feeding ONLY sprouts and NO or LITTLE dry seed?

[SilverSage]

I love to feed fresh food to my birds, and I have several who eat it greedily. However with several of my birds being new additions, and with the move, and some of my birds now living outdoors, starting a business, the dog regressing in training due to the move, my husband's crazy work schedule along with us having only one car, Blue bluffing right after I brought her home, my sister staying with me and her schedule being much different than we thought - well, lets just say those are a FEW of the things that have made my life crazy lately! Because of that I have been feeding only once a day, watering twice, and that means that the outdoor birds can't have fresh food, unless they also want to eat cockroaches and garden snails (ew!). So the ones on pellets have been eating pellets, and the ones who refuse pellets have been eating Volkmans seeds, and everyone inside has been getting "human salad" leftovers (from the serving bowl, not from the plate!).

However, things are STARTING to calm down, and I am ready to tackle multiple feedings again, as well as my own nutrition, and believe me, when I eat better the birds eat better!

Anyway I have been googling, and I can't find anything on what I am about to ask. We all know sprouts are "better" than dry seeds. Much better, in fact, and much closer to what the birds would eat in the wild. I am simply wondering, is there any reason other than my own convenience and the difficulty of keeping it fresh, that I can't feed sprouts INSTEAD of dry seed? I mean, why feed dry at all if I can feed the same food, only ALIVE? I have 37 birds at my house right now (19 of them are from my crazy foster budgie mission, along with housing some budgies for a friend while she refits her aviary), so feeding them fresh is a big job anyway (actually, feeding them anything is a big job...) but at that level sprouting ALL of their food is not that much harder than sprouting SOME of it. I have never had problems getting "seed only" birds to eat sprouts, in fact they all seem to love it.

So I guess my question is, does anyone have a reason to feed dry seed instead of sprouts? The will also be getting pellets of course, and I feed fresh veggies to everyone inside, and now I will be feeding it to the outside ones as well, so it wouldnt be JUST sprouts, I am just wondering about replacing the seed portion of the diet.

 

[Phlox]

I think wild budgies usually eat developing seeds, instead of fully "ripe" ones, and with your warm climate, they won't use so many calories. My only worry would be that spouts mold fast. It could get away from you pretty quickly.

 

[SilverSage]

My plan is to feed fresh in the morning, and leave it for only a couple of hours (because yes, it is warm and mold-friendly here), and then replace it with pellets for the rest of the day. I feel like that would be much more nutritious than just feeding the dry seed, and honestly it seems healthier than pellets alone. I mean, in the wild birds don't eat pellets - pellets are "processed foods" which in the human world we know cannot compete with natural. At the same time, we know that all seed diets are very high in fat and low in nutrition, and most birds, even those who hate new foods, typically love sprouts. There has to be a reason for that, right?

 

[SilverSage]

Today I fed a test run of sprouted and soaked food only - every bird, even the rescues who have eaten only seed their whole lives gobbled it up! Needless to say I am working on a system for having enough fresh sprouts every morning along with the fresh veggies and pellets. The funding was they ate it all. Usually certain birds leave certain seeds and I end up with a lot of waste. Today everyone ate everything they were offered!

 

[Phlox]

I use soaked seeds a lot too...but maybe only 2-3 times a week at most. I tried daily and after a few days they lost interest. But soaked seeds is easy enough. You can start soaking before bed and they'd probably be good to go by morning.

 

[SilverSage]

I have worked out a 3 day system on my counter everyone is devouring them and I can't help but feel like I am finally feeding them the best I can between he sprouts, chop, and pellets.

 

[MrsKay]

For the overall health of the birds, I would still feed some dry seed. That is what they would find in the wild

 

[noblemacaw]

I sprout for Valentino. His breeder set me up with the knowledge and with what equipment used. I do buy the seed mix from her and sprout a batch for Valentino every week.

When the seeds get to the sprouting stage I want (with the wigglies growing) I will rinse the batch, dry them, clean and dry out the container, change the top of the container from sprouter to the cover with holes and put in the fridge. The one batch will last me 4 to 5 days (Valentino is a pig with sprouts) and by keeping it in the fridge it halts the growth and keeps them fresh. I am not sure how your birds will handle eating "cold" sprouts but Valentino does not mind them cold.

I can totally understand Hawaiian climate coming into to play with growing and feeding sprouts. I lived in Wahiawa from 84' to 88' when the fields use to be pineapple. In the four years living there I lost two leather jackets and a pair of leather boots to mold. It was only when I installed and ran the air conditioners constantly keeping the temperature and humid levels constant things stopped molding.

I think using the fridge to help keep sprouts fresh might work to your advantage as well.

 

[SilverSage]

You lived here? That's crazy! It isnt a very large town, were you in a military family? We have air, and because these houses are so old and energy inefficient, we are not charged for our electricity, so we are able to run the air most of the time (though we keep it moderate - I would hate to cause them to change their minds!) I am battling mold in one of the bathrooms anyway though - I think I may have to invest in small dehumidifiers.

I have enough birds to feed that storing the sprouts is more work than constantly growing new sprouts, and the system I have worked out yields a fresh batch every morning (I work from home so I am able to rinse them 2-4 times a day no problem).

As to it being what they eat in the wild, I disagree. Only in times of drought or something would they be finding dry seed instead of live seeds, and we all know that dry seeds are considered very fatty and low in nutrients, while live, fresh food is very nutritious.

 

[MrsKay]

Well, you did say 'little or no' seed in your birds diet. I would stick with 'little'.
I have to cordially partially disagree with you here. As you know the nutrient values are changed once the seeds are sprouted, and yes, part of that is for the better. However, you may be depriving your birds of some of the benefits derived from giving them some dry seed. Of course it's your choice, and please take no offence, but I would not consider running a nutritional experiment with my birds by depriving them of at least some of the 'proven' benefits of the dry seed.
I sprout seeds for my birds. I use 2 cups of water and 8 drops of GSE to prevent bacterial growth. After that, I rinse them a few times for the next 12 hours until they begin to sprout. After that, I keep them in the refrigerator for up to 5 days for freshness.
I have spent time in the islands, your electric bill must be high after running the air, but I don't blame you, it can be pretty uncomfortable on an exceptionally hot and humid day. Unfortunately, sometimes that's the only way to get out of it for a spell Stay safe through the hurricane!

 

[SilverSage]

Thanks, we are battening down the hatches! We only run the AC in two rooms, and usually we keep it about the same actual temperature as the outside, which is typically not bad at all. It is just that with the humidity things can get pretty sticky, and the AC helps a lot with that, especially in the Bird room where I am concerned about unseen mold or other fungus. I keep it really clean, but it is just something that haunts the back of my mind.