can i give my homers wild bird food from the shop as it is cheeper

[james fillbrook]

hi can anyone tell my if i can give my birds wild bird seed as it is half the price as pigeon food

[Skyeking]

You can use it temporarily, but the variety of grains and legumes in pigeon seed meets their nutritional needs.

Perhaps you can give them pigeon pellets, as it has all the nutrition they need and is cheaper, as I have heard.

[SmithFamilyLoft]

I suppose they could survive on it for some time. I agree with previous post, in that if cost is major consideration, then a pellet would be the best choice. I recently purchased a "Layer" pellet of about 15% protein, for all kinds of birds, which would provide 100% of what they need. It was less then $14 for a 50 pound bag, which might even be cheaper then wild bird seed. You do want to avoid a too high of a protein %, and avoid the "medicated" kind.

[hillfamilyloft]

My thoughts are here is that you could look and see what the nutritional value of the wild bird seed is and mix it with your pigeon food. It may be a good light mix for the offseason when mixed with other foods. I have started adding more corn to my mix because corn is cheaper. They also put on weight if not exersised. I am curious to see what the protien is on the wild bird sead. I would not see any harm to it to add it to your pigeon mix. If it has cracked corn that may be an issue. I have thought about hitting Wallyworld and seeing what they have in regards to seed. A friend of mine used to buy a 50 lb bag of popcorn at Sams Club for his birds.

Randy

I think most wild bird seeds arent that high in the protein department so mixing that with chicken layer pellets would be your best bet and like Randy said if theres no corn in the wild bird food I would add that too, it works wonders in the colder months..I dont use the popcorn myself ,I use the cow corn as I have a farm close by that sells it for $7 a 50lb bag and even my little roller rescues have no problem gobbling it up

[RodSD]

I feed mine with it, but I add peas and chicken pellets, too. The chicken pellets seem to be complete nutrition wise.

One thing you have to be careful of is cheap wild bird seed can be very poor quality seed. It can be dusty and even buggy or moldy. Just something to keep in mind.