Aussie Finch Forum

My little boy's first young Scarlets are just hatching at the moment & they are a species I've never bred before so just wanting to know if I should be adding anything on top of what I'm already providing. They have dry finch seed mix, grit, cuttlebone & water constantly available. I've been giving fresh greens once per day (mixture of mostly chickweed, milk-thistle heads, sprouted finch mix, freshly picked bok choy & cos lettuce leaves plus occasional piece of leb cucumber & broccoli). Now young have hatched I've started giving greens twice per day and added peas & corn kernels as a regular feed. Is this adequate or should I give extra protein during rearing period. I have vetafarm finch crumbles & wombaroo insectivore powder on hand either of which I thought I could sprinkle onto the peas, corn & sprouted seed mix. Is this worth doing or should I just go with the extra greens? Suggestions from experienced Scarlet breeders would be greatly appreciated.

Plenty of variety there mate, maybe a handful of sunflower & oats in their seed, apart from that all of my Neophemas get what the finches get or go hungry. All of my birds also get a bit of cake.

Mine get the basic small parrot mix, finch mix and plenty of greens, thawed peas corn and carrot. Can never get enough velt grass in there, but mine also being in with saint helenas or masked finches that require live food tend to go nuts on meal worms. They have been like this for a few years and go nuts when I go into the walk way with live food when they have young in the nest or are due to hatch. Not to sure if its good for them but a bit of protein wont hurt I guess. But I should monitor this year clutch sizes to see if it has any difference... Pete

My hens also take mealies when they have young but apart from that as said they
get what the finches have,the greens mine favour is silverbeet and leb cucumber.
Jack