FINCHforum

Canary3000 asked about growing bird seed. This is what I'm doing, using Rape seed (Brassica napus). My canaries eat the seed, but not very much. I feed each seed variety in a separate dish so it is easy for me to see what they're eating. Also, the birds rake through the seed, scattering a lot if it. I don't know what they're looking for, the whole dish is Rape seed.

Now I'm sowing some in a dish every day, setting it outside and letting it germinate and grow for about a week, and feeding it that way. When that dish goes into the aviary, they drop everything and rush over to eat it.

I used bagged potting soil as the media, and cut-down 1 gallon milk jugs (with holes in the bottom) for the dishes.

Right now our climate (central Kentucky U.S.) is moist, so the seed germinates quickly even without much soil covering it.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Very similar to what I was doing a while back. Yes, all the birds love them.

Great idea!
Sprouted seed is a far quicker turnaround time than sowing seed into the garden and waiting for green seed heads.
I'm going to try that using inexpensive plastic food storage containers. The dollar store sells these that are about 6x6 inches about 4 inches high.

Whenever I get my next birds (hope springs eternal), I want to sprout seeds. Pictures are very helpful.

This is genius! I am going to have to try it with my leftover seeds from all my birds. Do you think cockatiels would like this too?

Of course they would!

wildbird
Thank you! I'll start on this either today or tomorrow.

I just started two of them. One for my main cage of finches and one for my favorite cockatiel. How long till it is ready? Also I am using a mix of seeds.