# Why no oats in wild bird seed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 6, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-oats-in-wild-bird-seed/480085 "2009-01-06T14:27:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-oats-in-wild-bird-seed/480085/1 "2009-01-06T14:27:20Z")
Is there a good reason why wild bird seed doesn’t normally have oat or wheat seed mixed in it too? It’s abundant and not horrifically expensive so why isn’t it in the seed mixes? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-oats-in-wild-bird-seed/480085/2 "2009-01-06T14:36:29Z")
Some mixes have it. I’m guessing that millet and sunflower are cheaper though. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-oats-in-wild-bird-seed/480085/3 "2009-01-06T14:37:35Z")
Which wild birds naturally eat wheat and/or oats? I can’t think of any off the top of my head. The seeds in wild bird food are similar to what they graze on naturally I would think. However, I’m quite sure they \*would \*eat oats and other grains… ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-oats-in-wild-bird-seed/480085/4 "2009-01-06T14:44:03Z")
> [@Phlosphr](#): > > Which wild birds naturally eat wheat and/or oats? I can’t think of any off the top of my head. The seeds in wild bird food are similar to what they graze on naturally I would think. However, I’m quite sure they \*would \*eat oats and other grains… Why wouldn’t birds eat cereal grains? The oats got eaten that spilled on the ground at the farm. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-oats-in-wild-bird-seed/480085/5 "2009-01-06T14:45:44Z")
People will pay more to eat oats themselves than they will to feed it to birds, so it’s a more effective cash crop if you sell it to General Mills rather than a bird feed company. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-oats-in-wild-bird-seed/480085/6 "2009-01-06T15:05:40Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Why wouldn’t birds eat cereal grains? The oats got eaten that spilled on the ground at the farm. I think they would eat it, but I don’t think they seek it out as a staple, if that makes sense. It could also be a cost analysis thing like others have mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-oats-in-wild-bird-seed/480085/7 "2009-01-06T15:28:09Z")
Maybe the grains are larger than small birds would normally eat? (just a guess) ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-oats-in-wild-bird-seed/480085/8 "2009-01-06T16:10:16Z")
Oats have a very different density from seeds, so maybe if there were oats in the mix, you’d end up with a mostly-oat layer on top of the package, with almost no oats left in the mix below that layer? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-oats-in-wild-bird-seed/480085/9 "2009-01-06T18:30:12Z")
Birdseed is designed to attract the right kind of bird. Most people see enough grackles and blackbirds and crows without having to feed them. So if you want to attract birds like cardnals you have to put the kind of foods they like. Birds generally like sunflower type seeds. At least the birds people like to look at like those. I have noticed when people put out birdseed birds tend to scatter all the seeds on the ground and eat the sunflowers. I used to grow sunflowers, purely for the fun of seeing the squirrels and vast amound of different kind of birds grabbing on to the sunflower seeds. Usually the squirrels would hang from the sunflower head and what they spilled was swooped up by birds. Eventually the head would break and hit the ground. Then the birds swooped in and drove the squirrel away. So birds will eat oats but you don’t get the kind of birds people want to look at. So why put them in a commerical feed because if people get blackbirds who wants it. Suet and Peanut Butter attract interesting birds, but you also get squirrels and raccoons so it’s probably not worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-oats-in-wild-bird-seed/480085/10 "2009-01-07T11:31:34Z")
So nobody here makes bags of birdseed at their job and can tell me why they don’t use these other grains in the mix. All the suggestions are stuff I considered, but I think it still comes down to they just don’t think of it because seed just isn’t mixed that way. Sort of the Cecil classic of “Why are barns painted red?” ---
**Author:** ![Fetchund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b2d939/32.png) [@Fetchund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fetchund)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-oats-in-wild-bird-seed/480085/11 "2009-01-07T11:55:45Z")
I used to sell birdseed for a living. I haven’t jumped in here yet because I’m still lacking some facts, and am not sure how to find them. As for being seed that attracts the wrong kind of bird - well, most mixes contain a lot of white millet and red millet - and I have yet to see anything fun that eats white millet unless there is nothing else available. Very few birds will chose to eat red millet. I’m pretty sure that the only reason they are in seed is that they are cheap, pretty in a mix, and mix well. I don’t know what oats are like when in “seed” form - I’ve only seen them on the plant, or already milled. It seems like wheat is pretty lightweight and an odd shape. I would think that it may not mix well. People do not want a seed that separates. They also pay by the pound - are wheat or oats lighter weight than millet? People also want the birds to spend time at the feeder - not just eat everything whole. The more complex the seed coat, the longer a bird spends on it. Watch a cardinal eating a sunflower seed someday - the grosbeaks are fascinating in the way they manipulate the seed. If you put out cracked corn or hulled sunflower seed, your feeder is emptied too quickly. So - the things that may contribute, but I haven’t observed them to know for sure - seed weight, price, shape and coating type. I’m guessing one or all are factors.