White Prosso As Only Seed?

[DanteD716]

With good intentions, my mom bought me 10lbs. of wild birdseed. It is only white prosso millet and a few scatter sunflower seeds. I mixed it with their regular seed and they love it! Especially the society finches. I was reading (on his article about Grand Mannikin) that Roy feeds his grand mannikins only white prosso for their seed, if I was to do this with my birds (they would still get eggfood, millet stalks, sprouted greens, fresh greens, and their usual treats/supplements) would this be okay? Just curious, it would be a big money saver if I could, they ignore most of the seed in their blend and eat all of the prosso first.

[cindy]

Dante, I got white proso and the owls, and some of the zebras, well most will not eat it. Each type of millet/seed has a different fat, protein and carbohydrate value. Some seed contain oils. It would be a good idea to offer a variety. What you could do is rotate it, regualr seed for two days white prose for 1 day or buy a few bags and blend it in with your regular seed to stretch it out and give the birds a variety.

I feed mine a mix of Japenese millet, brown top millet, German Foxtail and Roudybush nibbles and Zupreem Fruit blend pellets and a side of canary seed.

[DanteD716]

Sounds goood! Thanks!

[ac12]

I have a few that seem to really want the RED millet. They primarily eat that seed. So like Cindy said, I mix a bit of red millet with their other seeds to get them to eat other than just the red millet.

[DanteD716]

Mine get red millet, but seem to ignore it. Only my zebras eat it. They get the prosso millet, oats groats, red millet, nyger seed, and a few others I don't remember the names of. I mix the kaytee finch diet with the wild birdseed which contains, white prosso millet, black oil sunflower seed and red milo. I have not noticed if they eat the red milo, is it good for them?

[cindy]

Red milo seed is often used in a bag of bird seed as filler seed so it is like wasting your money. Red milo is a favorite of doves, turkeys, pheasants....it is probably a bit big for them to manage.

[DanteD716]

This cam ein the wild birdseed so I don't care if it's wasted. would button quail eat it? If they do I 'll buy one for the society cage as a clean up man

[cindy]

I've never owned Button Quail. The seed is large and bulky and they are so tiny I don't know if they can manage it. I think they get a special food.

[DanteD716]

The guys at CreekSide sell them, they told me they eat a finch mix and love millet sprays. My older brother really wants one so I may have him buy one and I buy another

[Chichireeo]

Give them the white proso... while it lasts! They won't keep doing that until your 10 lb bag is gone. You think they really like something so you go buy a lot, then they suddenly stop liking it and start on something else. This happened to me so many times.

[DanteD716]

Well I didn't ask for the 10lbs, my mom just did it out of good nature, shedoesn't care for my birds. And I'll keep feeding until they show no interest. thanks for the tip and sorry this always happens to you, if I find they really like a certain seed or food it becomes a treat.

[ac12]

I think it was documented with gouldians that they change what seeds they eat during different times of the year. So if you give what they like in the winter, in the summer they may not want that seed, and want a different seed.

That was frustrating me when I first started. The finches would not eat half the seeds in the seed mix, and I was throwing half the seeds out. So I converted them to pellet food to avoid the wastage. I did not wait for a different season to see if they would change what seeds they ate.

[DanteD716]

Gary, I have the same problem. I tried converting to pellet food and they would not touch it. What was your method?

[cindy]

Dante, the birds that are adults are more difficult to convert, the young if offered it when they fledge and start eating on their own will take to it.

Roudybush offers this advice on trying to make them switch over
I use Roudybush Nibbles and Zupreem Fruit blends canary/finch (they will not eat the Zupreem Natural) (my owls love the fruit blends especially....one flight eats all the colors but red, it is so funny to change the pellets out and they leave a pile of red at the bottom of the cup.) All my zebras love it as well. When I open a new bag, they must smell it and everyone start chattering. Once babies fledge, I usually do not offer as much eggfood and give extra pellets that the parent down and feed to the young.

here is the link on how to train your birds to eat pellets...it may work,
http://www.roudybush.com/index.cfm?fuse ... foodswitch

I found with new birds that were never offered it before instead of giving it to them in a separate cup put about 1/2 teaspoon in the middle of the seed cup. Some of mine will not go to it if it is not mixed in. Or put a small dish down of pellets next to the seed.

[DanteD716]

Thanks Cindy, they sell canary and finch seed that has the pellets mixed in, I tried it before but I'll try again, I'm expecting babies so maybe they'll eat it, I also didn't have all these societies or most of my birds when I had it, so I'll try. And I'll read the link