Anyone used forage cakes ??

[mdbucks]

not sure what pepita seeds are, but I may have to try this myself., also not sure if I want bird food in my trail mix, forgot we are making this for the birds. still what are pepita seeds?

 

[Davaroo]

I just make up a mess of cornbread and put whatever is leftover in it. Anything from last weeks carrots to the last of the meatloaf no one else wants is fine. Seeds, pepitas or otherwise? Sure, why not? Once done, let it dry out a bit in the fridge, then freeze it in chunks. Feed it to your yard birds whenever you want - the cluckers go nuts for it. Cheap too.

Anything that has a fancy pants website like that forage cake one generally means money unwisely spent on chickens.

 

[mudhen]

I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure pepita seeds are pumkin seeds with out the shells (?)

just found this on yahoo: Actually special pumpkin seeds from Mexico's Yucatan, they're hand-shelled, roasted and ready to savor. (available raw also). These shelled Mexican pumpkin seeds ...

 

[Windy Ridge]

So does the wheat germ oil act as the binder in your recipe, Diana? I guess that's one of the purposes of the peanut butter or fat in suet cakes for wild birds: to bind everything together, as well as to provide some extra calories. I'd love to be able to make my birdies some good treats. I'm normally so stingy with them!

(Of course, the silly things like to eat regular crumbles right out of my hand as if it's a great feast... even when crumbles are available in their feeder not 6 inches away, so I don't think they're suffering any.)

 

[dlhunicorn]

The pepita seeds are indeed pumpkin seeds without the shells (as the shells of the sunflower/pumpkin have no nutritional value , I never give them as I am afraid it will cause crop problems or worse puncture something)
I use the wheatgermoil for the vit E value and not as a binder... the "binder" is the oatmeal...
I make it in patty or blocks in a size that I know will be eaten within a day as I would not want it to get "old"... here in holland it is very wet in the winter and things spoil very quickly

 

[Davaroo]

Of course, the silly things like to eat regular crumbles right out of my hand as if it's a great feast... even when crumbles are available in their feeder not 6 inches away, so I don't think they're suffering any.

I guarantee they're not, after listening to you.

Do what is easiest for you, financially manageable and nutrionally sound for them. What you do NOT want to do is dilute the good nutrition which you have paid for in your commercial feed or carefully concocted home brew feed - just because you think you are being nice.

As the birds themselves have shown, they gleefully eat anything - to them it is essentially the same. They wont know that you booked a flight all the way to Italy to find pepitas. Only your checkbook will.
They only know that you are the Big Chicken in Charge. Uphold that responsibility for them and do not burden yourself unduly with a lot of worry or fuss.

Back when people didn't know so much about nutrition, there were those who knew what it took to PROPERLY feed a chicken. Follow their model.

{{Here it comes Diana, as you knew it would}} - It's both fun and engaging to to work all this stuff to death, but there should be one overiding theme in your chicken endeavors: just keep it simple.

That course is as good for them as all the endless wrangling you could ever do, since they dont know or care about all that. And it's infinitely easier on you.​