What's in your seed blend?

[nelloyello11]

Has anyone used the ABBA 1900 (exotic finch) blend? I've been contemplating switching to that because foryourbird.com (Beaver Creek Aviary) has reasonable shipping on it. It does have some of the "extras" in it, but they appear to make up less of the blend, and are smaller pieces. Any experience with it?
(sorry Nancy - not trying to steal your thread!)

[cindy]

The birds I have adopted came with some and I used it in the past...they eat some of what is in it but not all of it.

[bugaboo5]

The goulds definitely eat the canary, matter of fact they love it, the thistle not so much but a little bit.

+1. My Goulds eat the canary seed, but do not touch the thistle, rape, flax, etc (oily seeds). As a matter of fact, I have a Gouldian pair that eats predominately canary seeds when they have chicks, so I give them the ABBA 1700 mix for Canaries in a separate dish.

As a matter of fact, I feed my canaries the ABBA 1700 mix and they only eat the canary seed and I end up tossing the mass majority of the black oily seeds. I have like 15lbs of the ABBA 1800 Song Food mix that I don't even bother giving to my canaries anymore because they simply do not consume large amounts of the black seeds. For now, I'm giving the 1800 mix and the leftover black seeds from the 1700 mix to the wild birds outside.

I try to avoid any mixes that have heavy amounts of the oily black seeds; they are fattening and really not necessary.

[okiebirds]

I've been feeding the Premium Universal Blend from Wal-Mart. It has a citrus smell to it and the birds like it but like most here they wont touch any of the dark seeds.

I caught a Ebay auction and bought 5 bags of this the other day pretty cheap. Hasnt arrived yet.... has anyone fed it??

http://www.kaytee.com/products/fortidie ... h-2-lb.php

[cindy]

I tried the one without egg then switched to the Kaytee Supreme..less dark seeds and no hard pellets.

[finchmix22]

I have fed kaytee supreme as well and the finches will eat that one mostly.

[cindy]

Deborah..that is the one I can get here and it is the one with the least amount of waste but enough waste to say it is concerning.

[monotwine]

In many ways I'm lucky that I don't have a great choice of pre-packaged, economical seed. So I mix my own.

I do find that my birds (housed outside) change their diet with the season and if they are breeding/not.
The base is millet (various types) with manna and then a smaller portion is niger, canary, hulled sunflower and linseed. They also get grass seeds when I can get them.
My birds usually dive into the canary seed and oil seeds in winter and waste them in summer, so I adjust the mix during those months as needed.

I don't think it's wise to completely exclude certain seeds from a birds diet unless you know for sure that after an entire year your bird has not needed that seed once. What they need now may not be needed later and what they are not taking in now may be necessary down the line.
Given the choice most birds will gorge on their favourite seeds too, so beware to give them what they want. Would you let a loved one eat chocolate to the exclusion of all else because they prefer it?

[cindy]

Monique, you do have a point, perhaps they require some different seeds during some months more than others. Your birds are outside and may sense the need more so than other birds kept indoors in climates that are controlled and less humid or cold. Something to think about. Perhaps the need for different seeds and their benefits ties into the need to keep warm, add oils to their skins during cold dry weather, perhaps the oils are not needed during certain conditions/time of the year. They kind of eat and self regulate what they need based on the climate/environment. Makes sense.

[Foosa101]

In many ways I'm lucky that I don't have a great choice of pre-packaged, economical seed. So I mix my own.

I do find that my birds (housed outside) change their diet with the season and if they are breeding/not.
The base is millet (various types) with manna and then a smaller portion is niger, canary, hulled sunflower and linseed. They also get grass seeds when I can get them.
My birds usually dive into the canary seed and oil seeds in winter and waste them in summer, so I adjust the mix during those months as needed.

I don't think it's wise to completely exclude certain seeds from a birds diet unless you know for sure that after an entire year your bird has not needed that seed once. What they need now may not be needed later and what they are not taking in now may be necessary down the line.
Given the choice most birds will gorge on their favourite seeds too, so beware to give them what they want. Would you let a loved one eat chocolate to the exclusion of all else because they prefer it?

This is a very good point and my reason for posting is not to exclude certain seeds from their diet but to experiment with the seeds individually (placed in separate dishes and obviously not all at once) and see what is mainly being eaten and what isn't being touched. Or. when -time of year - it is being eaten. This way, I can develop my own mix that will not end up in the garbage can.

I have been feeding a mix of Browntop Millet, Japanese Millet, Dove Millet, and White Milllet with multiple brands of Premium Finch Mixes from Petsmart. I also have Canary seed and Nyger thistle available but I haven't been giving it to them since they won't touch it but will try again in a couple of weeks.

Additional Seeds that I am currently acquiring to experiment with are :
German Foxtail Millet
Siberian Millet
Red Millet
Oats - Unhulled but will slightly chop in blender
Sunflowers - Unhulled and will slightly chop as well
Buckwheat
Soybeans
Barley
Sesame

I don't intend to incorporate a lot of Soybeans, Oats, and Sunflowers but I want to see what is actually preferred or eaten. Maybe some of these could be given to them as a treat on occasion?

I am not going to bother experimenting with any coated seeds as mine do not care for them one bit and they receive their vitamins via other sources.

Should anyone want me to try something let me know...maybe we can come up with a mix that will save us from cleaning up the discarded seeds along with our bank account.

Thank you for all the feed back and I find it interesting to see how many of you feel the same way as myself when it comes to these store bought mixes. I also like how the store bought -some of them anyway - mixes do not even tell you the variety name of the millet or other seeds in the mix. What a joke! The more I look into this the more I see that we are getting robbed blind. The majority of the seeds that are in these premium blends you could buy for $.44/Lb. (excluding shipping of course). Your Nyger Thistle and Canary Seed range around $1.85/lb. but THEY ARE NOT EATING IT!! Along with the fact that the amount of these seeds -Nyger and Canary - are only an extremely small percentage from what I have seen in these Premium Blends. Anyhow, I am ranting now.....

[lovemyfinch]

Just for the fun of it, I decided to take a couple of pics of my seed mix. There are very few black coloured seeds in it, maybe this is why I haven`t had any waste since I started feeding it. This is the gouldian supreme mix which I feed to my entire Australian flock including the societies, I also supply the african supreme mix to my african species.

[cindy]

mine will eat most of that Janine but the niger and the darker brown...assume it is hemp.

[ibon_337]

I mix my own seeds that includes white millet, red millet, niger, canary and hemp. My goulds doesn't care much about niger and a bit on hemp. I used to include Rape but they don't touch it, just tossed it out. On my next batch of seed mix I am planning on just putting mix of different millets, canary grass and some hemps.

[debbie276]

Additional Seeds that I am currently acquiring to experiment with are :
German Foxtail Millet
Siberian Millet
Red Millet
Oats - Unhulled but will slightly chop in blender
Sunflowers - Unhulled and will slightly chop as well
Buckwheat
Soybeans
Barley
Sesame

All millets are eaten readily along with the hulled oats, Barley and Sesame. Sunflowers and soybeans they wouldn't touch. And only when I would soak the buckwheat would they eat that.
Can't wait to hear how your experiment comes out, keep us posted.

[nelloyello11]

Just for the fun of it, I decided to take a couple of pics of my seed mix. There are very few black coloured seeds in it, maybe this is why I haven`t had any waste since I started feeding it. This is the gouldian supreme mix which I feed to my entire Australian flock including the societies, I also supply the african supreme mix to my african species.

seed mix 001.JPG

seed mix 002.JPG

Janine, where do you get this mix from? Or do you make it yourself?

Regarding the darker, oily seeds- i have read that these are most impportant during breeding and weaning of chicks, because they are softer and easier for chicks to start eating on their own than some other seeds.