Feeding Bird Food Peanuts – Do and Don’ts

Bird food peanuts are both nutritious and delicious! Or so my bird tells me!. Bird food peanuts certainly are a top rated bird food and will attract large numbers of birds to your garden each day. There are however a range of dos and don’ts that come with feeding peanut bird food to your birds

The first and most important is to never feed whole and loose peanuts to your wild birds. This is essential to prevent birds from chocking on the individual peanuts. This can occur as the peanuts are not small enough for the birds to shallow whole which they can often attempt to do
The best way to feed bird food peanuts to your wild birds is through a peanut feeder. These can be found in any pet shop or garden centre and can come in any range of sizes and prices. The advantage of a peanut feeder is that the wire mesh frame that contains the peanuts is small enough that the birds must peak at and break up the peanuts into smaller portions before the peanuts can be swallowed
Only start by half filling your feeders, there is not point in over filling a peanut feeder when you first begin feeding your birds. This is because the first birds can be slow to arrive to your garden meaning the peanuts could be sitting in the feeders for a week before they are spotted.
Ensure the bird food peanuts your are feeding your birds are fresh. Peanuts will last about a month outdoors in the feeder. Check regularly to ensure they are not mouldy or turning bad
Clean your feeders every few months. This is to ensure that your feeders are not spreading any type of bird relation illnesses. Diseases including Salmonellosis (salmonella), Trichomoniasis, Aspergillosis and Avian Pox can all be spread through dirty bird feeders and from the debris and waste bird food on the ground below feeders. Because birds gather near feeders it is important to keep these areas tidy and keep bird food fresh
Keep feeders safe from predators. This is important to ensure that birds come to your garden – if the feeders are not located in a safe place then birds are not very likely to congregate there. Feeders need to be kept high up off the ground and ideally in a sheltered spot in amongst the branches of trees
Choose only the best peanut bird food. Check the packaging to ensure that the bird food peanuts have been screened for Alfa toxins and ensure that they are BRC certified. This ensures the peanuts are of a high quality and meet the safety criteria necessary for the end user

Lastly you can feed your birds all year round, during the summer months birds are more active and more plentiful and there is no harm in offering them an occasional peanutty snack to see them through the day