Which millet are safe for budgies?

[mona]

Since millet spray isn't easily available at my place, I got a vendor who is selling black/pearl millet. As far as I know, for humans pearl millet and sorghum should be consumed only during winter, as we make bread/chapati using that in winters. Read the same about pearl/sorghum millet for birds only during winters and limited quantity.

Amazingly, on my grocery store app, I can find organic 500gm packs for pearl millet, foxtail millet, finger millet, barnyard millet, sorghum millet, kodo millet and little millet easily.

Found out that red millet or finger millet is very good for the feathers, since it contains a nutrient called carotene, which helps with the feather colors. I'm still reading about individual benefits of each of them..


I see that millet has less amount of fat, but it has got carbohydrates, which when unused will eventually deposit as fat. Or maybe, sprouting a mix of these should use up most of the fat-sugar-carbohydrates.

This has got me thinking that instead of getting a single spray worth the money with which I can buy all of the above mentioned, probably I should try mixing these and making a millet spray like looking treat. That would help them get a multiple nutrition from the millet family, instead of just one, even if as treats.

However, I still want to make sure all these millets are okay to consume for budgies?

Hezz Morgan , do you have any thoughts?


I was just listing the nutritional values for a couple of millets. Please pardon my rough work though.

[Hezz]

Are these all available as millet sprays? I don't know of any millets that are not bird-safe, but then some of the ones you have named above I hadn't heard of. If these are loose seeds, why not see if you can source some canary seed as well and mix your own? This place will sell in 1kg lots:
www.petindiaonline.com/product-details.php?ref=139031223

So if you wanted to mix your own it would be very easy, I think. I know that isn't you question, but it does answer your seed mix problem if you wanted to do it this way. Budgie seed mix should be around 50% canary seed and the other 40% a mix of millets, with the addition (possibly, and only up to you) of a little of the oil seeds to make up the other 10%. Personally I'd leave these out and make it 50% millets, but also look to see if you can get any panicum, sometimes called panicum millet. Not sure if it would add anything nutritionally that may be missing in the others.

[mona]

Really appreciate your inputs about the seed mix. I didn't know the seed mix contains 50 percent millets. I'm really naive at the seed mix thing. I looked up panicum millet.. I guess it's same as proso millet.. If so, organic proso millet is also available on my grocery store and I have read proso millet is also very beneficial as compared to other millets. Thank you for providing the link for canary seeds. I really didn't know how it looked like.

I would really rely on making my own seed mix, where I can pick up my trusted brands and organic clean seeds, rather than searching & depending on the seed vendor. All these organic seeds are available from a trusted brand and can be delivered next day. This is really very helpful Hezz.

Their current seed mix looks like this one (even though it's not required). At this point of time, I'm really not sure what are all the seeds in there & what they are eating. It doesn't have sunflower seeds mixed. I have a separate jar for them and I give it to them rarely once a week or once a fortnight.

 

I don't know what I would do, if I hadn't joined the forum. I'm really grateful for all the time, put into my naive queries! 🤗🧡

[Hezz]

For myself, I wouldn't feed the budgies sunflower seeds, but if it is only a few on the odd occasion, then I guess that can't hurt.

Yes, it does seem that panicum and proso millet are the same thing. So many different names for the same thing in different regions.

[Morgan]

mona - Thanks for asking, but I really think Hezz is the leading expert on budgie nutrition here! I am just doing the best I can with what is commercially available to me at the moment, sprouting that seed to make it healthier, and supplementing with pellets just in case. I haven’t gotten around to figuring out where I can get all these millets from myself yet, so actually Mona, your work is very helpful to me!

If you settle on an ideal quantity of each millet for your mix, please let me know. I’ll take a look at the research on nutrition that you have done already too. Thanks for tagging me though!

I think tweetiepiesmom would be interested in this too!

[mona]

Morgan Actually, most of these are consumed here by us, so I know the general restrictions and constraints around them. But, I still want to understand the individual benefits each one of them offers. I'll post it on this thread, as soon as I'm done. I have just looked up the benefits of just two out of these.

I really don't trust the bird business in my country..I might be skeptical though. Things are really good for other pets like dog and cat, but the bird item vendors themselves know very less about birds, which makes me super doubtful about their products. Most of them don't list out the material/content/ingredients.

[mona]

I have just got all the mentioned millets except barnyard millet. Since these are also meant for human consumption, it's very clean & looks good. I have put all the millets to a sprout test to check the seed shelf life and if they are really organic unpolished seeds. Labeled them to remember which ones aren't sprouting.




(Left to right, first row) Red Millet/Finger millet, Sorghum millet, Little millet,  foxtail millet
(Left to right, second row) Kodo Millet, Proso Millet, Browntop millet

I forgot the pearl/black millet here.. will put that to test too.

The canary seeds I got had some dirt, adulteration, which I was trying to clean up manually, when I came across a live small grain insect.. that really put me off..but it is non returnable. Just wondering if I should clean it and try to sun dry.. would it be safe for my birdies or even the garden birdies, if I don't feed them to mine.. I have seen people cleaning these up and sun drying.. later washing it and cooking grains for consumption, if these are found in it, instead of throwing away. The only thing here is these seeds would be raw, not washed, not cooked...and the insect larvae might already be present on the seeds.

Could I clean it and microwave it? It really feels bad to throw something away.. I had to cancel the product for my mom's budgies. Trying to see if someone else has got a cleaner proper product. This one didn't have any label any expiry date..nothing! Now, I wish if these were meant for human consumption too, so I could get a cleaner version!😃

[Morgan]

mona - wild budgies eat some insect matter too, maybe by accident or opportunistically. Insects are high in protein and shouldn’t cause any harm I think. But maybe see what others say about it.

I think washing it thoroughly and drying it in the sun should be fine and remove most if not all of the larvae and eggs. The sun is a good disinfectant too and should dry out any eggs or larvae remaining and disinfect any residue. Then you can store it once thoroughly sun dried and sprout a small amount of it like with the rest of your millets.

I wouldn’t microwave it though!

[Hezz]

Freezing any seed for 24 hours or more will kill off almost all insect life that may be present in the seed. I freeze mine for two or three days generally, mostly because I forget that it is in the freezer.