sunflower seed

[witchwriter]

i have 2 parrots, bob & sammy. bob is a cockatiel and sammy a blue & gold macaw. they both like the large white strip sunflower seeds. the BOSS really irritate them - even the cockatiel. my question is - can i feed my girls the large white strip insttead of the black oil? they eat the the large white stripe but is there a specific reason for the BOSS? thanks!

deb

 

[RJSorensen]

I am not sure. I don't have experience with the seed you noted. I do know however that salt is not good for chickens and should be minimized, other than the trace amount in the feed. So I suppose if the striped sunflower seeds are not salted, you could try a few and see. BOSS is used for feather sheen at my place, It also has high protein but has a lot of indigestible fiber in the hull. Feed in reasonable amounts, it has worked out well for me.

Sorry I can not help more,

RJ

 

[witchwriter]

thanks for the reply. they are not salted. they are larger so i assume the fiber amount is higher. my parrots crack & eat the seed. my girls are eating them whole from what i can tell. how do i know if the fiber content is more than they can handle?

by irritate i meant that the BOSS seed take more effort to crack and the reward is smaller for my parrots

 

[jetdog]

I have read something on here about not feeding them the ones with the stripes but can't remember why,I feed mine the regular non striped ones and they have no problems. I tend to hold off with them until the cold weather hits then I only feed as a treat with some scratch mixed in.

 

[specsussex]

There is much higher fiber in the striped. A parrot or similar bird that cracks open the seed and only eats the seed and not the hull wouldn't have an issue, but I've always been told whenever you feed SS to any animal that can't break open th hull to feed BOSS because there is much less fiber and it is easier to digest.

 

[Chris09]

To be honest when referring to poultry both Striped Sunflower Seed at around 30% fiber and Black Oil Sunflower Seed at around 21% fiber are both high in hard to digest to indigestible fiber.