Wheat beetles! Freakin' disgusting!

[BirdVice]

I normally feed my birds only pellets and eggfood and veggies, but my financial situation was grim this week and I could only afford seed for them. I went to this pet store across the hwy from me and bought finch seed out of their bulk bin. I got it home, opened the bag and thought I saw movement...LOTS of movement. At first i thought it was just the poor lighting in my poor little kitchen, but, no...there was definitely movement. There were little black beetles crawling all throughout the seed and up the sides of the bag, too.

It was too late to call the store. I called them first thing this morning and asked to speak to a manager. The thing is, I didn't notice this movement until I went back to get a smaller dish filled. My birds were already gobbling the seed down! They were so hungry because their pellets had gotten down to a fine powder!

Who the heck knows what's been introduced into both my aviary AND my nursery now...and I've a hatchling AND countless soon-to-be hatchlings, on the way, I hope!

Anyway, back on topic, the manager told me they were wheat beetles and completely harmless to both the seed and the birds and the only way to get rid of them in the hot weather was to put them in the freezer! Umm...yeah, put them in with MY food, too?

So, the seed is promptly going back when I get off work tonight and they are not getting a nice review online from me. It's too bad because, otherwise I think they do a good job acclimatizing their animals to people. The workers are always stocking shelves or working the check outs with African Greys and cockatoos hanging out with them or snakes around their shoulders.

[KoacNation]

ya, that had to be repulsive. I'm not a fan of bugs at all. I read about how live mealworms are good and things like that and I just refuse.

I've read stories about how birds will toss the things and you end up with beetles and bugs in your house.

I like to think I spoil my birds . . .
(I proudly give em some real eggfood mix I make each day (well, I dont make it each day, I make it in bulk amounts and freeze it, but I give it to em each day))

. . . and yet the closest they will get to bugs and mealworms are the freeze-dried ones.

That's a bridge I will NOT cross!

[Ursula]

I'm sure you weren't thrilled about this, but the manager was right. It won't harm the birds. I think he should have offered a replacement bag though, as a curtesy...

As for the mealworms and fresh eggfood: My birds get both... If you open my fridge and freezer you'd find all sorts of nasty things that I feed to my birds and snakes and to the wild birds outside...

About mealworms and developing beetles in the house: Valid point! Happened to me too! That's why I started to put a small cup of mealworms in the freezer at night and feed that to the birds in the morning. That way the mealworms are dead but still fresh. All my birds gobble them up but I have no more mealworm colonies in my aviary.

[JohnBoy]

I have always heard to NEVER buy feed from bins. Anything can get into it. Even pesticides.

[cindy]

If you are in a bind and need a quick bag of inexpensive seed WalMart has finch and parakeet. I have gotten this to blend into my seed to extend my stock while waiting for an order to come in or when I can't get to the feed store which is a distance from me. I have never had a problem with seed from WalMart.

If the bins you are getting the seed from can not be covered especially at night rodents, roaches and other insects might decide to snack on it and leave droppings in it.

[jamezyboo21]

The seeds i use for my birds are from walmart. i use the finch/parakeet mix as the main source of food but i have now added canary mix to it and they get everything else as well like the veggies,fruits,grit,cuttlebones,eggfood,featherfast,and every once in a while i added vitamin drops in the water. But yeah the seeds from walmart are very good when you are on a tight budget.

[JohnBoy]

I also use the Hartz parakeet, finch, canary mix from Wal Mart when I can't get to New Orleans for my 50# bags. It's all I used when I had just a few birds. It is good, clean seed and my birds eat it all up.

[lovemyfinch]

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents Before I got my huge bag of soakseed from Liz (which buy the way will sprout in 24 hours , in a germinator(yes I cheat), I bought the canry and finch seed without added vitamins to soak and sprout, $2.60 a bag and the birds were excited to see it in the cage.