Avigrain Wild Bird Seed Mix for the "Rebel in your backyard”. High in coarse grains, this mix is great for attracting wild birds to your garden. You can also use parrot mix or small parrot mix for this purpose.
Ingredients:
Wheat, Sorghum, Black Sunflower, Oats, Corn, Safflower, Layer Pellets, Millets.
Disclaimer: We cannot guarantee that the ingredient list is current, as ingredients may change over time at the manufacturer’s discretion. Only the 20kg size comes in original packaging. The smaller sizes are repackaged into clear plastic bags.
Feeding Wild Birds:
Feeding wild birds is an activity enjoyed by many Australians. It is great to have a connection with local wildlife; however, feeding wild birds and animals comes with responsibilities, as it has an ecological impact.
In highly urbanised parts of Australia and many parts of the Western world, local birds and wildlife may need supplementary feeding by humans to survive. In Australian suburban and rural areas, anyone feeding wild birds or animals should understand they are feeding wildlife in order to enjoy the experience rather than to help the birds or animals survive.
So please, enjoy feeding wildlife in your backyard but understand the impacts and risks involved. Read on ...
Dietary Impact:
In Australia, native animals are more than capable of fending for themselves. Avigrain Wild Bird Mix is designed to be used to attract birds for your enjoyment - not to feed them. It is colourful and has seeds like sunflowers to attract granivorous birds such as parrots, but it is not designed to be an important source of nutrition.
Try to have as little impact as possible by:-
- Never feeding processed foods such as bread, meat or food scraps
- Feeding naturally occurring products such as grain or fruit.
- Not feeding large amounts.
For example, putting out heaps of sunflower seeds every day is akin to turning up every day at a primary school with a smorgasbord of sweets, lollies and soft drinks. The kids will love you, but it will be terrible for their health.
Ecological Impact:
If you feed animals regularly, you can upset the natural ecological balance by promoting one species over another.
- If food is left out on a regular basis, birds or animals may become dependent, and removal of that food source can impact the local ecology.
- Aggressive or territorial bird species may come to dominate the local area.
- Other species, fed or unfed, may have health and behaviour impacts, such as impacting reproduction patterns.
- Feeding predatory species may increase the prevalence of these species in an area and will impact the prey species.
- Attracting birds may provide a prey opportunity for domestic cats.
- Migration patterns can be impacted.
These are examples of ecological impacts of feeding wild animals, but each situation is different.
Disease:
Birds congregating around feeding sites may lead to transmission of diseases such as salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis and psittacosis. Disease may impact local birdlife and human health. In short, to minimise the potential for disease, treat the bird feeding area like your own kitchen.
- Clean out feeders after use.
- Wash area regularly.
- Locate feeding area where it can be cleaned.
- Don't leave food out - If it gets wet or rodents feed there, it is likely to cause health problems.
- Offer feed in a clean area that is safe from traffic and predation.
Avigrain Wild Bird Seed Mix is made up of coarse grains such as wheat, sorghum, corn and oats as well as sunflower and millets. The mix is formulated to be a low-cost mix which will attract birds, but it does not provide a complete diet. Under no circumstances should it be fed to caged or aviary birds, as it is unsuitable.
Other ways of attracting birds to your backyard:
- Plant native trees which provide shelter and food.
- Provide a clean freshwater supply.
- Get a bell for your cat.