Aussie Finch Forum

G'day what greens is your gouldian eating , mine are a big brocoli fans what else is out there??

I use bokchoi and baby spinach. as far as leaf food.

Nearly all my birds have a liking to Endive and Bok Choy,especially the Endive.
The stalks of the Bok Choy are also taken as seen with the Red Brow and Diamond.
Jack

Kale and chicory works well. They eat it all and it it will last over a week in your fridge.

Mine prefer chicory.

Have used English spinach and boc choy which is also readily devoured.

Bok choy, kale and peas are favorites of my Gouldians.

I don't feed spinach because it has high levels of oxalic acid, which prevents calcium from being absorbed.

Mine go crazy for spinach, even landing on the bowl when I walk into the aviary. It's fed every day and I have never had any problems with calcium absorption. I already have 19 healthy fledglings so far this season, so it can't be causing a problem. Otherwise they also love broccoli and I sprout different lentils and seeds for them and they thoroughly enjoy those as well.

It's fed every day and I have never had any problems with calcium absorption.

You couldn't possibly know that unless you have done blood tests.

I'm sure there's enough calcium in the rest of your birds' diet to offset any problems caused by spinach, but it's egregious to outright deny the well-established properties of oxalic acid.

I completely agree that I would not know without blood tests and I wouldn't recommend feeding spinach alone. But I don't see any problem with it being a part of a varied diet. I'm only stating what I have seen from my own birds and there is definitely no calcium problems with my flock (thank heavens!)

Too much of a lot of things can be detrimental to birds and humans alike.
It all comes down to balance, the possible problems are significantly more when cage breeding because the birds
diet is controlled totally by the keeper.
It all comes down to the end result, if your birds are healthy in looks and action and your breeding results are
acceptable then you must be pretty close to the mark. A bit of variation would be appreciated by the birds I am sure of though.

Green grass seed heads are by far the best green food for Gouldians (& most other finches), closely followed by sprouted seed.