Custom Seed Mix?

[Celeris]

Hey folks,

I've found a local vendor that will enable me to custom mix seeds for my zebra and society finches. This, I'm hoping, will cut down on the waste of seeds that the birds don't seem to like.

I've read several articles (including Finch Info) and the contents of the seeds I already feed them, but I got wondering, if you could (or do) make your own seed mixes, what would the contents and percentages be? What have you found your finches like? Does it cost you more or less than a premix? Is it worth it?

Thanks!

[ac12]

There are pros and cons on seed mixes.
According to a study/test in Australia, birds will eat some thing in one season and the next season they would eat stuff that they did not eat before. So limiting them to just what they eat at one point in time would not be the best approach. Unless that is all they eat anyway.

But I have noticed that my finches do NOT like dark seeds, which my canary seems to love. So if they NEVER eat a particular seed, then it makes no sense to include it. Similarly, my finches would not eat the pellets in the seeds. And that is where the vitamins and other good stuff is. So what's the use in spending the money to buy vitamin enriched seeds, if the birds will ignore it.

Having said all that, I did read where a breeder would give his birds just enough seed mix that after they ate the seeds they wanted, if they were still hungry, they would have to eat the seeds that they ignored. I don't know if that is a good tactic or not. As some birds are STUBBORN and may just not eat and end up starving. Though that is somewhat similar to the technique that I used to convert birds from seeds to pellets.

[Rox]

I mix my own seed and this is for Gouldians and waxbills. I also found that my birds waste a lot less seed if I stick to this mix.

Equal parts:
Canary seed
Jap millet
White pannicum
Red pannicum
White millet

During breeding season, I then add smaller volume (say a quarter) of niger seed and sesame seed to the mix.

[Celeris]

According to a study/test in Australia, birds will eat some thing in one season and the next season they would eat stuff that they did not eat before. So limiting them to just what they eat at one point in time would not be the best approach. Unless that is all they eat anyway.

@ac12

Thank you for bringing that up! I hadn't thought about the possibility of the birds eating different seeds for different seasons, although it makes sense that that would be hardwired into them. I'll have to mull that over.

Having said all that, I did read where a breeder would give his birds just enough seed mix that after they ate the seeds they wanted, if they were still hungry, they would have to eat the seeds that they ignored. I don't know if that is a good tactic or not. As some birds are STUBBORN and may just not eat and end up starving.

I definitely hesitate to "starve" the birds into eating what I want them to eat. In my experience, the theory that animals will eventually yield to your desires to avoid starvation is iffy. As you said, some are very set in their ways and would rather starve.


@Rox

Thank you! I have found that they like canary seed and have wondered how they might take to niger. Is niger higher in protein/calcium? What makes you put it into their mix specifically during breeding season?

[ac12]

I think niger is an oily/fatty seed, and good during breeding season.
But of course I don't have it written down, so I don't remember the reason very well.

[Sally]

Nyger is a fatty/oily seed, often fed in cold weather when wild birds need that extra energy to keep warm. In breeding season, it may be good because it is high-calorie.

[mohum]

I get canary seed and finch mix and used to put in separate feeders until I noticed that they all ate both so I just mix them together now. The only wastage is on the floor and the wild birds get this when I sweep out.

[Sojourner]

Celeris

My guys wouldn't touch the nyjer for a long long time.

Then they suddenly decided to like it after all. I give it to them in very small treat cups from time to time. I cycle them through several seeds they seem to like.

For the staple mix I've given up on the actual finch mix as they will only eat the canary reedgrass seed, various millets, and oat groats. Everything else in the mix - mostly rape seed and flax - they ignore.

They will eat:

• Sesame seed
• Nyjer
• hulled hemp seed
• sunflower chips
• oats in the hull
• flaked red wheat
• flaked oats
• egg food (my guys will only eat the dry stuff)
• Fennel, but not the fat kind, only the skinny kind. I only know what to call it in Hindi.
• cracked wheat

I know there are a few more things I offer in small quantities but I can't recall the whole list off the top of my head.

I only offer the above from time to time, in small treat cups or the very shallow biscuit cups, as treats. Some of them - nyjer, sesame, sunflower - are high in fat. My guys have enough space to fly and I don't offer everything every day so, so far, they don't seem to be getting fat.

There is egg food and sunflower seeds in the cage 24/7, which is OK for my guys because they still prefer their veggies and their staple seed mix.

I just use a good budgie mix and don't buy finch mix any more.

They hull their own oats just fine and it gives them something to do, so once I figured out my local tiny bird shop (the shop, not the birds, LOL!) had the oats in the hull (labelled incorrectly as oat groats, which are hulled oats) I buy that separately and offer it as a treat as well. The oats in the budgie mix are already hulled.

They love their veggie mix - I buy a prepackaged salad mix from Costco that has a lot of kale in it. I add shredded carrots to it, which to date they are still leaving to last and mostly rejecting.

They got over that with the nyjer seed, I live in hope that one day they will eat their carrots as well.

They love spinach and broccoli which I offer using a millet clip, the kale mix goes on a plate in the bottom of the cage. They eat the little heads off the broccoli. They only get the spinach or broccoli (one or the other) a couple times a week at most, just to be safe. I'm still not totally convinced that allowing them to pig out on spinach nearly every day didn't have something to do with Molly Brown becoming egg bound and dying. Oxalic acid interferes with calcium absorption.

My budgies, in contrast, I have given up on. They won't eat anything but budgie mix. Won't touch pellets (not that I WANT them to eat pellets, but I had been told that was their staple before I got them, yet they WILL NOT TOUCH the stuff), veggies, or anything else. I even put a banana chip in their goody clamp (where I usually put millet sprays).

They think its a head scratcher. *sigh*

Anyway. I just give them the budgie mix as a staple, with the dry eggfood and the sunflower seed always available (since they don't pig out on either one) and make sure they have small amounts of the "extras" from time to time. Plus lots of veggies.

I don't see the need for a special seed mix - I feel there is less waste when you let them pick and choose, and if you are offering a variety throughout the year, you'll pick up on what they're on at the moment and what they've gone off of. Otherwise they'll always be rejecting SOMETHING in the mix.

To me, seed mixes only make sense if you have a LOT of birds - then it might become a pain in the tuckus trying to keep up with a lot of little treat cups. But if you just have a few birds I wouldn't bother. It's more fun for both me and my birdly friends this way. Then there's always something new to look forward to. What will be in the treat cups today? LOL!

[Sojourner]

Celeris

An important one I left off - and I can't edit my post now -

POPPY SEED!

That one surprised me because its the only little black seed they will eat.

[Celeris]

Sojourner

Thank you for that recommendation! Perhaps it does make more sense to just buy some "treat seeds" to feed in little cups (perhaps as an alternative to their spray millet) than to try to pick and choose a custom mix. I will definitely look into a budgie mix. I've also found a canary mix that seems like it may not be a bad bet. My biggest issue with the premixed stuff is so much of it seems to have those darned colored pellets! Not only do the birds not eat those, but they make a downright mess if they somehow end up in the water. (Which has happened more than once--perhaps the birds are trying to tell me something!)