Backyard feeder birds across North America have different tastes and feeding preferences. That's why we developed our Unlimited Custom Seed Blend System™ of regionally-formulated seed blends to attract the greatest variety of local birds to your backyard. More than 20 years of backyard birdfeeding experience has helped us formulate our primary regional blends: Supreme, Deluxe and Select. These blends fill the three feeding preferences, feeding on the ground, feeding at the feeder, and feeding both at the feeder and on the ground. In addition, Wild Birds Unlimited® has other Custom Seed Blends for specialty feeding.
We understand which individual seeds will attract different local birds. We call these "preferred seeds." There are many types of seeds to offer, but we consider oil sunflower, striped sunflower, sunflower chips, safflower, peanuts, thistle, millet and corn to be the best preferred seeds to use in a seed blend. So, not only does our birdfeeding experience tell us what type of seeds to use in our Custom Seed Blends, it also tells us what not to use -- cereal grain fillers -- that can be found in most other seed blends.
Seed Blend Filler Test Results
| Seed Blend Tested | Bag Weight | Preferred Seed % | Cereal Grain Filler % |
| WBU Deluxe | 20 lb. | 99.64% | .36% |
| WBU Supreme | 20 lb. | 100% | 0% |
| WBU Select | 25 lb. | 99.87% | .13% |
| Discount Store | 20 lb. | 38.82% | 61.18% |
| Nursery | 25 lb. | 25.25% | 74.75% |
| Feed Store | 25 lb. | 29.31% | 70.69% |
| Pet Store | 20 lb. | 49.01% | 50.99% |
We always knew that many seed blends advertised at low prices contained a lot of cereal grain fillers such as milo, wheat and oat groats that backyard birds really don't like to eat. These cereal grain fillers help lower the price, add bulk to the bag and end up wasted on the ground under your birdfeeder, while doing nothing to enhance your ability to attract and enjoy a greater variety of birds. But, we never knew how much cereal grain filler was in these seed blends. That's why we commissioned a certified independent testing laboratory to measure the cereal grain filler and preferred seed content of seed blends available at a national discount store, a pet store, a nursery, a feed store and our own Custom Seed Blends. The result? Testing found that other seed blends actually contain up to 75% cereal grain fillers birds don't like to eat and only 25% seed -- primarily oil sunflower and millet. On the other hand, tests of our Wild Birds Unlimited Custom Seed Blends found they contain 100% of the seeds birds prefer to eat, so there is no waste.
Since we do not use cereal grain fillers and only use seeds birds want to eat, our Custom Seed Blends are a better value. Once you eliminate the cereal grain fillers in the other blends, you are left with about 25% preferred seed. That's not very much seed and it's a lot of filler that ends up uneaten on the ground under your birdfeeder. In a 20 pound bag comparison of a national discount store blend with our Deluxe Blend, there were two and a half times more preferred seed in our blend. You would have to buy two and a half bags of the national discount blend to get the same amount of preferred seed found in just one bag of our Wild Birds Unlimited Deluxe Blend. That means you'll be paying less to feed your birds the seed they want to eat. And that's a better value for you and your birds!
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