Birds Online
       

  Home > Nutrition > Grains and seeds > Millet spray
     
  Most bird species love millet sprays. In most German pet shops one can buy the yellow sort, the red sort is much harder to find. Just a few special shops offer the red sort that is the favourite food of my budgies. Even though the red millet sprays are more expensive than the yellow ones, I often buy them for my birds. One kg of the red millet - it usually is grown in France - costs about one Euro more than the yellow sort; the price is roughly five Euro. Here in Germany it is possible to order different sorts of millet sprays directly from people who grow them. I guess that in most other countries, one can buy fresh millet from such people as well. My birds also love to eat half-ripe millet that can be ordered from the producer, too.

Despite of all your love for your budgies, please do not serve too many millet sprays! If there are greater amounts of millet sprays within the reach of a budgie, the bird will eat nothing else. This will lead to overweight and it could also cause a lack of vitamins and minerals that are content of common seed mixtures. Such seed mixtures should always remain the "daily bread" of each budgie - and millet sprays should be seen as a goody that is served in small quantities only once or twice a week.

My advice: Feed your budgie with his seed mixture and fresh edibles like fruit or vegetable in the morning. The bird will eat as much as he needs. In the afternoon when he is only little hungry you should serve him a small piece of a millet spray.

Red millet

Most budgies prefer the red sort of millet sprays (see photo above). But the yellow sort (see below) also is a tasty treat for them.

Yellow millet

Millet sprays are an ideal food for training your budgie's climbing abilities. If you fix the millet like it is shown in the photo on the right, your budgie must climb a bit if he wants to reach his food.

All sorts of millet can be sprouted before you serve them to your birds. Please note that many birds need some time to get used to soaked seeds. For sprouting millet sprays, you first should wash them under running water. Then you have to let them soak for about three hours. During this time, the millet must be covered with water all over. Wash the millet again after those three hours and let it sprout in a warm and humid place for 24 to 26 hours. It is advisable to turn and wash it several times during this period. Right before serving it, one should be washed again and you should carefully have a look for mold on the millet sprays. If you find mold, please do not feed the millet to your birds! You have to throw it away in that case!

 
   
All photos and the text on this page are protected by the copyright law. In case you'd like to use photos or texts for your own non-commercial purpose, please contact the author.