FINCHforum

Ok so i was wondering about adding grass seed to my finches diet. I have a few parrot finches and they need more variety. I CAN NOT SEEM TO FIND ANY ORGANIC GRASS SEEDS.

So at the local Dollar store i found this bag of grass seed and was wondering if it would be safe or not to feed. It is mainly rye grass and a few other grass seeds. I can not find anything on the bag that says it has Been treated with anything at all. Since its cheap and at a dollar store and they buy these seeds cheap again. I would only assume they are not treated. This isnt Lowes or Home Depo. ... it smells like hay and no chemical smell at all. Dry grass smell. It has tiny little holes in the bag. Smells fresh to me.

Now before anyone judges me. I have not fed this. Was just wondering thoughts on the subject.

Has anyone tried it?

I know some members use grass seed they collect themselves. But I would not use bagged grass seed myself. I would only use seed processed for birds or humans. Since the seed is not intended for ingestion it might not have a full list of ingredients or additives. I would hit the bulk bins at a good healthy food market.

josh1810

Hi Josh,

I would be very careful with any food stuff from the $ store.

Now I love $ stores, and shop I there all the time, so it's not that. I only know, that a lot of the food stuff in there (especially the pet stuff ), comes from China. Now there again, I have nothing against China, but I refuse to buy any food stuff that comes from there.

Do you know where these seeds are coming from? Do you know if they were sprayed with some sort of pesticides when they were growing???

Personally, I would not feed them to my birds.

I pick wild grass seed for my birdlings, and they love them. I dog walk in a green space, where the city never sprays or cuts anything, so I get a variety of prairie wild grasses, along with timothy hay that must have blown in from somewhere. It's great.

I agree... the ingredients are limited and the info on the back is as limted also.

Any ideas where to get different grass seeds that are safe. I know alot of mixes have grass seeds in them. But they are exspensive.

Lovezebs

Are you feeding them green, or drying them out?

I would like them dried out so I can feed ling term and during the winter. My dad has 40 acres of bermuda but he fertilizes it with his chicken house litter. So im not going to feed that for sure.

josh1810

Hi Josh.

In the Spring, I feed green.
This time of the year, I've been feverishly collecting the dry seed heads for Winter use, until Spring comes again.

Let me explain though, that this is used as a supplementation only, not as their main food. I also buy Wild Finch seed mix, and also high quality Finch mix, Canary grass seed, Red Millet, Oats, and I get Polish Canola and just harvested Wheat from my Dentist (who is also a farmer). I mix these together for the kids.

The wild grass seeds and seed heads, are offered in a Tupperware container, with bits of hay, grass, bits of egg shell, mealworms, and bits of dry egg food crumbles, etc. It's their play/foraging box, and they love it.

Here's a picture of the actual seeds/seed heads, that I'm collecting this time of the year (before the big snows come and bury everything ).

Look for wheat grass... some sprout it other grow it.

https://sproutpeople.org/wheatgrass/

https://sproutpeople.org/catalogsearch/result/?q=grass

Rye grass https://sproutpeople.org/rye-grass/

this is organic

Call your local feed stores some carry a variety of millet seed, rye grass and wheat grass seeds. I get 50lb bags of various seeds from several of the feed stores here. Try looking into seed growers.

As Cindy mentioned, rather try your local feed stores. I wouldn't trust the Dollar store (we have them here too, just called the 5 Rand store).

A lot of the grass seeds are used to plant for pasture foraging and should be available to you if you find the right supplier. They might just be in really large bags though...

Hancock Seed is one of the bigger growers here in my area... they ship. I have in the past gotten several types of seed (millets) from them for my birds. They ship.

http://hancockseed.com/all-products/

Why not just plant their regular seed mixes in a pot and let it grow? I dump the bird water dishes in my house plants and the few seeds that end up in their dishes sprouts readily.

Atbird

My guys throw seeds into all my plants all the time. Seeds end up sprouting and growing even in rooms where there are no birds Can't figure that one out, shrug.

However, these tiny seedlings never grow beyond the scraggly stage, then tip over, therefore never growing enough to go into the seeding stage. I have picked some though and offered them to the birds.

Elana, try this with millet sprays.... http://www.ladygouldianfinch.com/featur ... gseeds.php

What about the cat grass seed mixes from pet stores? I know some sell mixes of rye, oat, wheat, etc. Petco sells the seed refill packets. Not sure if they're safe or not?