I have a parrot and I compost the litter from his cage, which contains many seeds and seed hulls. I've never had a problem. If something germinates, you just turn it under.

I have a black lab who sheds constantly. I compost all that too, but I haven't found it untouched. I do usually have my compost go through several hot cycles though before I stop adding stuff and let it finish up. That may be the difference.

Hair, human or animal, is essentially protein and should compost quite readily. If it doesn't look into what is going on with your compost, not enough Nitrogen for the Carbon, too much moisture that slows desireable bacterial activity, what is the problem. The bird seed would, like most anything else, compost and there is some research that indicates it would be more length of time that makes the seeds not viable rather than any heating.

Thanks, everybody, for your replies. I do appreciate it and will add the birdseed to my compost pile.

As for the lovely blond hair from my Golden, I have a difficult time looking into what is going on with my compost and knowing whether I have too much or not enough of nitrogen, carbon, and/or moisture. And maybe I just get in too much of a hurry, but when everything else disappears into soil and the dog hair remains, I just thought it was ready to be sifted and used for compost. Now I am wondering if maybe it never did get hot enough.

I know that when I add kitchen scraps, i.e., vegetable peelings, tea bags, etc., I am supposed to add brown (which for me is mostly leaves) in the same amount of weight, which would be about three times the amount of bulk, and I try to do that. As far as nitrogen, right now of course I am composting flower stems and leaves, such as from mums, impatiens, basil twigs, etc.

Well, if anyone has any hints as to how you can tell what is missing from your compost, let me know.

Marlene

Whether you need to add an equal amount of
browns" as "greens" depends on many things most notably the C:N ratio of each material. For optimal digestion you want the mix at around 30 parts Carbon to 1 part Nitrogen but rather than spending time trying to figure that out for each 6 inches of vegetative waste I put in I add a goodly amount of a Nitrogen source if I do not have the manure necessary to put down a 2 inch layer.
I would suspect that you just do not get quite enough Nitrogen in to your mix, or you are putting in to much Carbon.

Marlene, regarding your dog’s fur I’ve heard others put it in an old feeder or wire holder and placed in the yard where birds can get to it. I plan to do the same this summer. My girls, a flat coat and a husky mix, are big shedders! Hope this helps.

The OP is 10 years old but someone bumped it and this was my occasion to discover a most interesting site on composting

Home and Community Composting

There are few paragraphs on composting birdseed but there is also a lot of interesting reading there too.

Alas, only a single sentence on dog hair.

Hair is indeed protein but it is structured similar to the protein in fingernails, i.e. 'beta-pleated sheets' IIRC, for the science geeks among us. :-P As such it is not quite as readily digestible as other proteins normally found in food and flesh. Not surprising to find it uncomposted in a relatively cold and slow compost pile.