"Josie" wrote in message
...
Message from ex WGS Hamm on Mon, 18
Oct 2004 11:10:32 Slightly OT-Feeding Birds:


"Josie" wrote in message
...
I appreciate that the current conventional wisdom suggests that
wildlife
is unable to differentiate between safe and dangerous foods; but how
true is it? Is it just hearsay; hypothesis? Birds in my garden don't
touch blue slug pellets, for example. It was once thought that adult
blue tits would suffocate their young by feeding them whole peanuts -
this is now known to be untrue. I remain unconvinced.
If blue tits are fed when they have young in the nest, it isn't so much
that they would be daft enough to shove a whole peanut down the baby's
throat but that they would feed peanuts at all. Baby blue tits need
copious
amounts of high protein live food like green and blackfly and other
insects.
I think you are getting confused about the reason you must stop feeding
wild
birds in spring. It is because they will take the easy option and feed
youngsters innapropriate food.

Presumably there are examples of this happening? I'd be interested in
your sources.
Well I doubt any studies have been made by checking the crops of nests full
of dead chicks, but my 30 years experience as a bird/parrot keeper/breeder
show me that if the correct food is not available, the birds will feed
huungry screaming chicks with whatever is available.
I breeder I knew of once was done for neglect. He simply left parent birds
with no food. Whole clutches of cockatiels and lovebirds were found dead
with their crops full of wood shavings which had been used on the base of
the aviaries :0(

Bead will swell and fill a baby's crop so
that it won't beg for the food it really needs to survive.

Again, I'd be interested in your sources.
As above. Experience as a bird breeder.

The birds may not eat the blue slug pellets, but they will eat the slugs
which have eaten the pellets and still be poisoned.

Sources? None of the birds in my garden appear to be remotely interested
in slugs, unfortunately.

You remain unconvinced because you have not done any research and are not
really interested enough to do any research I'm afraid.

And this statement is based on what? Conjecture? Perhaps like
everything else you've said here? I've read around the subject, hence
my scepticism.
I'm sorry but if you don't want to go to the RSBB site and other sites, or
do a simple google for the info which is out there, I am not about to do it
for you.

Ignorance kills more animals and birds (wild and captive) than outright
cruelty does, sadly.



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