FINCHforum

I'm very interested in European Goldfinches. I was doing a little reading and learned that they like Niger Seed as well as sunflower hearts. Both of these items I can purchase from my local Agway. Should I be worried about a lesser quality seed because they aren't meant for captive birds? Do the seeds not get processed as well?

There might be more dust in the mix, also be careful of moth/larva/webbing in the bags. I have also been to feed stores that do not rotate their products and sell outdated seed.

When I first got my European goldfinch I offered wild bird niger seed in a separate dish, and also tried one of the niger feeders with the mesh that the American goldfinches flock to in our yard. But he didn't care for it and I never saw him eating any of it. I now fill one seed dish with the ABBA Siskin seed mix which offers seed especially for this type of bird, but my other finches can eat it too. However, I couldn't tell you how much of that is eaten by him or by my other finches since I have a community aviary...

http://www.abbaseed.com/Seed_Products/M ... /3800.html

I feed my Goldfinch Niger seed,I just get the sort that are for gard birds(easily available over here) and they love the stuff

hi
has anyone tried teazle,in the uk the golfinches eat that aswell as niger!

I don't think you can get that here. But I found a website that talks about American goldfinches eating it, so maybe somebody would sell it...
http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/weedgui ... asp?id=850

So I should freeze it for 24 hours and be prepared for a little dust but it would be no detriment to the birds?

I would personally be worried about the dust. If I am not mistaken, the seeds that we buy for caged birds are of a higher quality and more time is taken cleaning them.

Ok I just went to Agway to do a little investigative work. The nyger seed seems no dustier than the seed I just got from Herman Brothers. This leads to another question because I've seen different answers on different sites. Is nyger seed the same as thistle seed?

Ratrodfink wrote:Ok I just went to Agway to do a little investigative work. The nyger seed seems no dustier than the seed I just got from Herman Brothers. This leads to another question because I've seen different answers on different sites. Is nyger seed the same as thistle seed?

There was a post about this: http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php ... er+thistle

Yes they do love niger seed and sunflower hearts.If you can get your hands on small variety of sunflower seed they can crack it them selves.Make them work for it and keep them more busy.I put some grinded sunflower hearts in my egg food which is good for breeding and molting.Niger,sunflower,hemp,lettuce,rape seed are fatty seeds so monitor how much they take and give them room to exercise it off.One thing if you can please remember they love dandelion very much.I grow my own.

Ursula wrote:

Ratrodfink wrote:Ok I just went to Agway to do a little investigative work. The nyger seed seems no dustier than the seed I just got from Herman Brothers. This leads to another question because I've seen different answers on different sites. Is nyger seed the same as thistle seed?

There was a post about this: http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php ... er+thistle

Thank you!

Ok I just went to Agway to do a little investigative work. The nyger seed seems no dustier than the seed I just got from Herman Brothers. This leads to another question because I've seen different answers on different sites. Is nyger seed the same as thistle seed?

http://www.ebirdseed.com/nyjer_niger_th ... dseed.html

Ok, I can't resist some self promotion here. I think that is allowed once in a while, isn't it

All niger seed (sometimes called niger thistle) imported into the United States is sterilized with heat treatment and is dead seed. The heat treatment destroys vitamins and enzymes, makes the seed less palatable to birds and harder for nestlings to digest, and it won't sprout. Using non-sterilized niger was a condition of my licensing agreement with Birds R Us Australia.

Oil seeds such as niger provide the essential lipids and fat soluble vitamin precursors which cannot be manufactured by the body. Niger seed is the "Yin" to the "Yang" of the millets and grass seeds commonly found in finch seed blends. And, live niger is the oil seed most favored by finches!!!

You can read more about American Grown Niger that is not heat treated here: http://www.nyger.com/

And, we happen to have American Grown Live Niger on Sale through February 28th!!!

Bill

Aww Bill, you don't ship to my area

Do you have any distributors in the Montreal, Quebec....Canada area? If not, do you want the name of the supplier where I do my business