tielfan wrote:
Sorghum seed is OK, although I'm not sure whether a cockatiel has a strong enough beak to crack it. When people talk about seed for wild birds, they tell you to stay away from cheap brands with lots of milo (sorghum) in it, because the wild birds don't like it. And maybe those finicky birds from lush environments don't. But I live in the desert, and a lot of the wild birds here PREFER the milo. They'll leave the sunflower laying on the ground and gobble up the milo. A study on wild cockatiels found that unripe sorghum was their favorite food. There's more on that here:
http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... ology.htmlUnripe sorghum and mature dry seed is safe. But you shouldn't feed sprouted sorghum, because this seed can develop a lot of cyanide when it sprouts. I buy cheap wild-bird seed mix and feed most of it to the wild birds, but I plant some of the sorghum and when the unripe seed develops I feed it to the cockatiels.
I make my own seed mix, and I just simply buy seeds that I know my birds will eat. You're not going to get a good nutritional balance in a seed mix no matter what you do, so you don't need to try. I start with a basic parakeet mix (millet, canary grass seed, oats) and add other seeds to that. I mostly get mine from a feed store that specializes in seed for pet birds. They come to the bird marts in Tucson and that's when I stock up. I'm not sure that they really do online sales, but here's their website showing the type of seeds they sell and the menu has a link to an order form:
http://www.millerfeed.net/grain_millet_seed.htm They don't tell the prices which is annoying. Their price is great at the bird mart but I don't know about online buying.
They also have some seed blends at
http://www.millerfeed.net/premium_econ.htm I get the 40% parakeet and go from there. I add sunflower, safflower, hemp, buckwheat, and a little flax. I get the sunflower and flax from a natural-foods grocery and the rest usually comes from the feed store. A natural grocery with bulk bins is a good source of human-quality grains if you want to add things like wheat to the mix. I don't put hard grains in the seed mix, but I start a batch of grain and lentil sprouts every night and feed it to the birds 36 hours later.
Drs. Foster and Smith is a fairly good source of individual seeds:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/bird-supp ... /5911/8539 If you google for something specific you might be able to find it in other places. I've already bought hemp seed off of Amazon, but a lot of what they sell is for humans and has the shells off. So you have to be careful to make sure that what you're buying has the shells on. Hemp is an excellent seed, high in protein and Omega 3 fatty acids. It's high in calories too so you don't want to feed too much of it, but a little bit is beneficial.
I wasent sure what to buy. Alot stores sell like 8lbs n way to much. N this was what the breeder usedso i know he will eat it. Dunno if its goodbut he ears most of it. Not sureif he eats tiny brown seed part as tgeres alot. Wish had more pumpkin seed.
INGREDIENTS: White Proso Millet, Safflower, Oat Groats, Buckwheat, Red Proso Millet, Whole Wheat, Canary Grass Seed, Milo, Ground Corn, Ground Whole Wheat, Flax Seed, Canola Seed, Dehydrated Carrot, Dehydrated Papaya, Dehydrated Pineapple, Soybean Meal, Dehydrated Sweet Garden Peas, Ground Whole Oats, Canola Meal, Pumpkin(Squash) Seed, Dehydrated Spinach Flake, Dehydrated Sweet Potato, Calcium Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Vegetable Oil, Kelp Meal, Alfalfa Meal, Salt, Fruit Flavors, DL - Methionine, Ground Rice Hulls, Vitamin E Supplement, Propionic Acid, Choline Chloride, Niacin, Vitamin E Oil liquid, Calcium Pantothenate, Si Dioxide, Vitamin A Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Biotin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Mineral Oil, Calcium Iodate.