Aussie Finch Forum

There is a story going around that if you feed Import Niger seed , India grown???, that this will cause your Red and Yellow Siskin's to throw out their chicks? BUT that Australian grown is OK to use.

My first reaction to this statement was What a crock of shyt, and to make things worse the same older gentlemen said that "he Now does not want to buy Red Siskins anymore, just in case this story was true".

please slap this older gentleman for me next time you see him.

enough said on this topic.

I agree, the only difference the Indian has been irradiated and wont sprout so you get better nutrition from the Australian one IF you are sprouting it as well as you can grow it yourself. Craig

the sprouting thing is not the only thing. My Siskins will not even touch imported niger, but absolutely love viable Aussie grown niger. Dead imported seed is useless. the birds certainly can immediately notice. May as well feed them cardboard.

I agree with Tiaris .
If given the choice always buy fresh Australian grown seed its worth every dollar.

I agree local is best but I don't believe foreign seed results in tossed siskins or I would breed none when the local seed sells out.

I too prefer to buy local, if at all possible, but the seed merchants.supplier are always substituting their seed blends from elsewhere if the local/intrastate/interstate grown seeds are to expensive or not available at all.

Its the tossing of the chicks part concerns me.

I wonder if the Tassy or WA breeders have experienced these type of bird deaths on their aviaries. As they too would have a situation similar to what we have here with this imported Niger seed and the resulting germination problems due to insect or plant eradication prevention programs.

I'd say young being tossed is more likely due to inadequate rearing foods (greens,etc for Red Siskins) &/or unseasonally cold night at the most vulnerable time rather than anything to do with dry seed.

Or another possible cause of ditched young with Red Siskins is poor parents if from an established line of canary-fostered birds where parenting ability is selected against.

I believe you would need more information regarding the death of the young, how old they were , how many there were , did the deaths occur all at once & was it a cold night. I have found dead young Red Siskins on the floor of the aviary but never more than 2 & not very fresh probably had died 2 or 3 days before when the night temp had fallen. With regard to the parent reared young, well they just look better. Seen a lot of canary reared young & they don't look or act the same way as a parent reared bird but I'm sure the guys using canary's would disagree. I will persist with the Red Siskins doing the job for themselves.