Aussie Finch Forum

I have tried to provide egg food a couple of times now in the lead up to breeding. I have tried a mixture of whole egg with egg and biscuit, moistened with vitamins - no interest. I waited a couple of weeks and then tried a whole boiled egg with nuked egg shells - again no interest.

In both instances I mashed it up finely.

I am new to Gouldians. Is there a trick I am missing, is my timing wrong?

Thanks in advance. Mark

I mix it in with their leafy greens, then put the whole lot through the food processor.

1. If you have canaries put a canary into the Gouldian avairy and it will show them to eat it.
2. When birds have young demanding feeding they are more likely to take food they have not previously.
3. Newley fledged finches are the most curious, this is the most successful time to introduce new foods.
4. So just keep offering a small amount - though using Shanes method is best - and eventually you will have a break through.

For canaries egg food is great for gouldians they really don't need it or usually take it. Canaries have been raised on boiled eggs and egg and biscuit from time go so they expect it being so domesticated.
Gouldians have been raised virtually on seed alone for a long time so they really don't know what manufactured soft foods are or even what a boiled egg is for.
The most common way to prepare gouldians for the breeding season which is not till January/ Febuary next year is supply copious amounts of green seeding grass heads and soaked or just sprouted with a little white knob on the seed of regular finch mix. The latter will supply all nutrients vitamins and minerals to raise good clutches.
Although canaries are in the finch family they have a totally different food requirement than the grass finches when raring young but in saying that most grass finches need insect protein but gouldians don't.

Many thanks for your helpful responses.

I find that my finches don't like egg food on it's own, I mix a bit of it with my sprouted seed and veg mixture to get them to eat it.

Thanks,
Aidan

grass finches is the key term here.

seeding grasses and/or sprouted seed is all they need.

unless they are some of the few Aussie finches that need live food then the above does the job...especially with gouldians.

[email protected] wrote: ↑13 Oct 2021, 07:52 I have tried to provide egg food a couple of times now in the lead up to breeding. I have tried a mixture of whole egg with egg and biscuit, moistened with vitamins - no interest. I waited a couple of weeks and then tried a whole boiled egg with nuked egg shells - again no interest.

In both instances I mashed it up finely.

I am new to Gouldians. Is there a trick I am missing, is my timing wrong?

Thanks in advance. Mark

As my grandmother used to say: if you don't feed for a long time, then interest comes by itself! That's a joke, of course. It makes sense.