I've been making homemade seed mix for my budgies for the past year, using mostly human-grade seeds, in the hopes that they're fresher and lower in contaminants than pet-grade.
I feed my seed mix dry and unsprouted, freshly mixed into chop at each meal. My budgies only get a small amount of seeds each day, so it's not a huge part of their diet. Still, I try to change up the types of seeds and ratios for each batch, in an effort to give them a more varied diet. I make enough so that each batch lasts about a month. I store the unmixed seeds in the freezer to keep them fresh.
I really like the recipe that @Mizzely posted on her blog (My Seed Mix) because she (quoting from the blog post): "tried to find seeds that would give a good balance of proteins, lower in fat, provided some vitamins and minerals, and that would be attractive to the birds". But, I need to substitute some of the seeds as they're too big for my budgies and/or I can't find those seeds where I live. Can anyone suggest substitutions with a similar nutritional profile to these seeds?
I feed my seed mix dry and unsprouted, freshly mixed into chop at each meal. My budgies only get a small amount of seeds each day, so it's not a huge part of their diet. Still, I try to change up the types of seeds and ratios for each batch, in an effort to give them a more varied diet. I make enough so that each batch lasts about a month. I store the unmixed seeds in the freezer to keep them fresh.
I really like the recipe that @Mizzely posted on her blog (My Seed Mix) because she (quoting from the blog post): "tried to find seeds that would give a good balance of proteins, lower in fat, provided some vitamins and minerals, and that would be attractive to the birds". But, I need to substitute some of the seeds as they're too big for my budgies and/or I can't find those seeds where I live. Can anyone suggest substitutions with a similar nutritional profile to these seeds?
- Barley (too big)
- Buckwheat (too big)
- Milk thistle (can't find it here)
- Pumpkin seeds (too big)