FEATURE


benefit by getting a few different colours and decide which ones he or she likes best after they have gained some experience of breeding them. Having said that, if you start with more than one colour it is best to choose those that can be used for interbreeding, from the exhibition standpoint. For example, Normals go well with Fawns and Chestnut Flanked Whites fit in well with Lightbacks. By contrast, Pieds and Penguins do not mix. If you were to interbreed with these colours, you would be highly unlikely to breed anything useful and, worse, could be setting back your exhibiting ambitions by some years. Your own local contact or ZFS area representative can be very useful at this stage putting you in touch with breeders who specialise in your chosen colours - and have had some success with them. Having read about exhibition Zebra finches and watched videos you should have some idea of the sort of birds you are looking for, but it is still best to choose a breeder you feel you can trust and ask his advice – particularly about the way the birds you acquire should be paired. We have deliberately left the way you should feed your birds until this point because, if at all possible, you should base your feeding regime on that of the fancier/or fanciers who supplied you with your initial stock. Many will give


20 BIRD SCENE


you small quantities to last a few days until you can arrange for a regular supply. However the basic requirements are a seed mixture, an egg-based softfood, grit and water. As far as the seed is concerned foreign finch mixtures and mixed millets are suitable. We find the most economic and nutritious way of supplying our birds’ seed requirements is to use a millet-rich budgerigar mixture – which also happens to be the cheapest in the suppliers range. There are more good proprietary, eggfood mixtures on the market now than there have ever been before. We find it difficult to understand why breeders buy a specifically-balanced product and then add other foods – such as more eggs or carrot – to them. Our grit mixture consists of small mineral grit and oyster shell, in equal quantities. Cuttlefish bone is also provided as are millet sprays. As already explained, we offer filtered tap water. The only additive we feed is a mineral/vitamin supplement that is added to the drinking water at the rate and frequency recommended by the manufacturer. Again there are lots of good products of this type on the market. With a good, balanced diet such as the one we have described we see no reason for feeding other ‘extras’ – home grown, collected from the wild or purchased.


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