of 12-23 ppm resulted in paralysis and mortality.
Quail: max dose tolerated 40 ppm- paralysis and mortality
Partridge: max dose tolerated 40 ppm
Pheasant: max dose tolerated 60 ppm- good coccidiostat.

Creepers....

Thanks for the good info folks.

Chick starter has replaced both live food and soft food in my finch collection my finches love it as it has meat in it

I add a little layer mash to my sprouted seed

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