Peanuts

[Rockin Robin]

If peanuts go mouldy in the feeder throw them away. After throwing them away put the feede in the sink pour over boiling water to kil any mould off. Also to reduce mould when the peanuts are in the bag buy smaaler amounts of peanuts at a time to reduce mould unless you go through a lot of them.

[PiratesAhoy!]

Indeed. The birds will tend not to eat the peanuts if they're a little mouldy, and good job as well, as it can be poisonous. But if they are desperate for food...

Any peanuts you give birds should be approved for birds, and tested negative for 'aflatoxins' - these are produced in the mould, and are deadly to birds.

[dougied]

Do the birds in your gardens actually eat many peanuts? I've found that the birds in my garden much prefer to feed on the feeders that contain seeds and hardly touch the peanuts, so of course they just go off. I'm getting to the stage of not putting any nuts out at all.

[PiratesAhoy!]

Oh yes! Particularly at this time of year, peanuts seem to be the most valuable commodity.

I have some mesh peanut feeders, but the birds prefer the self-serve ;) The tits make daring raids on the tables, or the Gardman square 'Easy feed' peanut feeders. Watching great-tits, blue-tits and coal-tits (and the occasional longtail) make their way stealthily to the table is funny, particularly the blues, with their little "bandit-mask" colourings :)

Starlings also love peanuts, but being softbills they can't really take the whole ones, so they love the ground-up peanuts I put out. Blackbirds, despite also benig softbills, can sometimes roll the whole peanut around in their bills and on the floor, and break them up a little (they do the same with worms).

We also get jackdaws - they kebab a few peanuts in their beaks then fly off to a a tall tree to eat them.

In short, I can't really think of a species in our garden that doesn't eat peanuts in one form or another! It may be a question of presentation. Whole peanuts are good in the winter for the tits in particular - one peanut for them represents a good meal.

Edit: Forgot to mention that any ground-based whole peanuts are hoovered up each day by the collared doves. None go to waste, and I put out a litre jug's worth every day!

[dougied]

That's a good idea about grinding up the peanuts :) I'll try that and see if they prefer it.