White Millet: Just Cheap Filler?

Fiction: White Millet is a cheap filler seed.
Fact: White Proso Millet is the number one choice of many ground-feeding birds like towhees, song sparrows, juncos, and buntings. The problem is that most commercial mixes contain more millet than anything else – a definite negative when put in a tubular or wooden feeder where perch feeding birds are looking for oil sunflower. If all a sunflower-loving bird finds in a feeder is millet, it will tire of kicking out the millet and move on, leaving you with a feeder full of uneaten seed.
A good mix will contain just enough millet for the ground feeders to benefit from the perch feeders’ habit of kicking out the seeds they don’t like, but not so much that the perch feeders will become discouraged. That way you attract a greater variety of wild birds both on and below the feeder. So, bottom line – a little millet is good, a lot of millet is bad.
Join the Discussion
To ensure a respectful dialogue, please refrain from posting content that is unlawful, harassing, discriminatory, libelous, obscene, or inflammatory. Cole's Wild Bird Products assumes no responsibility or liability arising from forum postings and reserves the right to edit all postings. Thanks for joining the discussion.
Comments are closed.
Comments
You have said that milk will upset the bird’s stomach. I have noticed all the suet in the stores now have milk as an ingredient. Why are they putting milk in suet now?
Some companies add a disclaimer that says the product may contain allergens such as milk, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, etc in reference to other products made in the same plant – as a warning to people with milk, nut, etc allergies. The suets most likely do not contain any registrable amounts of those ingredients – hence the words “may contain” – it just as well “may not” contain those allergens