Weird Facts about Hartz® Parakeet Seed

• Company founder Max Stern named the Hartz Mountain Corporation after the Harz Mountains of Germany, his native country. In 1926, German immigrant Max Stern arrived in New York Harbor with his prized singing canaries and the idea of marketing live pets and pet care products. The company soon branched out beyond birds to dogs, cats, fish, hamsters, and gerbils.
• Still family-owned, the Hartz Mountain Corporation is headed today by Edward Stern, grandson of Max Stern.
• The Harz mountains were immortalized in Johann Goethe's poetic drama Faust.
• Hartz formulated the first antibiotic bird seed, followed by the first vitamin-impregnated bird seed.
• Arthur Godfrey started in radio as a banjo player sponsored by a birdseed company on a station in Baltimore.
• As a boy, Steven Spielberg kept parakeets in his bedroom, flying free. Recalled his mother, Leah, in Time magazine: "There would be birds flying around and birdseed all over the floor. I'd just reach in to get the dirty clothes."
• You can tell the sex of an adult budgie parakeet by the color of the skin just above the beak. On males the color is blueish, while on females the color is brownish.
• Hartz Parakeet Seed is the best-selling parakeet seed in the United States.