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left over seed (1 Viewer)

nataliew

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My birds are finicky...all the little millet type seed just gets thrown to the ground, and every 2 days, I feed late so that they will come clean up the leftovers....however....they don't.

Is there any chance of getting them to eat these seeds? I've decided to only buy my seed in bulk so that I can make my own mixture and avoid all the little filler seeds. ...but in the meantime, this last mix is full of it (red and white millet, I think it is). Should I just go get it all swept up...or in time, should something eat it???
 
Hi Natalie,
I don't know much about feeding and what seeds are good, but if you try searching the Food and Feeders forum you might come up with some experienced people's advice, for example this thread seems useful.

Happy feeding, and a happy holiday season to you! o:D
Regards from a warmer clime,
Marie
 
Natalie; This is the bird feeders eternal head wreck. It's also why I've come to despise 'shop bought mixes'. Especially the 'cheaper' ones which rely on a lot of junk grains, to bulk up the weight.

Is there anything more frustrating than seeing a bird 'spit out' more of ye hard earned seeds than it eats? Then, the 'rubbish' on the ground is liable to attract vermin as much as 'Ground Feeders'.

My way round this is to indeed buy separate seeds. Experience ~ granted, often long and painful! ~ and observation will teach ye what the local birds want. Figure that out and simply offer each type in separate feeders ;)

Millet, meanwhile? I find House Sparrows are partial to that. Maybe ye get Junco's? I'm given to believe they too appreciate it.

Anyway, just start by checking out what's left on the ground. Then identify that stuff at ye feed suppliers. Mark it off as Not to be added to 'Natalie's Wonder Mix'. But, best of all? Offer what they obviously prefer separately. Less taste and spit.

Don't despise the non runners though. It might just turn out to be the stuff that draws and holds that New bird some time.

Time, and experience will tell :t:
 
Although I am from the UK I should think that the birds taste are pretty much the same. I stopped buying seed long ago and just give them Sunflower hearts all the species love them from the smallest of the sparrows, finches to the larger of the garden birds. And normally what is dropped is normally eaten by the ground feeders.
 
Although I am from the UK I should think that the birds taste are pretty much the same. I stopped buying seed long ago and just give them Sunflower hearts all the species love them from the smallest of the sparrows, finches to the larger of the garden birds. And normally what is dropped is normally eaten by the ground feeders.

Since all seed is encased in a hard case how do birds taste?? My birds as well will rumage through the mix for theire favs. and leave the rest.
 
Since all seed is encased in a hard case how do birds taste?? My birds as well will rumage through the mix for theire favs. and leave the rest.


With Sunflower hearts is not in a case it is has had the casing removed and is just the centre of it, so all birds have no trouble eating it. They obviously must like the taste as they polish it off quick enough.
 
With Sunflower hearts is not in a case it is has had the casing removed and is just the centre of it, so all birds have no trouble eating it. They obviously must like the taste as they polish it off quick enough.

Which brings us back to the original question-- How do birds taste?????
 
Which brings us back to the original question-- How do birds taste?????

I wouldn't know, I'm a Vegetarian.|=)| (That's the Christmas Cracker joke out of the way)

I'm not sure if I'm answering what you asked, but Birds don't have many taste buds. Birds can't distinguish between many flavours like Man. For example: Pigeons only have 37 taste buds, we have about 10,000. So that means Pigeons can only distinguish between 37 different flavours (I might be wrong about each taste bud equalling one flavour). When you think of how many different seeds there are, and that are edible, most of them must taste the same to birds.

As to the original topic; I don't have any waste seeds. I've always fed the garden, so to speak, rather than the birds. All of the food I provide (nuts in shells - bread - mixed seed - homemade fatballs - loose peantuts - etc) is eaten either by the birds or the squirrels. I clear up the garden every night and never find anything except for nut shells.

Different birds do eat different things, but what is discarded by one species is eaten by another, IME at least.
 
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If you have lots of millet you want to get rid of and just dumping it outside won't bring in any birds, bake it into suet.
 
If you have lots of millet you want to get rid of and just dumping it outside won't bring in any birds, bake it into suet.

I have to fully agree with Utah on this one. A woman who knew I kept feeders gave me a bag of a crappy seed mix (20 pounds of it) before she went back home for the winter. The birds just pulled out the sunflower seeds (which were few and far between) and all the rest wound up on the ground.

I made up a huge batch of suet cakes, and set a few out just before the last snowstorm. The cakes are gone. Admittedly, the squirrels were enjoying them, too, and my two labrador retrievers thought that the pieces they found on the ground to be a treat as well. But I do see the birds eating them as well.

If you don't know how/want to make suet cakes, just mix the seed with a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter and fill a small form or bowl. the birds will love that, too.

Lastly, go throw the seed around during a walk in the woods. The animals will find it and appreciate the treat, especially if just after a smow fall.

Sheila
 
I just bite the bullet and get 50 pound bags of black oil sunflower seeds as most of the birds prefer that. Oh, and I occasionally put out small amounts of thistle for the finches, too.
 
mix the seed with a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter and fill a small form or bowl. the birds will love that, too.


Doesn't " Peanut Butter " (I take it ye mean commercially produced?) contain rather a lot of salt? I thought salt, in such levels, was said to be bad for birds?
 
Not sure about the UK, but pure peanut butter brands such as Def Smith are supermarket staples here in the US. They don't have added salt.
 
Not sure about the UK, but pure peanut butter brands such as Def Smith are supermarket staples here in the US. They don't have added salt.

+1 - Due to someone in my house with HBP, I've learned to read alot of lables! Peanut butter labeled all natural usually doesn't have added salt.
 
The Tesco value peanut butter I have says that salt content is 0.2g per 100g so it IS in there but not a great deal... probably not good to give them much of it though.
 
:t: Cheers, peeps. That sounds better than I suspected. I guess what ever else they can find helps balance things out too. I mean; We've all seen Corvids eating what can't possibly be good for them, along city streets on Sundays. But, I guess, a healthy gut full of road kill must sort that out too ;)
 
Pigeons must get a lot of salt and sugar from what they find around town centres... whether that has a part in the fact that you seem to see quite a few with a missing foot I don't know! :eek!: Do pigeons get diabetes? ;)

There are no salt peanut butters you can buy, although they're pretty pricey! Best bet is probably just to check the salt content before you buy. I've seen footage where nature reserves put out peanut butter for pine martens and it looked like they used the cheap varieties, probably as much for cost as anything!
 
Pigeons must get a lot of salt and sugar from what they find around town centres... whether that has a part in the fact that you seem to see quite a few with a missing foot I don't know! :eek!: Do pigeons get diabetes? ;)
[...]

IME, Paul, the majority of Pigeons lose feet because of careless Humans. I've removed string/twine/nylon/wire/etc from many Pigeons that are hobbled by it. If I'm too late, the damage has already been done; the circulation is cut off from just below the tarsus, and the foot eventually will wither and die.

Some also lose feet slowly from the acid content in their excrement, and there's a few that have a club foot that eventually turns into a stump, but not as many as are hobbled by discarded rubbish.
 
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