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Re: Seed mix variations
Posted: 04 Jun 2012, 19:34
by Pete Sara
Just my 2 cents worth , some of the budgie breeders mixes I have seen over here look just as good as finch mix, but never have compared the prices to see the differance.
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.....
Re: Seed mix variations
Posted: 04 Jun 2012, 20:11
by Myzomela
Great idea Poitta!
Re: Seed mix variations
Posted: 04 Jun 2012, 20:22
by venetta
I've got a couple of pics of basic finch, budgie and canary mix that I've bought from a local store for work..
When I am at work tomorrow I can post the pics, but I agree with spanna, the budgie mix and finch look quite similar and it's possibly from the same place
Re: Seed mix variations
Posted: 04 Jun 2012, 22:02
by djb78
I now do my own mix with basic seeds lime Canary, white French millet, map millet and red panicum. What else I get are Niger, linseed, poppy and de shelled sunflower which are extras given randomly. When I used to purchase ready made seed mix I grabbed a Canary mix which was high Canary seed canola yellow millet and white millet. The finch mix I also purchased used to contain white millet yellow millet map millet and a little red panicum. I found depending on what time of year I would purchase these I would get different quantities of different seed but what turned me off was when they started to add whole wheat kernels to the Canary mix and substituted red panicum for something that looked like red canola. I even tried a product they called finch tonic mix which to me looked like high amount Canary seed with high amounts of canola and the rest were low amounts of jap millet red panicum Niger and some type of grass seed something like rye.
Re: Seed mix variations
Posted: 04 Jun 2012, 22:17
by rpetersen
Hi All,
I see most of your finch mixes consist of either red or yellow panicum. I do not know if any of these are available in South Africa. Very interesting to know more about this. Even if i can buy some of it. Here we only have Manna a very small seed either in yellow or red. I will try and post a photo or two of it.
Re: Seed mix variations
Posted: 04 Jun 2012, 23:27
by spanna
Okay, here are the pics of the 2 seed mixes in my possession:
Finch mix:
finch mix.jpg
Budgie mix:
budgie mix.jpg
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.
Re: Seed mix variations
Posted: 05 Jun 2012, 00:04
by captain
while reading all this it came to me i supply most of these to my finches but i still need help to find some .When all extras are written is there somewhere in these topics a list [who.where to get them frome]eg niger ,green seed ,poppy oils/say like .Any help
Re: Seed mix variations
Posted: 05 Jun 2012, 02:01
by Netsurfer
rpetersen wrote:Hi All,
I see most of your finch mixes consist of either red or yellow panicum. I do not know if any of these are available in South Africa. Very interesting to know more about this. Even if i can buy some of it. Here we only have Manna a very small seed either in yellow or red. I will try and post a photo or two of it.
Then, there shouldn't be any shortage of this African "miracle" seeds
http://www.lavoliere.com/elevage/alimen ... nglish.htm Unfortunately they're still not available here in Australia, we have to order them prepacked from the UK.
http://www.robharvey.com/foniopaddy.htm
Re: Seed mix variations
Posted: 05 Jun 2012, 04:07
by GregH
In determining the "perfect" finch mix I came across some research that may be of interest to AFF readers because it actually looks at how different species choose seed.
Soobramoney, S; Perrin,M.R. (2007) The effect of bill structure on seed selection and handling ability of five species of granivorous birds.
Emu 107(3) 169–176
Abstract
The relationships between bill morphology and seed characteristics (size and nutrients) with regard to feeding were investigated in five species of bird belonging to three families of granivorous passerines (Estrildidae, Ploceidae, Passeridae): Bronze Mannikin (Spermestes cucullatus), Cape Sparrow (Passer melanurus), Red Bishop (Euplectes orix) and Thick-billed Weaver (Amblyospiza albifrons) and the Bengalese Finch (Lonchura domestica). Birds husked all seeds (Japanese millet, white millet, red manna seed, canary seed, red sorghum and black niger) before ingestion. Monocotyledonous seeds were handled significantly faster than dicotyledenous seeds, and spherical seeds faster than elongate seeds. Handling time also increased with the size of seeds. Birds with medium-sized bills (Cape Sparrows) were most effective in husking most species of seeds. Birds with the smallest bills (Bronze Mannikin and Bengalese Finch) husked the smallest seeds fastest while birds with the largest bills (Thick-billed Weaver) husked the largest seeds fastest. Handling time was affected by size and shape of seeds and bill structure. However, handling time and nutritional intake rate did not determine seed selection. Japanese millet was the preferred seed type for all five bird species although it provided fewer calories per seed and less protein than other seeds. Results suggest that nutrition is less important than morphological traits of seeds: birds generally selected food items that were easiest to handle and could be processed faster, thereby gaining nutrients quickly.
Previously work by Perrin, conducted in South Africa, compared seed selection between Java sparrows, diamond doves and love birds came to a similar conclusion: the small readily consumed seed of Japanese millet was preferred over other seeds in his mix (white millet (
Panicum miliaceum), red manna (
P. maximum), canary seed (
Phalaris canariensis) and Japanese millet (
Echinochloa frumentacea)). The full reference is available at:De Nagy Koves Hrabar, H; Perrin, M. (2002) The effect of bill structure on seed selection by granivorous birds.
African Zoology 37:67-80.
Re: Seed mix variations
Posted: 05 Jun 2012, 04:22
by GregH
rpetersen wrote:I see most of your finch mixes consist of either red or yellow panicum. I do not know if any of these are available in South Africa. Very interesting to know more about this. Even if i can buy some of it. Here we only have Manna a very small seed either in yellow or red. I will try and post a photo or two of it.
The term Manna is synonymous with panicum here in Australia both red & yellow types are different varieties of
Panicum maximum. It's unlikely that there is any significant nutritional difference between the two types.