I have a little bird feeder set up outside my window, which I keep stocked with commercial bird seed supplemented with crushed, unsalted, dry roasted peanuts. Keeps the local House Finches, Sparrows and Common Jays fat, happy and glossy sheened.
Problem is, the last time I was at Safeway, there was a two-for-one sale on peanuts, so the clerk had a stockboy run and get me another jar which turned out to be seasoned dry roasted peanuts:
Peanuts, salt, cornstarch, sugar, monosodium glutimate, multidextrin, yeast, corn syrup solids, paprika and other spices, garlic and onion powder, natural flavors and other spices.
I’ve already opened the jar, so I can’t really return it. Can I safely feed it to my wild birds, or will I hurt them giving them that much sugar and sodium?
My domestic birds get such tidbits as treats now and then and they’re fine.
Wild animals generally do not have a problem with sugar or salt, except, perhaps, a lack of calories or sodium. Since you’re not feeding a steady diet of this stuff, and presumably the birds eat other places than just at your house, it’s not something to worry about.
They may or may not like the seasoning - you’ll know that by whether or not they eat the nuts.
I checked with a friend of mine who is a rapid bird-watcher as well. The salt shouldn’t cause a problem for the birds, but if you’re concerned, you can rinse off the nuts in some water, they dry them.
Sugar is actually good for the little guys. Birds are high energy animals, and they burn calories very quickly. This is why they like suet–it’s mostly fat, a good source of energy.
The spices won’t hurt at all. Some birders have been know to add cayenne pepper to their feed, in order to fend off squirrels. Birds don’t have the proper receptors in the their mouths to “feel the burn.”
Of course, if you’re really worried, why don’t you just eat them yourself and buy another jar? Or does $3.29 really impact your home budget that much?
Fat is not sugar. Sugar is NOT okay. Birds cannot process glucose and processed sugar will do Very Bad Things ™ very quickly to non-nectivorous species.
Am scampering off to work, but will provide further information/sources when I return. Meanwhile, rinse the peanuts or munch 'em yourself.
Nonsense. Birds can process glucose fine. Processed sugar is simply sucrose and is easily broken down into glucose and fructose, both of which are easily absorbed.
Too much of anything is bad, and it is possible that too much sugar could have detrimental effects. But the relatively small amounts of salt and sugar found on packaged nuts shouldn’t cause any problems.
If you have any worries, rinse 'em off and dry them, and they should be OK.
