Seed mix variations

[djb78]

Captain I buy all my oil seeds through the same place where I buy all my other seeds, some are harder to obtain during certain times of the year but can get most all the time. I have another place which I go to and he sells al types of foods for all animals ranging from dog and cat to all sorts of seeds and horse feed along with all different types of animal needs medications, food and water dishes to cat toys horse bridels ECT. These types of seeds will be hard to find in pet shops. Ellenbee stock all types of seeds so checking their web site may help you obtain them. Sorry can't post the site but someone else maybe able to

[Tiaris]

Red and Yellow Pannicum are nutritionally identical but most finches prefer red due to its softer kernel.

[Myzomela]

Greg H- thanks for those references- very interesting.

It flies a little against the theory that most species have adapted to efficiently harvest those food sources that give them the maximum nutrition in the shortest time or least effort.
However, I wonder how many of these seeds the birds naturally encounter in their wild habitat. I also wonder what the comparative wild observations for these species would be?

As an aside, how come a South African study on non-Australian birds is published in an Australian ornithological journal? Don't get me wrong-great info, just wondering.

[Diane]

With all these seeds that can look the same can be a bit confuseing, I think we need a section with pics just on the differant seeds...with the good and bad points on each.....

Mickp did a couple of topics on seed and pics for them some had growing pics too. I will find them, add the links to this topic and make the original topics into "sticky" so they will always appear at the top of the Diet and Food section.


EDITED to add the links.....
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=2422
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=2435

[spanna]

Okay, here are the pics of the 2 seed mixes in my possession:

Finch mix:

http://aussiefinchforum.net/download/file.php?id=6392

Budgie mix:

http://aussiefinchforum.net/download/file.php?id=6393

The finch mix is of good quality, and sprouts very well, though I am yet to try and sprout the budgie mix. My thoughts (may be price dependant, haven't actually compared prices for larger quantities) are that I would prefer to provide this budgie mix as my standard (assuming good seed sprout rate), with red pannicum provided separately. I'm quite friendly with the store owners so can ask a few questions if any further info is wanted.

Can anyone comment on the value of seeds in these mixes? To me, the budgie mix (no oats) has a higher proportion of canary and jap millet, no niger, and no red pannicum. Any other observations or comments?

[finchbreeder]

I am becoming more and more inclined to buy a bag each of finch and budgie mix. Then mix them to get what I am happiest with. That's what I would do if I was you Spanna, cause if I can get through 40/50kgs in a reasonable time you certainly can.
LML

[GregH]

Myzo I'm not certain why these South Africans chose to publish in a CSIRO journal but perhaps the EMU has a higher impact factor than their own journals. As for the conclusion it seems that when not in direct competition for the various seeds that these finches didn't specialise - they all favoured Japanese millet because it was the most easily processed. It's a bit like devoting floor-space to stock in a shop. You don't give the most space to the items with the largest profit per item without regard for the turnover (profit/unit area/unit time). It's better to devote more space to something that sells than something that just sits there and so it is with seed choice. Jap millet may not be a nutritionally dense food but there is more nutrition to be had out of a crop-full of it which can be downed in 10 minutes than there is in the 5 or 6 niger seeds that can be eaten in the same time. Time on the ground foraging probably places a birds at greater risk of predation than sitting in a shrub digesting a crop full of seed so it makes a lot of sense when viewed this way.

[djb78]

Spanna just my thought. Finch mix seems to contain equal parts Canary red panicum yellow panicum and French millet with a sprinkle of Niger. Budgie mix conatains higher amount of Canary and French millet lots of jap and some yellow panicum. Judging by what's in them budgie mix would be cheaper per kg. Budgie mix would be good for your finches with the adding of red panicum as this is basically what i give. The only disadvantage is the lack of oil seeds which my birds like when rearing young. As for sprouting both mixes should sprout good except for the Niger. Both would also be good for trying to grow Green seed with the exception of Niger again. Give your birds both mixes separately and see which bowl gets attacked first and then work off that mix and add what ever else is needed. Hope this helped abit

[spanna]

Good idea. I also have an oily seed mix, can post a pic of that too. This mix is only fed in small amounts, as it isn't taken by many birds, and a small amount lasts a week or so.

[venetta]

Here is my work's budgie mix and finch mix.

Budgie Mix.jpg

Finch Mix.jpg

Quite similar? One was taken with the flash a lot closer than the other..