Diet: House Finches and Linnets

• Basic Diet:

  • House Finches and Linnets eat both seed and fruit starting at the hatchling stage.

  • Formula Options:

    • Kaytee Exact Baby bird Formula

    • Harrisons Formula

    • Hagen Tropican Baby Bird Food

  • Supplemental Options

    • Egg Food Bird Supplement (Vitakraft or Quiko)

    • Abba Green

    • Dried crickets or mealworms (crushed)

  • Protein Options:

    • Live crushed mealworms, crickets or grasshoppers

    • Dried crushed mealworms, superworms, crickets or grasshoppers

    • Mashed hard boiled or scrambled egg (chicken or duck)

  • Fruit Options (you can purchase the fruit in the form of organic baby food)

    • Banana

    • Mango

    • Strawberry

    • Papaya

    • Apple

    • Blueberry

• How to Feed:

  • Crop feeding:

    • Mix very mashed or pureed fruit and baby bird formula

      • 20% fruit, 10% supplemental or protein options, 70% baby bird formula with water or unflavored Pedialyte

    • Offer as much food until they stop gaping. and the crop appears full. Start to feed once the crop empties

  • Other Feeding Options:

    • Mix 30% mashed fruit 10 % supplemental mix or crushed protein and 60% bird formula. Add water or unflavored Pedialyte (if sickly) to create a chunky but moist consistency.

    • Give the mix on the end of a coffee stirrer or skewer. The baby should eat as much as it can off of it. Give time for the baby to swallow the food entirely before offering more.

    • Feed every 1-2 hours from sunrise to 2 hours after sunset

• How much and how often to feed:

  • Crop Feeding

    • Hatchlings and young nestlings eat about . 5-1ml of formula every 30 minutes

    • Nestling will eat about 1 - 2ml of formula every 45 minutes to 1 hour

    • Fledglings: 1.5-2 ml of formula and pureed fruit every 1.5- 2 hours

    • Feed from sunrise to sunset. If a bird is not doing well, continue feeding 2 hours after sunset.

  • Other feeding methods

    • Hatchlings and young nestlings: feed as much as they can until they stop gaping every 30 minutes

    • Nestling: feed as much as they can until they stop gaping every 45 minutes

    • Fledglings: feed as much as they can until they stop gaping every 1-1.5 hours

    • Feed from sunrise to sunset. If a bird is not doing well, continue feeding 2 hours after sunset.

• How to Ween:

  • Nestlings will start to explore, naturally pecking around the cage at different things.

    1. 1. Scatter parakeet seeds around the cage

    2. 2. Put soft (papaya or mango) fruit inside the cage, change the fruit every 6 -8 hours.

       1. Fruit Options

          • Banana

          • Papaya

          • Strawberries

          • Blueberries

          • Apples

          • Mango

    3. 3. Start to put grass and other leafy dark greens around the cage or sprinkle supplemental options like abba green or quicko egg mix on soft fruit.

  • Continue hand feeding every 2 hours throughout the weaning process.

• Helpful Tips:

  • Rotate the fruits and type of protein to provide a variety of nutrients

  • Juvenile and fledglings can be offered live mealworms, crickets, or grasshoppers.

    • Supplemental feeding can be given in the form of pellets. We recommend using: Harrisons, Bird street or tops pellets.

• How to Release: See our page on Setting a bird free!