Will They Eat It All?

When I worked at Wild Birds Unlimited, we told people repeatedly that birds wouldn't eat many of the seeds in the commercial bags of seed. We told them that they wouldn't eat seeds like milo, wheat, oats and others. We didn't have those seeds in our mixes. I have several Eurasian Collared-Doves around. They are large birds. I figured there was nothing they wouldn't eat. So, I bought a bag of mixed seeds from Wal-Mart and started putting it out. The ingredients are oil sunflower seed, millet, corn, milo and wheat. The Eurasian Collared-Doves are around the feeders most of the time. I've even had White-winged Doves there, thinking they would eat just about anything too. Well, about 3/4 of the way through the bag, the advice we gave at WBU was absolutely correct. Milo and wheat are covering the bottom of my tray feeder and my ground feeder. I got my binoculars out this morning and watched the doves eating and saw them picking through the milo and wheat trying to find some of the other seeds. I do have quite a bit of milo sprouting around my feeders giving it a nice green look! No doubt the rats and mice are enjoying the milo at night. Maybe the screech-owls and snakes are enjoying the rats and mice. So, no more mixed seed from Wal-Mart unless it doesn't contain milo and wheat. It's a waste of money.