FINCHforum

After having a coffee grinder on my Christmas list for 2 years and not getting one I decided to get one myself. Since they were on sale it was an easy decision. After all...how long can I make my birdies wait for gourmet ground up flax seed, herbs and mineral grit?

Question: When you grind up the flax seed do you make it very fine or a little bit coarse. Just wondering what the finches would like best.


Off to go play with my new...um I mean "my bird's" coffee grinder.

P.S. Santa....you can keep the 'Sunroom for my Birdies' on my list tho.

Must be good to have! I use a mortar and pestle Low tech. Can only do sunflower seeds and eggshells. One time I took on sorghum and quinoa manually. I think I hurt myself.
Do birds prefer flax seeds ground up? I bought these flax seeds still in the little round pods on stems. My bird went for it right away but the stem sprang back and the pod appeared to fight the bird. The boxing went on a little and then the bird gave up. Now the pods are just decoration.

I grind it fine. Love my coffee grinder!!!

I feed flax seed whole in my mix. Why do you grind it? Any special reason?

Candace....good question. I had read that Humans should break up the whole flax seeds in order to benefit from the oils inside. And that our digestive system can't digest the whole seed and it just passes through. So I was assuming the same for finches.

Are your finches able to break up the whole flax seed? I thought maybe it was too tough for their beaks so it needed to be ground up a bit. Now I am curious about this being I haven't fed flax to my birds yet.

Some of my birds had difficulty with larger seeds...they love it ground up.

I feed mine the brown flax seed. not the golden as in this picture on the right of this infohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flax

Most quality seed mixes have whole flax seed...With ABBA 1900 finch seed it is the 5th seed listed in the ingredients, after millet, canary grass seed, oat groats, shelled sunflower chips.

My Cando Mix contains white millet, red siberian millet, german millet, canary grass seed, and flax all in equal proportions. I use this for sprouting and also as feed. The small goldbreast waxbills even eat it

you can also use the ground seed in birdie bread mixes or mixed into eggfoods.

I will have to try feeding my finches the whole flax seed and see how they do. But since I now have my new handy-dandy coffee grinder I will have to grind some up too.

FeatherHarp wrote:I will have to try feeding my finches the whole flax seed and see how they do. But since I now have my new handy-dandy coffee grinder I will have to grind some up too.

That is a great idea!! Then you can find what they like the most.
Merry Christmas Deborah!!!

I think either way of feeding is fine, I was just curious why people were grinding them. With humans the seeds tend to pass through the digestive system whole.... kind of like corn kernels swallowed whole
Finches shell seeds and grind with the gizzard so they can access the internal oil of the seed. I would assume the ground outer shells would not present a problem... just some extra roughage
I would be careful about offering too much flax seed as it can have detrimental affects on humans in high dosage... how this correlates to finches I haven't a clue however. Hope this information is helpful:

http://www.flaxseedshop.com/content/Fla ... ffects.asp

http://www.livestrong.com/article/36381 ... -seed-oil/

Also heating or baking in breads is not advisable to do... creates free radicals and destroys any nutrirtional value of the raw seed.
nhttp://thecopycatcook.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/the-danger-of-baking-with-flax-seeds/

Sprinkle it on top after baking! Don't forget the cherry on top!!!

They do make flaxseed meal, suppose you can use that also for baked treats once in a while.

There are several nutritional sites that recommend using it in baking goods such muffins, breads, waffles, pancakes, cereals, etc

http://www.barleans.com/literature/flax ... a-day.html

This site includes recipes and some benefits for human consumption.

Thanks for the links Candace and Cindy. Very interesting reading! There is much to consider when eating, feeding and baking with flax seed. I am disappointed to read that baking has a bad side effect for the flax. I guess moderation and knowledge of what is going in our bodies and our birds bodies takes some research effort.

So I guess I don't really have to grind up the flax for the birds but it will work for the Human.

I just tried grinding up the Herb Salad and that works wonderfully. Some of those pieces were like needles and didn't seem safe to feed to the birds. One time awhile back I actually poked myself and bled on a sharp piece when I grabbed some out with my fingers. Won't have to worry any more now that I grind the stuff up. I don't want the birds getting skewered when they eat!

But I am hesitant to try grinding the Abba mineral grit in the Coffee Grinder.....has anybody tried it? I don't want to wreck my new grinder right off the bat.

I grind it to smaller pieces...when straight from the container they take a piece, nibble on it and let the rest fall...I grind it and add it to powdered oyster shell and shaved cuttlebone and mineral block.