FINCHforum

At Pet Supplies Plus they have little contraptions to mix your own seed. There is a variety of seed, and you hold a lever to shoot the seed you want and weigh it. So I usually but several different mixes, and keep them seperate. And then give a scoop of one type, 2 of a different type, etc to match the birds that will eat it. So it minimizes waste.

My question is this: If I mized all the seed blends would there still be less waste??

This is what my uncle does, and he said he leave the food in the cage for a few days before changing it because when the birds get hungry he noticed they will start eating the seeds they normally won't eat. And he said when he used to change it daily so much was wasted because they only ate their favorite seed.
So do you think if I left the food in the cage longer than normal they would start eating the seeds they do not favor?

Also, they sell grit by the lb at $0.33.

Dante, why aren't you in school
I mix my own, in the individual cages they only get what they can eat in 1 day, in the aviary, the seed bowls allow for more seed and the chaff is removed, the seed is left until the seed is almost 99.9% gone.

lou wrote: Dante, why aren't you in school
I mix my own, in the individual cages they only get what they can eat in 1 day, in the aviary, the seed bowls allow for more seed and the chaff is removed, the seed is left until the seed is almost 99.9% gone.

Hm. Ok. SO should I mix my different seeds together or continue to only feed the birds individually on their taste preference? And Hurrican Sandy has swept through NY; no school!

That's right, forgot about Sandy. Hope everything is ok. Be careful with the fat seeds. Dante, the only reason I do this is to same money, this may change when my mixes are depleted, the price for the individual seeds has gone way up. Here's some prices
canary diet 40# 22.10
fancy finch mix 40#19.80
german millet 50# 23.50 was 19.00 ?
white millet 50# 20.90 was 16.00
red millet 50#21.25 was 18.00
jap miiet 50# 33.00
the only seed blend that I will mix is for my goldies

lou wrote: That's right, forgot about Sandy. Hope everything is ok. Be careful with the fat seeds. Dante, the only reason I do this is to same money, this may change when my mixes are depleted, the price for the individual seeds has gone way up. Here's some prices
canary diet 40# 22.10
fancy finch mix 40#19.80
german millet 50# 23.50 was 19.00 ?
white millet 50# 20.90 was 16.00
red millet 50#21.25 was 18.00
jap miiet 50# 33.00
the only seed blend that I will mix is for my goldies

Those prices are based on last year's harvest and they are skyrocketing due to poor crop yields, like everything else. Mother Nature needs to give us a break already.

DanteD716 wrote: At Pet Supplies Plus they have little contraptions to mix your own seed. There is a variety of seed, and you hold a lever to shoot the seed you want and weigh it. So I usually but several different mixes, and keep them seperate. And then give a scoop of one type, 2 of a different type, etc to match the birds that will eat it. So it minimizes waste.

My question is this: If I mized all the seed blends would there still be less waste??

This is what my uncle does, and he said he leave the food in the cage for a few days before changing it because when the birds get hungry he noticed they will start eating the seeds they normally won't eat. And he said when he used to change it daily so much was wasted because they only ate their favorite seed.
So do you think if I left the food in the cage longer than normal they would start eating the seeds they do not favor?

I would and have just placed individual seeds in to see what they are eating so you have less waste. Also, buying seed that is "live" or that has been tested for germination, purity and viability will greatly improve the overall quality of the seed and you will have a lot less tossed. Just play around with it until you see what your birds are actually eating, like Cindy and a bunch of use did a year ago to create the mixture that I sell. I have listed the link to the mix we created below if you would like to check it out and we have a free 4 oz. sample available but you have to email us through the website to get the free shipping. It's the "Economy Finch Blend" that contains the most preferred millets mixed together. Then the idea was to add the higher protein or oily seeds during molt or more stressful periods. Niger and Canary seed are a lot more expensive seed than millets so this lessens your feed cost considerably. Hence, my reason for doing the experiment to begin with - too save life on my vacuum cleaner, back, and bank account.

http://www.roosegreensolutions.com/inde ... mixes.html