Are Nuts Healthy for Finches?

[Kamoodle]

I was looking at the list to see what kind of things are good for finches and which ones are not. I did read raw peanuts are not good for finches so I got that. I was thinking about nuts that are normally very good for us like walnuts and pecans that are low in fat and high in protein. Not the high in fat ones like cashews.

Would they be a good idea for finches? What about if the nuts are not roasted and salted? I know that is not good for them.

[dan78]

Personally I wouldn't feed my birds nuts unless they were parrots which I did give on rare occasions. Nuts are hard to digest and you would have to break them down a far bit. You could look at giving them almond meal or similar on a softfood mix if you believe the benefits are there. Anything along these lines I would use as a treat and not part of their everyday diet. You could use crushed sunflower instead.

[Dayna]

Another thing with nuts is that a lot of nuts are very high in fat and need to be monitored or your birds will become very overweight and unhealthy.

[Kamoodle]

Yeah, just something to give rarely if intended. I know they are high in fat or cholesterol.

I forgot about sunflower seeds. I could experiment with that instead.