A good diet for any size bird consists of:

Fresh vegetables, like broccoli, spinach, and kale (there’s a comprehensive list here)

Fresh fruit – not too overmuch for Gouldian finches, but some.

Pellet food, maybe (see the Pellet Controversy here)

Protein foods – I use hardboiled eggs but you can also use mealworms, freeze-dried crickets, termites

Grains like rice, oats, quinoa, wheat, and even pasta

A little seed and/ or nuts

Larger parrots only need around 10% of their diet to consist of seed. Finches, cockatiels and canaries can have more, perhaps up to 25%.

I hear you spluttering, my friend. “But…but… what about D3? What about iron? What about protein??”

Let me explain more thoroughly.

If a chop (the mix of foods you make for your bird) consists of 3 vegetables that come in a freezer pack, a little bit of oats because that’s what you eat for breakfast, and that’s all the “fresh food” you give them, day after day– then you are right, it is pretty unhealthy.

But if your chop contains 5 leafy greens (fresh and organic), a couple of orange and yellow veggies, soaked seeds, sprouts, tri-colored rice — and that’s completely different from last week, which was also full of fresh nutrients — you probably have most of the vitamins covered, as well as the protein.

Even D3, which mostly comes from being in direct sunlight, can be obtained through certain foods, or through using a little cod liver oil in the chop mix.

If the foods above are the basis for your finches’ diet, you are probably providing enough of all the pesky vitamins and nutrients they need. Have your veterinarian check to be sure.

Want to learn more? Down load our free report on Feeding Gouldian Finches or purchase the book Feeding Finches.