Finally an adult. Can buy as many birds as I want!!! Oh wait I already do that. Nvm.
Going to try making some millet cake for the birds and mice at Little Mouse Aviary to celebrate.
Not a lab block basher lol dw. Their diet includes grains and pseudo grains (kamhut, wheat, pot barley, spelt, rye, boiled wild rice), oily seeds (pumpkin, hemp, chia, flax), grass seeds (mixed millets, canary grass seed), animal protein (dried black solider fly larvae, dried yellow mealworm beetle larvae), Dr S Tiny Animal Essentials onto wetted grains, and calcium supplement onto wetted grains.
Because I feed 5 grams per mouse, even the less tasty bits are gone in 24 hours. Empty plates. Wild rice is their least favourite.
You cannot feed wild rice raw because it is too tough for them to open. You must feed a small animal vitamin and mineral supplement because even with veg this diet is lacking. Same for calcium. Put the supplement on wetted grains, not seeds with husks, because otherwise when they husk the seeds the supplement will get husked with them.
You can powder freeze dried beef liver dog treats (a bit the size of their ear) in a blender or by hand and sprinkle it onto wetted grains once a week, removing any other supplement as to not overdose, to make sure the mice get their minerals.
This diet is made daily, not in bulk, and is 15% protein, 5% fat, and 9% fiber.
Lab blocks work fine, but I really enjoy making their special dinner each day. They run laps around their 42x28" cage while I make it, waiting eagerly to stuff their faces. I make this food up daily rather than making batches, so that they get the exact correct amount of each seed, grain, and animal protein. I feed them at 6am, and by 10pm the bowl is 80-95% empty. By 6am the next morning, all of it is gone. Feeding 4-5g per mouse completely removes selective feeding, and therefore I have worries about them over-eating oily seeds.
My male mouse who lives outdoors in the non-aviary side of my animal shed eats 1.5-2x what my girls eat each during the winter. During summer he'll eat hardly anything.
This diet is for fancy mice and house mice only.
Some food gets buried under the sand but the quail dig it back up for the finches to eat. It's bice to see the gouldians moving a bit more this way.
Sick bird foods!
My birds are expericing AGY-like symptoms, but I haven't gotten any positive test results for any avian illness yet. This is likely due to irregular shedding and other factors.
One symptom my birds experience is being too weak to chew or husk food which, on top of frequent immediate vomiting, results in starvation when feeding a seed mix. At one point it was a death sentence for my birds, now I have ways to help.
I am lucky that I work with very curious species that would sell their eggs and souls for a chance to explore something new.
I take advantage of this and regularly introduce them to 'unusual' foods that will be essential in keeping weight on when experiencing weight-related symptoms.
A flock favourite is tiny species of millet (I use foxtail and little) that have been husked. No pulling or chewing required. Just swallow!
Unseasoned toasted millet intended for human consumption works just fine and is very cheap. I got 500g each of unseasoned toasted little and foxtail millet for £6.99 altogether. Toasted millet is less nutritious, but the main focus is calories and weight gain. Dietary gaps can be filled in after weight is stable. You can also husk millet yourself easily, but this worked out more expensive for me.
Suet (without large seeds) is another excellent option. Whilst Cooper won't touch it, Fizzarolli ate 80-90% of his daily food as suet for months, the first time he was ill. That pink stuff on the white tray is suet.
High-performance pellets, I use Tropican, crushed into millet-sized pieces are another great option. My flock loves pellets and Fizzarolli lived off of them when ill until he tried suet.
I haven't tried this yet, but tomorrow I will sprinkle some EmerAid Intensive Care Omnivore on their daily vegetables to get them used to powder-coated foods and the taste of EmerAid.
I offer these foods weekly so that my flock consistently recognizes them as food. If one ever gets ill, I don't have to try and convince them to eat a new food whilst they're already not feeling great.
🐦🐦🐦🐥🐁
The cage I am growing the seed mix in is my male mouse, Ashley Graves', old cage. Can you believe he used to live in that tiny thing!? Now he has free reign of 16 square foot of bird shed, a dig box with dirt, a cat bed, and a 12" wheel! Once these plants have grown, the base of the cage will go into the aviary for the quail to play in and peck at. Once the plants have been eaten, I will replant them, and so on.
Pls don't judge the mess, I'm deep cleaning tomorrow.
I usually like to have dark leafy greens like kale, broccoli, etc but I need to buy that tomorrow. Just lettuce, cucumber, and spinach for today with some sprouted millet and sprouted canary grass seed, topped with crushed cuttlefish. Usually I also add grit, but I hid my refill of grit so well that I haven't been able to find it... I cannot find it anywhere lol.
Mine also love carrot, mango, baby corn, and straight garden grass (for some reason). And any sort of sprout, especially the greens of rocket sprout.
He is on medication and has various very small, liquid, or soft foods along with his normal food.
One of the mice (Ashley) gets 1 teaspoon, two of my mice (Tessa & Ellie) get ½ teaspoon, and one (Bridget) gets ¼ teaspoon per day... I went a little overkill! Luckily the birds loved it once they gave it a try. The Bengalese finches were all over it. My sister's trio of rats also got some 😋
It is very rare (but not impossible) for zebra finches to be properly hand tame, but it seems like a lot of people have tame, parent-raised canaries on this subreddit. I wouldn't ever buy a canary for tameability as I'd rather colour breed in aviaries once all my finches with AGY have passed, but it does interest me.
When meeting a new person, the hell do you talk about?
I unfortunately have the type of autism where my interests are niche in the worst way. Not model trains or dinosaurs, but really odd things. I'm obsessed with collecting cheap, uninteresting medical equipment like needles and testing tubes. I breed finches. I love animal colour genetics.
But I never get to a point in a hobby where I could talk about it interestingly. I couldn't tell you any medical purposes for the equipment I buy, and if I use it at all it's only for my birds or to experiment on myself with. Not something others find interesting.
I breed finches but they're not flashy like parrots. I have no funny stories to tell because they're completely hands off and don't do much. Which I love, but others understandably find it boring. I don't go to auctions or shows that I can talk about.
I love colour and trait genetics, but they're repetitive and hard to understand if there's no underlying interest. So that's never a talking point.
I rarely play video games, the only mainstream show I watch is Dexter, I only read super niche webtoons.
I have tried having more interesting and mainstream interests. I've tried playing popular video games and I've tried getting into popular shows. But I find 0 interest in it and give up.
I have no dreams for the future or plans to talk about. I don't even have a future, I genuinely cannot imagine myself living to 20. I finished animal care with a merit but never intended to work with animals at all. As soon as I drop out in October I'm going to work minimum wage, and then work minimum wage forever. I'll have no fun work stories to tell.
I don't want a girlfriend, I don't want kids, I can't afford to want a nice garden, I'll be fine with renting a flat forever. I have no ideal location. So I can't talk about that stuff.
So usually what happens if I talk to someone is I nod along and ask questions about what they're talking about. But the more questions, the more I realize I have no interest in the person. I understand *I* am the issue, I don't understand how to fix it. Or if it's even fixable?
Amphotericin B, Nystatin, and other proven AGY medications require a prescription. A combination of factors, such as finches being too small for a crop swab and fecal testing being hit or miss, means I haven't yet gotten a positive test for AGY. So I cannot get medication for it.
I have been using potassium sorbate as a preventative for my non-symptomatic birds and it has proven to slow down how quickly symptoms develop. For example, usually my ill birds were dead 1-2 weeks after being symptomatic but on this medication birds live for 2+ months while symptomatic. One bird healed (very slowly) on it and no longer vomits or loses weight. Though potassium sorbate itself does not lessen the severity of symptoms.
I see some breeders citing sodium benzoate as a cure for AGY symptoms (as I understand AGY itself cannot be cured). Though there isn't much scientific research to back this up, and what little research there is states it is very ineffective (but increases Amphotericin B effectiveness).
Hard to see in the video, but usually she is a very slim, long girl. Whatever I give lots of food, she gets noticeabley yet only a little bloated, but not heavier/fatter.
My birds have AGY but individual birds cannot be given the medication without a positive test from the vets. AGY fecal tests are known to be inacurate and have failed me twice.
As such, I have to do things myself. I have found an OTC avian antifungal that has saved 4 birds so far with no issues. However during severe illness the birds are too tired/weak to drink it from their water bowl and then they pass away.
This has lead me to consider an 18 gauge crop needle for emergency situations. But I do not want to 'practise' on a live, ill bird.
Unfortunately the reality of AGY is that it never really goes away and for an unlucky few medication isn't enough and they still pass. Would a freshly passed adult bird be good to practise feeding medication/emergency feed with a crop needle? I have read several guides but want to be sure before I use it for real.
My goal is to become confident in my ability to carefully and safely reach the crop each time, without ever blocking the trachea.
The first was my society finch hen that became egg bound. She was being given egg shells regularly though someone told me this was not enough and my others were going to get egg bound.
Since then, I have started offering grit and crushed cuttlefish 24/7 free choice, the occasional egg shell, and during laying a supplement in the water. All my birds either have a UVA/UVB lamp or direct access to sunlight, so I don't think it's an absorption issue. I like to offer many sources as I have a lot of birds all with their own preferences. Some will only eat egg shells, some only eat cuttlefish, etc.
Though now one of my zebra finch hens got egg bound again about 2 months later. The egg was healthy with normal shell thickness but was partially cracked. Though the yolk/white hadn't spilt out. Luckily she too passed it with some help and looks fine today with heat, isolation, and aid.
Someone else informed me this was too much calcium and that was likely the cause of her getting egg bound. I understand, I likely went overboard trying to cater to all my birds' preferences to prevent calcium deficiency. I never had an egg binding case before this, which is about 5 years. Now suddenly 2?
Please tell me the best source of calcium for Australian zebra finches, Bengalese finches, and Gouldian finches. They are not breeding birds, never will be in the future (I've retired my aviary because of AGY), and nests have all been removed. But of course, finches are gonna lay eggs.
https://reddit.com/link/1vi5r8r/video/fc6simopczhh1/player
The eggs are in a bowl on top of quail eggs. The bowl is in a dark hutch in a shed - no window or heater nearby. They were laid just under a week ago and taken the day they were laid. I candled them when I collected them, and they were identical to an infertile egg.
I only found out because today I took one to feed to the bird room mouse, Ashley, and it's warmth felt identical to that of an egg taken directly from under a broody bird. So out of curiosity I candled it and it had a lot of veins. The I candled the other one and it had less veins but a visible fetus(?).
I will not be hatching them for obvious reasons. I have no broody birds, the environment could increase their chances of defects, and my flock have AGY. But it is interesting still. Off to Ashley's food bowl for them.
