A study has been conducted to evaluate the possible use of ash as indigestible dietary marker to determine energy metabolizability, nitrogen retention and digestibility of dry matter, organic matter and crude fat in seeds fed to adult granivorous birds. Digestibility values of whole maize and peas for adult domestic pigeons, and sunflower seed for adult African Grey parrots, were compared between the use of the ash ratio in seeds and excreta and the method of total collection of feed intake and excreta output. A temperature of 400ºC was found to be optimal to obtain ash recovery values of near to 100 % in both species for all seeds evaluated. Similar means and variation in values indicate that the ash ratio method could be a simple alternative to the laborious method of total collection to determine digestibility of seeds for adult granivorous bird. Precautions in the use of the ash ratio method are discussed.