African Love Birds Diet

For dry food I like to mix up a seed mixture I make myself. I don't like to buy the seed already mixed. I use 1 part canary (as it has all the vitamins and minerals in it), 1 part French white millet, 1 part panicum, 1 part Japanese millet and 1/2 part sunflower seed (I don't give them too much sunflower, but I feel they need a little bit - they get the bulk of their sunflower in the soaked seed). For soaked seed I use 1 part sunflower, 1/2 part seed oats and a little bit of wheat and milo. I soak this for 24 hours, wash it, put it in a strainer, and let it sprout for another 24 hours and then wash it again before it is fed to the birds. In another situation I soak cracked corn and hulled oats and I wash this very well. I then mix the two together and feed it to the birds while they have young. They fill the young up with this. I also give them Vogel bread (12 grain). 1 Slice every day and 1/4 of a piece of apple. They do get a few green peas in the pod, but when they go to around $4 a kilo they don't get too many. Because I live in Mascot, I don't have access to dandelion, thistles, and all the good seeding grasses. I use endive or Italian lettuce. I buy a few bunches at a time and cut it up, wash it, and put it into a plastic bag in the refrigerator. I also find chicory a favourite with the birds - a bunch costs about 69 cents and lasts about two days. The reason I use these green feeds is that I can get them all year round. The big problem is when you are feeding thistles and dandelions and they die off from the hot days, the birds will refuse anything new. They also get a bit of orange every now and then - I don't like to give them too much. I make my own Vita Blocks. I must stress that if you want to make them you must be very careful as it is made from rock lime. When I make these blocks, I always wear goggles and long rubber gloves and long pants. This is because when you add water to the rock lime it will boil and splatter and fume. I take a two gallon metal pail and half fill it with the rock lime pieces. I then wet it down until it is a sloppy paste - it is not runny and it is not as thick as you would have concrete. I let this cool down for about 20 minutes, and then I add the fine shellgrit used for showing. The amount to use is about two ice cream containers. I mix in some charcoal pieces to form a nice smooth piece with the shellgrit. These are then made into little patties and placed upon a piece of wood in the sun. It takes about two days for them to go rock hard. Then they are stored in my garage. This amount lasts me about two years. I use stainless steel nest pans with small holes in them to hold the soaked seed. If you put the soaked seed into a container that does not drain, it will become pungent and go off. On the other hand if you put it in a container that allows the air to circulate it stays sweet. In the cages they have shellgrit and cuttlefish, and every 10 days I give them a dose of Ornithon in their water. I don't give it to them regularly, I try and do it every second week. Because these birds have a habit of carting their grass and food pieces into the water it is essential that fresh water is provided every day. They really like a high humidity to help with their hatching so they are always bathing as well.