" Jeanne Stockdale" wrote in message
...

"ex WGS Hamm" wrote in message
news


--

You are wrong I'm afraid. Animals and birds will scoff ultra fatty
stuff
or
salty stuff. Salt kills a bird very quickly. I keep parrots so am a bit
careful as to what I feed.(40+ expensive parrots). My sister once fed
her
beloved hens some avocado thinking she was giving them an expensive
treat.
She got up next day, opened the henhouse to find all her hens dead. Yes,
avocado is poisonous to most birds and animals. I once had a rescue dog
raid
the bin and eat avocado peelings and chewed the stone. I didn't realise
what
he had done until I found him comatose the next morning. Prompt and
expensive action from a vet saved him and it was only because I found
the
chewed stone and remains of peel that I knew what he had done.
Animals have no sixth sense as to what might kill them, especially in
deep
winter when they are starving and need vast amounts of food to survive.
The best things to put on a bird table are, sunflower seeds(cheap to
buy
and a source of fat to make calories to keep warm) suet ,ditto,unsalted
nuts, fruit and things like cooked vegetable scraps as long as they are
not
cooked with salt.
I admit to being a softy. I have 3 bird tables and buy a sack of
sunflower
seed, a smaller bag of peanuts, and a sack of budgie seed at the start
of
winer. I mix them together with some of the mixed corn I feed my
chickens
on. The 2 sacks will cost around £20 and the peanuts around a fiver.
This
little lot will feed the wild birds all winter plus some safe scraps. I
also
buy fat balls which you can get very cheaply from £1 shops and QD and
wilkinsons.
On my weekly trips to the abbatoir for bones for my 7 dogs, I also get
a
carrier bag of fat which I hang on tree branches. That attracts dozens
of
starlings and blue tits.
To be honest a sack of wild bird mix will only cost around £9 and if
you
only have one bird table, that plus a few dozen fat balls will feed
hundreds
of birds and help them survive until next spring. They will reward you
with
beautiful songs and hours of entertainment through your winter on a cold
winters day :0)


The birds in your area must be few and far between. Mine scoff about a
half
a hundredweight of peanuts every two months, summer and winter @ £15 per
sack.
They also get seed and pigeon mix.
Must admit that the woodpecker family does account for the consumption of
a
considerable proportion of the nuts.
Don't know much obout beautiful songs though - the collar doves tend to
have
the same effect as cocks crowing first thing in the morning with their
coo-coo-cooing.
I have plenty of wild birds here but as I am in a very rural area I expect
they get feed from other sources like spilled grain, cattle feed etc. As
well as stealing the chicken food, they get the leavings from the parrot
feed pots and other suitable scraps. Not many trees in the fens so I don't
see woodpeckers. I get a wide variety of finches, thrush,
blackbird,robin,wren, doves of all kinds, starlings, sparrows etc.

"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
...

"ex WGS Hamm" wrote in message
news

wrote in message
. ..
Message from James on Sun, 17 Oct 2004 00:15:36

Slightly OT-Feeding Birds:


"Joanne" wrote in message
...
Here's a stupid question -- when they say you can feed bacon
rind to
birds,
do you have to cook the bacon, or if it's raw do you have to
chop it
into
little bits, or what?

Thanks.

Not a stupid question IMHO Joanne

People think they are being kind in this sort of way, but 9 times
out of
ten
they are killing off our feathered friends.
My advice is to use google to find the RSPB site and ask there.
and then let us all know what you found.
another trick is to use logic, but I think sometimes we have a
fuzzy
logic
installed in our brains as well.

I would have thought that most wildlife instinctively know what's
good
and safe to eat.
--

You are wrong I'm afraid. Animals and birds will scoff ultra fatty
stuff or
salty stuff. Salt kills a bird very quickly. I keep parrots so am a
bit
careful as to what I feed.(40+ expensive parrots). My sister once
fed her
beloved hens some avocado thinking she was giving them an expensive
treat.
She got up next day, opened the henhouse to find all her hens dead.
Yes,
avocado is poisonous to most birds and animals. I once had a rescue
dog raid
the bin and eat avocado peelings and chewed the stone. I didn't
realise what
he had done until I found him comatose the next morning. Prompt and
expensive action from a vet saved him and it was only because I
found the
chewed stone and remains of peel that I knew what he had done.
Animals have no sixth sense as to what might kill them, especially
in deep
winter when they are starving and need vast amounts of food to
survive.
The best things to put on a bird table are, sunflower seeds(cheap
to buy
and a source of fat to make calories to keep warm) suet
,ditto,unsalted
nuts, fruit and things like cooked vegetable scraps as long as they
are not
cooked with salt.
I admit to being a softy. I have 3 bird tables and buy a sack of
sunflower
seed, a smaller bag of peanuts, and a sack of budgie seed at the
start of
winer. I mix them together with some of the mixed corn I feed my
chickens
on. The 2 sacks will cost around £20 and the peanuts around a fiver.
This
little lot will feed the wild birds all winter plus some safe
scraps. I also
buy fat balls which you can get very cheaply from £1 shops and QD
and
wilkinsons.
On my weekly trips to the abbatoir for bones for my 7 dogs, I also
get a
carrier bag of fat which I hang on tree branches. That attracts
dozens of
starlings and blue tits.
To be honest a sack of wild bird mix will only cost around £9 and
if you
only have one bird table, that plus a few dozen fat balls will feed
hundreds
of birds and help them survive until next spring. They will reward
you with
beautiful songs and hours of entertainment through your winter on a
cold
winters day :0)

You have either very few or very hungry birds. We get through 3 sacks
of peanuts and 3 of sunflower seed per year for our garden birds, plus
around 15 lbs weight of fat puddings.

You seem only to have noticed the sacks of food and ignored the fat from
the abbatoir, scraps, chhicken food and other things like fruit I listed.
I suppose it depends entirely on the area one lives. I am right out in the
fens. Not many trees here. I have lots of wild birds to feed but they also
forage elsewhere. I expect a suburban garden with lots of trees and bushes
might have larger numbers of birds.

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.

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.

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.

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



--

"Josie" wrote in message
...

[snip]

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

What, no thrushes?

[snip]

Franz

"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
...

"Josie" wrote in message
...

[snip]

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

What, no thrushes?

[snip]

Franz



Probably are vegetarians?


--


Ukjay

"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.



--

Josie wrote:
Message from ex WGS Hamm [...]
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.

Josie, this is important, so let's not get into one of those
tit-for-tat things. Have a look at the RSPB's advice at:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/gardens/whaty...en_to_feed.asp

I'd rate them quite a reliable source of information.

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.

Well, it's true that not all birds will eat slugs; but some do. I
think of thrushes (mentioned below by Franz), and ducks.

There is a problem with declining thrush populations in some places.
This may or may not be connected with the heavy use of
slug-pellets -- I just don't know -- but it's something to think
about.

Mike.

ex WGS Hamm wrote:

"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. Bead will swell and fill a baby's crop so
that it won't beg for the food it really needs to survive.
The birds may not eat the blue slug pellets, but they will eat the slugs
which have eaten the pellets and still be poisoned.
You remain unconvinced because you have not done any research and are not
really interested enough to do any research I'm afraid.
Ignorance kills more animals and birds (wild and captive) than outright
cruelty does, sadly.

Indeed. FWIW people who know put out bird food throughout the year, as
per current advice. You can find more information about this on the RSPB
website http://tinyurl.com/4jc87 (if it works).

In short, in general, the adults eat the food we provide, which allows
them to take a higher proportion of desirable insects to their
nestlings.

regards
sarah


--
Think of it as evolution in action.

A slight twist in the thread. I usually mix a bit of lard with the suet I
use to make the bird food for the Tits, but found today that Lard has
disappeared from the supermarkets, I was told it has all been withdrawn, but
no one knew why.......
Anyone heard anything?

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 13:24:21 +0100, Janet Baraclough..
wrote:

The message
from Josie contains these words:

Message from Janet Baraclough.. on
Sun, 17 Oct 2004 20:11:23 Slightly OT-Feeding Birds:

The message
from contains these words:

I would have thought that most wildlife instinctively know what's good
and safe to eat.

They don't. Hedgehogs and nestling birds are easily killed by
inappropriate food provided by people.

Janet

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.

snip

AFAIK the risk to young bluetits is from moulds on peanuts, which are
more likely to be present on old stocks of nuts (the sort people tend to
use up after winter).

Janet.



Aflatoxin?

Geoff

In article , Josie
writes

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

Waaahaaaaay - someone *else* who has noticed this ))))))))))))
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason, put ransoms
at jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see

Sacha wrote "... Morrisons in Totnes had a shelf full of it on Saturday.
Try a local butcher, perhaps? .."

Today Morrisons here had none and said suppliers couldn't supply any, tesco
had empty shelves and it was them that said that Lard had been withdrawn
form all stores.


--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

On 19/10/04 23:25, in article , "David
Hill" wrote:

Sacha wrote "... Morrisons in Totnes had a shelf full of it on Saturday.
Try a local butcher, perhaps? .."

Today Morrisons here had none and said suppliers couldn't supply any, tesco
had empty shelves and it was them that said that Lard had been withdrawn
form all stores.

I'll do a recce........
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Josie wrote:
Message from ex WGS Hamm [...]
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.

Josie, this is important, so let's not get into one of those
tit-for-tat things. Have a look at the RSPB's advice at:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/gardens/whaty...en_to_feed.asp


Interesting, but I could not find any info on bacon rind (Original post)
Jenny

"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Josie wrote:
Message from ex WGS Hamm [...]
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.

Josie, this is important, so let's not get into one of those
tit-for-tat things. Have a look at the RSPB's advice at:


http://www.rspb.org.uk/gardens/whaty...en_to_feed.asp


Interesting, but I could not find any info on bacon rind (Original post)
Jenny



From http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/advice/...irds/index.asp

"There is a lot of debate about the suitability of bacon rind, since much of
it is salted during the curing process. As long as you can be sure the bacon
is not salty it can be put on the bird table. Since bacon can be too tough
for many birds to tackle, chopping it finely will allow a wider variety of
birds to benefit."

Further, if you do a 'Google' on "bacon rind" and bird feeding, you will get
hundreds of hits, many of the sites on the first couple of pages
recommending the feeding of bacon rind. HTH.