Seeds and Grains
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I offer my birds various kinds of seed mixtures, which they usually like. Main components of the parakeet compositions are various kinds of millet. The feeding mixture I use consists of following components (with friendly permission by "Futterkonzept"):
  • Großsittichmischung 5 Millet types
  • Buckwheat
  • Oat
  • Hemp
  • Canary seed
  • Kardi seed
  • Flax seed (Linseed)
  • Niger seed
  • Paddy rice
You shouldn't feed too much hemp, because it's suspected to increase the brooding instinct of the birds. Moreover, the mixture shouldn't contain sunflower seed, or just a little bit, because that seed is quite fatty.

For a change I feed a forest bird mixture without turnip rape, which contains the following seeds:
  • Waldvogelfutter 4 Millet types
  • Canary seed
  • Rape
  • Niger seed
  • Hemp
  • Flax seed
  • Oat
  • Buckwheat
  • Wild-seed mixture
  • Spruce seed
  • Perilla seed
A Wild-seed mixture is topping off the menu of the Lineolated Parakeets.
KörnerWildsamenmischung
Food mixtures for budgies are not contemned as well.
Wild-seed mixture

hirse.jpg
Successful bribe with millet.
The absolute favourite seed, which suits perfectly for bribe attempts, is foxtail millet. Lineos like both the French (red) and the Chinese (yellow) foxtail millet similarly.
They cold-shoulder everything else, when they see foxtail millet. I offer that kind of seed not very often, to vary the nutrition of my birds, but also to keep that special status. Common millet works nearly as good as foxtail millet, but the advantage of the latter is in its spadix structure and therefore in the possible proportioning.

I handle sunflower seeds, which unfortunately can be found in many parakeet feeding mixtures, in the same way. To control the fraction of sunflower seeds as a very fatty seed, I meanwhile only buy feeding mixtures without any sunflower seed. So I can decide, how many seeds my birds should get, as a reward or a titbit, for instance.
Rispenhirse Kolbenhirse
Common millet (broom-corn millet)
Foxtail millet

Seeds shouldn't be more than 50 % of the food, about 20 % of that should be millet seeds.

Gräser

In the summer months my birds like to deal with collected "weeds". To mention just a few:

  • Rough bluegrass (Poa trivialis)
  • Poverty and Soft brome (Bromus sterilis und Bromus hordeaceus)
  • Common Velvet Grass (Holcus lanatus)
  • Meadow foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis)
  • Orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata)
You can find these weeds on so called "wild meadows" from April to September in different stages of development. I offer both blooming (be careful, if you are allergic to pollen!) or half-ripe and ripe, complete plants. The birds like to pluck apart the panicles, shredding the leaves or sucking the fresh stem.
By sowing some of the feeding mixtures, for instance, you can cultivate some weeds in your garden. Even the millet probably won't get ripe in our latitudes, the half-ripe panicles will be a welcome alternative.

But you can try other "wild herbs" as well, for example Dandelion (Taraxum officinale; the whole plant), Shepherd's Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris), Lance-Leaf Plantain (Plantago lanceolata) or Chickweed (Stellaria media).

WildkrautWildkraut
Dandelion ...
... and Chickweed

 Last update on February 21st, 2005