SEEDS
A TOPIC of great concern these days is the rising cost of seed. Is there something we can do to keep costs down? I would like to make four suggestions:
1 Make more use of wild-sourced foods.
2 Monitor your seed dishes carefully to know what your birds are actually eating, thus avoiding waste. 3 Don't buy seed mixtures because you pay 20 per cent VAT, compared with “straight” seeds which have no tax added.
4 Soak and sprout suitable seeds and grains. Remove any mung beans (small green pulses) that are foolishly included in some seed mixtures. They cannot be eaten dry. Soak and sprout them.
In this series of articles I will describe the various seeds available to birdkeepers and explain their nutritional properties.
Tradition has it that captive parrots and finches eat hard seed. They do because
