I have mentioned several times that I feed soft food to my birds. Just what is soft food? Soft food or egg food is a preparation that is given to birds to provide a higher protein source in preparation for breeding, egg laying, or feeding the young. It's also a good food to provide stressed birds or birds that are molting. There are several commercial preparations which have several advantages over fresh preparations. First of all, they can be stored for long periods of time. The storage can be extended if they are frozen. Second, they are easy to use and are free of bacterial contamination, a very important consideration. I usually feed these foods dry except during the time that the birds are feeding their chicks. Then I moisten the dry food with a little water to make it moist but not wet. The resulting moist food should look like coarse cornmeal and should not form wet clumps. Moistening makes it easier for the adults to feed to their young without having to consume large amounts of additional water. However, the birds do not like to eat it when it gets too wet. Wet food also has a tendency to spoil quickly and should not be left in the cage for more than a few hours.
While I like the convenience of the commercial preparations and I use them under certain circumstances, I prefer to make my own egg food. One has to be absolutely rigorous, however, to avoid bacterial (usually salmonella) infection from the eggs. The amounts may vary in the egg food, but the recipe I use is as follows:
1 large carrot
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon bird vitamins
3 hard-boiled eggs with shells
I start the preparation by hard-boiling some eggs. For my flock I start with only as many eggs as I can use up in less than a week. The eggs are cooked longer than I would normally prepare them for serving to my family. I start with cold water, add eggs, and heat. The eggs are cooked for 20 minutes. Of that, the eggs should be boiling for at least 10 minutes of that time. This long cooking time is necessary to make sure that all bacteria are killed. After cooking, I chill them in cool water and then place in the refrigerator overnight. Well cooled eggs will be easier to chop up in a fine mix than freshly cooked eggs.
I wash and peel a large carrot (preferably organic). Then I put about 8 half-inch thick rounds of this carrot into a food processor. I use a steel blade and process the carrot until it is very finely chopped.
Add 1/2 cup of wheat germ with 1 teaspoon of bird vitamins mixed in and 3 hard-boiled eggs with their shells to the food processor. Pulse this mixture until the eggs are finely chopped. Don't mix too much or the mix will become doughy and the birds will not eat it. If the mixture is too wet (too many carrots) add more wheat germ. The mix should be like coarse cornmeal and fairly dry. Store it in the refrigerator.
I use this mixture to feed my flock for no more than 3 days. I place the mixture on a very flat dish, usually something like a margarine lid or similar type of lid. Use of a flat dish of this sort will allow the mix to dry if it is not eaten immediately. Food that has dried is much less likely to spoil than food that is maintained at room temperature in a moist condition. Food not eaten should be removed from the cage after a few hours. A little practice will allow you to judge just how much food to provide so that it will be eaten within a few hours. Of course, if you have young chicks to be fed, it needs to be replenished in clean dishes after a few hours to keep a constant supply available for feeding the chicks.
Return to Finch Information page.