No-Mess Birdseed

You can be confident in the quality of any of our wild bird seeds, but our No-Mess blends offer the best possible bird feeding experience, with less waste and problems - and more birds! Often, switching to No-Mess is the only step necessary to end worries about messy feeding, but additional tips for cleaner feeding can be found in our No Mess Birdfeeding article.

What are no-mess seed blends?

No-mess seed blends use seeds that have been hulled so that there is no shell waste left behind. The main ingredient in these blends is hulled sunflower chips, which have no shell and which will not sprout. A good no-mess blend may also contain nuts or hulled millet; beware blends which promise a "waste-free" experience but contain filler ingredients such as cracked corn, canary seed, or wheat. While these ingredients may not have a shell, they appeal to a very limited group of birds and will often be rejected by the species commonly found in our yards.

Why should I use no-mess seeds?

The most obvious benefit of no-mess seeds is to prevent the unsightly piles of shell waste that will accumulate beneath standard seed feeders. These piles of leftovers from the birds may contain enough edible material to attract unwanted pests if not cleaned up promptly. It is also worth considering that in a 20 lbs bag of standard seed, several pounds of your purchase are inedible materials that will be left behind in your yard, while a 20 lbs bag of No-Mess contains 20 lbs of ingredients the birds will actually eat.

Finally, our No-Mess blends attract the widest variety of birds. Sunflower chips without shells are somewhat more attractive than whole sunflower seeds to most birds; some common birds, such as goldfinches and juncos, are less adept at cracking whole sunflowers and have a strong preference for hulled sunflower; and a few predominately insect-eating birds such as Townsend's Warblers and bushtits essentially never eat whole sunflower seeds, but will occasionally eat the hulled chips during cold spells when insects are scarce. 

Which no-mess seed should I use?

No-Mess Blend: Our most popular seed blend. Contains around sunflower chips, diced peanuts, and hulled millet, which is attractive to ground-feeding birds beneath your feeder, such as doves, quail, sparrows, towhees, and juncos. (Different seeds will appeal to different bird species, best for yards with some ground-feeding birds)

Sunflower Chips: Using sunflower chips only instead of a blend means that birds won't pick out their favorite ingredients while tossing other seeds aside. Avoiding millet in particular is advisable for situations where minimal ground-feeding is possible or desired. (No millet, for yards with no ground-feeding birds - the absolute cleanest seed)