Custom seed mixes

[crazy cuban]

can anyone recommend some custom bird seed mixers or any good mixes of seeds that are easy to obtain

[Craig52]

Most seed merchants will do a specialist mix for you,mine consists of 20% canary,30% white french millet,40% red pannican and 10% jap millet. Craig

[Finchy]

Who would be examples of seed merchants? When I Google that term it brings up a bunch of landscaping-type seed suppliers but not much in the 'millets etc' category. What terms should someone search for to find the kind of seed seller relevant to finch keepers?

[Craig52]

Sorry Finchy,try bird seed sales/merchants. Craig

[timh]

Hi guys,

I have in the past got Elanbee Bird supplies to mix up custom mixes and I know a few people how still do custom mixes through them.
I have found though, that their off the shelf mixes are quiet good. I think they also use all Australian seed so nice and fresh and good for sprouting...
I keep my seed in big air tight drums and one thing I have noticed is the varying amount of dust that you get depending on what brand of seed you buy. Good quality seed should be clean, not full of dust and rubbish...

Cheers,
Tim

[Finchy]

I haven't found Elenbee to be very good. Their sprout rate was the lowest, and their moulding rate among the highest, of the brands I test-sprouted in 2011-12. I love that they mix to order and use Aussie seed, but they're not cheap, nor convenient, and the freshness is questionable. I actually found the PetBarn mix, which I believe is (or was) repackaged Healthy Bird brand, to be the freshest and best sprouter (the millet anyway), but they offer no info about source of seed.

I would love to find a supplier again like Peppers. I was always happy with their seed back in the day.

[Tiaris]

Peter Slade at Quirindi does an excellent finch mix all fresh & grown by him. I've found Elenbee to be excellent for mixing any custom mixes also & have not had a problem with any seed I've obtained from them. All sprouts well. The problem I would have with proprietary mixes at Pet Barn & the like is the mix of seeds does not generally match what most finches like to eat. I mix all my own in a concrete mixer with 2ml/kg seed oils added. 40% Red Pan 20% each of white, jap & canary. Any extra seeds given are offered as a separate supplement.

[Finchy]

A concrete mixer - brilliant! I wish I had one...and the room. I may give Peter a call.

Tiaris, it sounds like you have thought about the question of optimal mixes from a palatability point of view, so what actually gets eaten. I have not - only from a nutritional point of view. Do you have any recommendations from your experience along the lines of "Make sure to include seed types A and B; don't bother with types Y and Z"?

Specifically, I am feeding this mix of species:
- 45% Gouldians
- 25% Zebras
- 20% Parrot Finches
- 10% Waxbills

Thank you

[Tiaris]

Gouldians & PFs prefer a higher proportion of plain canary so since they are well represented in your collection I'd go for slightly higher amount of PC than the others in any custom mix. Maybe 40% canary, & 20% each red pannicum, white & Jap.

[Fincho162]

Concur 150% with Tiaris about Elenbee Seeds and I buy it by the pallett load and have never encountered the mould or any other such problems with soaking/sprouting any of it and we do a hell of a lot of soaked/sprouted seed - no frozen green seed here!!!

They do several mixes for finch people that I know and none have experienced the problems I've read about here.............nor have we for that matter.
I think that they'll mix any recipe that you want and my Clifton Mix was husks when I kept Gouldians - but over them now and moved onto something even more frustrating!!
Yep, I'm a customer but a fairly (!!!!) fussy one ........and no, dont own shares in the company!!!!!!
Their Greens n Grains is a magic mix loosely based around the old Peppers mix and my birds luv it and 2 handfuls go into each sprouting batch that I do each day.

Without being derogatory Gouldians will usually devour any good solid seed mix - given their strong beak probably not a surprise!!
Try them on Siberian millet rather then the cheaper jap and the other one whose name escapes me!!