alternative to soaked seed ?

[werty]

Currently have 6 pairs of goulds breeding in a colony

Clutches are big 6-9 each nest

Feeding 1 boiled egg, finch seed, cos lettuce, fresh green grass and seeding grasses and finch crumble

Are there any alternatives I can feed them instead of soaked seed?

[Lachlan1]

Goulds will breed well on a good seed mix, grit (including cuttlebone, eggshell, charcoal etc) and green panic. That being said a few seasons ago I added sprouted/soaked seed mixed with an egg and biscuit mix to their diet everyday (during breeding) and since then my smallest nest to fledge has been 4 with it almost always being 5. Although I still had big nests when I fed them a minimal diet I found the results far more sporadic and the young didn't come out in the same condition they do now. But if you are fledging 6-9 young per nest I wouldn't change a thing haha. If you really don't want to do sprouted seed you could always try leb cucumber, kale, spinach, silverbeet etc. They may take a while to go for them but it may be worthwhile.

[Tiaris]

More seeding grasses or sprouted seed.

[COUNTRY CAPITAL]

good luck to you....but in all my years I don't think I have fledged a nest of more than 5, no matter what species I think of.
so you must be doing something right.
I can only suspect that there are more pairs than suitable nest sites and more than one hen has laid eggs.....am I wrong?
sorry to get off topic....I too feed copious amounts of seeding grasses as I live in the bush surrounded by them....but I also sprout seed for them as well.
the more variety the better....then they can please themselves.

[werty]

good luck to you....but in all my years I don't think I have fledged a nest of more than 5, no matter what species I think of.
so you must be doing something right.
I can only suspect that there are more pairs than suitable nest sites and more than one hen has laid eggs.....am I wrong?
sorry to get off topic....I too feed copious amounts of seeding grasses as I live in the bush surrounded by them....but I also sprout seed for them as well.
the more variety the better....then they can please themselves.

the biggest clutch my birds ever had was 12, but they were zebra finches so no big deal

I do have 2 Gouldian pair in 1 nest that just produced 15 chicks, the rest have their own nests

these are just normal green Gouldian's so they are easy to breed

I am worried they will get burnt out if all 3 clutches they produce are this big

just after some ideas on what to feed these parents so they don't burn out this season

[Lachlan1]

the biggest clutch my birds ever had was 12, but they were zebra finches so no big deal

I do have 2 Gouldian pair in 1 nest that just produced 15 chicks, the rest have their own nests

these are just normal green Gouldian's so they are easy to breed

Would love to see a photo of that...

[E Orix]

May I ask why you are after an alternative to soaked seed, IMO apart from the frozen green seed it is the best food
to enable rearing birds to keep up the food to their brood. It is readily digestible particularly the white millet seed.
It is easily done and large amounts can be frozen.
My birds do pretty well for me on dry seed mix and plenty of soaked seed, I had one pair last season that produced
a 7,9,6 and a 6 and the cockbird was under half coloured being late bred. This season that pair have already
fledged a 5 and are down again now.

[werty]

May I ask why you are after an alternative to soaked seed, IMO apart from the frozen green seed it is the best food
to enable rearing birds to keep up the food to their brood. It is readily digestible particularly the white millet seed.
It is easily done and large amounts can be frozen.
My birds do pretty well for me on dry seed mix and plenty of soaked seed, I had one pair last season that produced
a 7,9,6 and a 6 and the cockbird was under half coloured being late bred. This season that pair have already
fledged a 5 and are down again now.

I was after an easier way to feed them, less preperation

[E Orix]

I have two plastic buckets, one has a lot of holes drilled in it.
I fill the undrilled bucket with 2/3 of seed, tea spoon of Vircon S and fill with water.
It will soak for 3 to 4 hours, the contents are then tipped into the bucket and drained very well no rinsing .
Finally the seed is put into plastic containers and into the freezer. I run a good number of birds and that will last me
nearly a week during breeding season.
In my book it's an easy and good form of feed

[vettepilot_6]

I was after an easier way to feed them, less preperation

Sorry to be harsh but preparing soaked seed is nothing compared to live food prep etc.... and I'm afraid if your not prepared to continue giving your birds what they require maybe you need to think of changing hobbies... just my opinion FYI... I suppose you could boil seed instead of soaking?