Home Depot grass seed mix

[isobea]

Hi everyone, I was at Home Depot the other day and noticed a bag of several kinds of grass seeds (mixed). There were no added chemicals or fertilizers listed on the bag. I was wondering if I could add some of that to the daily seed mix of my birds (Gouldians, strawberries, black-crowned waxbills, owls, spice finches, fire finch and one canary). The seeds should be really fresh and I could feed them dry or sprouted or even as young plants to nibble on. I could also plant some in one of my flower beds and harvest the semi-ripe seed heads later.
What do you all think? Have any of you tried that? I always love to get your input.
Iso

[KarenB]

I wouldn't trust it to feed directly. You don't know what's been sprayed on them or how they were harvested. I would grow the grasses and feed them and the seed heads later on.

[TailFeathers]

Your best bet is to contact the manufacturer of the seed and see if they treated their seed with any chemicals.

I wouldn't risk it myself, most commercial growers of seed are using both seed treatment and pesticides and so either way, most likely the seeds are coated with something bad to the health of birds.

Do as Karen suggested and use the seed heads later on. That's a safer bet.

[lovezebs]

isobea

Hi Iso...

I buy 20lb bags of Wild Finch Seed , which is an excellent mix and always smells fresh and sweet. It contains the same seeds that you find in pet finch mixes. To that I add 2 lb bags of Canary seed, Finch mix, Budgie mix, red millet, white millet, canola seed, oats and groats, flax seeds and crushed freeze dried mealworms.

I mix it all equally together, and store in plastic ice cream buckets and Zip lock freezer bags, which I keep in the fridge. It doesn't last as long as one might think with My fledges and juvies who eat like starving wolves.

All of my guys love this mix, and do very well on it. I got tired (and broke) buying those little bitty bags that cost an arm and a leg, for the same stuff.

Of course, that's on top of the eggs, vegetables, fruits, live mealworms, etc. etc.

~Elana~

[isobea]

KarenB and TailFeathers - thanks for your feedback. That was exactly my thinking, too, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Usually I grow (or 'let grow') all my own weeds (chickweed, annual grasses, sow thistle, dandelion). That way I know they are free of insecticides and pesticides. Unfortunately that's a very seasonal approach and the timing isn't always perfect. Like right now my strawberries are sitting on eggs, but since it just rained for the first time (since April) about a month ago, the chickweed and the annual grasses are just now sprouting and too young to harvest.
Iso

[isobea]

Elana - Hi! You must have posted while I was still writing. So thank you for you mix 'recipe' (I thought you swore off those darn roll-away, always-under-foot canola seeds I have a pretty good seed mix, but was trying to find a way to add some grass seeds. Guess I will have to sow them once it gets a little warmer and then patiently wait until the plants grow to the half-ripe seed stage.
Iso

PS: We are expecting our 'coldest' night so far: 40 F. I brought most of my orchids in and covered my plumerias with old sheets and pillow cases. Two years ago I put some old socks over the growing tips of the plumerias, but then I saw some neighbors walking by early in the morning and the look on their faces said, "Now she's really lost it."

[lovezebs]

isobea

Hi Iso.

Oops, what was I thinking of? Of course you were talking about grass seeds, not seed mixes. I think I ate too much turkey, and too many sweets in the last few days, and had too little sleep.

I think you can buy all natural, organic grass seeds, uncoated, unsprayed, with no additives or pesticides, can't you? I'm pretty sure I saw it somewhere last Spring.

In the Spring, I was harvesting wild green grass seed heads on my dog walks. In the Summer, the half ripening seed heads, and in the Autumn, the fully ripe grass seedheads. My birds went wild over them. Do you have anything like that around your place?

~Elana~