Silk Sorghum

For all your questions about diet and food for your finches
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E Orix
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Joined: 29 May 2009, 23:30
Location: Howlong on NSW/Vic Border 30km from Albury
Location: Howlong NSW

I have just been given two large bags of Silk Sorghum
The person is a very experience Gouldian breeder and I do not doubt
his opinion at all. I know Gouldians in the wild feed heavily on wild Sorghum.
Just putting this up for an opinion or any other info.
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Craig52
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Joined: 11 Nov 2011, 19:26
Location: victoria

Interesting, what size is this seed. Yes gouldians eat wild sorghum (Spear grass) in the wild but other varieties are very large and hard to crack open for finches. Can you possibly put a pic up or a link ? Craig
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Tiaris
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Location: Coffs Harbour

Silky sorghum is much softer & more slender than the common milo sorghum so is much more suitable for finches. I know of a couple of breeders (Gouldian) who use it in their seed mix & say they eat it well.
The "wild sorghum" (Speargrass) eaten by Gouldians in the wild is (IMO) much different to virtually all cultivated sorghums. So much so that they share very little resemblence to the wild one other than they have sorghum in their names. I have seen nutritional breakdowns of the wild Nth Aust Speargrass seed which are far superior to most other seed types we use as bird food & certainly far superior to the cultivated grain and pasture sorghum varieties. So I don't think that silky sorghum is a genuine contender to replace the dietary value of speargrass seed but it is a useful and palatable seed for added variety in finch diets.
PS: If anyone up north can line up a supply of speargrass seed for sale to southern states, I reckon it would be the most sought-after Gouldian food aviculturists could give their birds. I'd certainly be a happy buyer.
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gomer
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Location: Victoria
Location: Victoria Australia

I see Australian wildlife suppliers sell it for Q.L.D finch society. It looks to be a hybrid sorghum on some other links on the net. Here's a link.

http://www.wildlifesupplies.com.au/shop ... -1-kg.html

https://planetaviary.com/product/silk-sorghum/

Tiaris a group in the N.T were looking at growing/ supplying golden beard grass, cockatoo and spear grass years ago to breeders.I got some of the seeds from them and tried to grow it here aswell with no luck.I still have some of each somewhere.The speargrass came in a seed bag as it comes with the tail still on it.
Keeper of Australian Grass Finches
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finchbreeder
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Location: Midwest of West. Aust. Coast
Location: Midwest of West.Aust.Coast

At that price you would think it would be worthwhile for an enterprising group of neighbouring farmers to trial a 100 hectares.
LML
LML
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D0NKEY
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Joined: 07 Dec 2014, 09:26
Location: Sydney

Is the silk sogrum worth sprouting ? I might buy a bag and try.
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