FINCHforum

Does anyone feed their finches Nyjer seed? The wild finches here go nuts for the stuff, so I was curious if the kinds we keep as pets would benefit from eating it?

Oh, and by nyjer seed, I mean Guizotia abyssinica

Sometimes I buy it at the bird fair and mix it with the other seeds. They eat it, but don't seem wild about it.

I add extra rape,linseed & niger seed to my birds mix during winter for the extra fat content. seems to help the birds get through the longer & colder nights

In the UK if you put Niger seed in a garden feeder...Goldfinches appear as if by magic...How they find it so quickly I've no idea. They go nuts for it.

poohbear wrote:In the UK if you put Niger seed in a garden feeder...Goldfinches appear as if by magic...How they find it so quickly I've no idea. They go nuts for it.

It's the same here. Amazing.

Rape mainly sometimes a little linseed for my birds.I once asked a seed retailer for some rape he was shocked that I used such a word.He said we cant call it that these days,We must use the correct name canola seed.
Whats the world coming to,they tried to ban coon cheese.maybe we wont be able to say Niger seed soon.in case someone miss pronounces it.

A common greeting in some countries is 'hello mate'... In Nottinghamshire for hundreds of years this has been 'Ayup (Hello) Duck'...the expression on some foreigners faces at being called 'Duck' is comical.

As for not using the words rape seed...good grief... whatever next.

There are certain words in common use in the UK that this and other U.S. forums won't allow to be used because they have been given a completely different meaning.Shakespeare would turn in his grave.

I think it's funny how some words, spelled the same, will have completely different meanings in different countries.

gomer wrote:maybe we wont be able to say Niger seed soon.in case someone miss pronounces it.

Actually, they rebranded it to be spelled Nyjer seed for that exact reason!

In that case 'THEY' must be stupid...Niger is a country, and a river two and a half thousand miles long....gonna rename them too?
Not political correctness...just stupid idiots with nothing better to do.

That's ridiculous. Niger isn't even a bad word. They don't spell it differently around here.....it's still NIGER. I guess for some people who don't know how to spell or read, it might look like a bad word.

Well, considering that I see incorrect spelling daily on the national TV networks, I think too many of our population cannot spell. I guess they don't have copy editors anymore, rely on spellcheck instead, but spellcheck cannot think!

atarasi wrote:That's ridiculous. Niger isn't even a bad word. They don't spell it differently around here.....it's still NIGER. I guess for some people who don't know how to spell or read, it might look like a bad word.

I've actually heard kids in the supermarket joking about it, throwing the extra G in there. It's bound to happen with ignorant $%&#s, but it's so dumb that "they" feel there is a need to change words. I wouldn't be surprised if they change the country, etc one day too - I mean, we all must be politically correct, people!!

I'll just call it Thistle seed.