Aussie Finch Forum

It's not too often that I get to meet up with my Philippine finch buddies but I did go to a meeting of the Finch Fanciers Club of the Philippines yesterday (Feb 26) at the infamous Cartimar pet-markets. Anyway they heard that I'd sold half a kilo of Mike Fidlers Complete Soft Food to a member and wanted to know if I had any more. While I do have another kg in the freezer it's for me but apparently production is about to start in the USA. The FFC guys put me onto a letter by Bill Van Patten who owns a business similar to Birds R US. Apparently the obstructive nature of the the regulations surrounding the export of the soft food got too much for him and he decided to make it himself. I wondered if it was some urban myth but when I checked out the Fabulous Finch it was true - they have no Fidler soft food in stock until production begins in June. So Australia has lost another export industry and who does Bill Van Patten blame - the Australian Government!

Personally, I am very suspicious…Australia is a small country"

What a wasted opportunity - My guess is that Australia will be importing it soon due to the economies of scale available in the American market.

Ive been getting a few emails about this subject too.
You're right, we are our own worst enemy, it will end up costing us twice as much and the maddening thing is it will be mostly the freight cost.

There is so much to be said for trying to grow your own.I dont ever feed any soft foods or buy in exotic seed mixes.Well i did buy one bag of 'taste of Africa" by "Birds R us", i used some of it as soaked seed and planted heaps of it around the yard.I know not all members have the space but i would encourage people to use what space they have.It takes a bit of time and space but once you find the right seeding grasses you can produce a reasonable amount of fresh greens and seeds for the birds.Look at lawns for example,water it,cut it once a week and then throw it in the bin.Doesnt really make sense these days.The kids like it and it looks ok but its not very environmentally friendly.To feed thirty odd finches my seed usage per week would be around 2 to 3 cups of dry seed.The rest is all fresh ripe/half ripe seed heads some growing in the aviary and the rest around the yard.I put down some gravel around the yard to protect the seeds that have fallen from pigeons and now i have good grasses coming up everywhere and only struggle a bit in the middle of winter.Im now freezing seeds to aviod that happening.
We are supposed to be reducing carbon emissions and freighting seed half way around the world isnt helping.Thats my rant for the day.We could all throw in some veges while we are it.

Very true , it makes sense and it saves $$$$ . Even a handful of bird seed thrown into a pot of soil will give something back .

Totally agree, we dug our front and back lawns out a couple of years ago now. Not a drop of water goes off the property either, all gathered in tanks and put back on the garden, even the air con water!

At the moment I have a half barrel and five big pots of Johnston grass and a half barrel of Guinea grass. Im going to be getting some more going soon.
Ive just ordered some those Endive seeds too, so there will be a pot or two of them as well.

desertbirds wrote:It takes a bit of time and space but once you find the right seeding grasses

I've planted about 1 acre of a mix of Rhodes grass and Fine green panic about 3yr ago. Tops are used as green seed as well as nesting material when dried.

If you can put in a dam for yabbies and fish im there buzzard.I ll bring my redbrows.

Buzzard, 1 acre of seeing grasses?? That's a tease and a half

desertbirds wrote:If you can put in a dam for yabbies and fish im there buzzard.I ll bring my redbrows.

Already have 3 dams full of crawbobs Fish died in the drought (Cod ,Golden perch,Shrimp and Mussels) And my local Double bars rather eat out of the parrot cages then out in the paddocks.

i bet if you wanted a big mob of uranium we could supply gregh.An open cut mine for the rest of the world seems to be our agenda.