Blue jays are not selective when it comes to eating behavior. They can eat different kinds of foods, but many people have posted on online platforms, can blue jays eat almonds?
Blue jays can eat almonds and gets benefitted from the nutrients present in almonds. Not every type of almond is good for them, but you can feed blue jays almonds. Know a proper way of feeding almonds to them.
Table of Contents:
- Are Almonds Safe For Blue Jays?
- Do Blue Jays Like To Eat Almonds?
- How To Serve Almonds To Blue Jays?
- What Nuts Do Blue Jays Eat?
- Benefits Of Feeding Blue Jays Almonds
- Last Thoughts
Are Almonds Safe For Blue Jays?
Yes, due to the various benefits, almonds are entirely safe for your blue jays. Almonds are an excellent source of protein, minerals, and healthy fats and are available throughout the year.
They help in keeping healthy both feathers and skins of your blue jays. Blue jays can get the energy to perform their daily activities from almonds.
They are available in all the seasons of a calendar, but almonds are available in considerable amounts in the vacation season (the last and starting months of the year).
Along with the benefits, almonds are good in taste, and blue jays love to eat them. Though they are high in protein and minerals, they should not be fed to your blue jays in huge amounts as they contain fats.
Fats in almonds are not bad for your blue jays, but fats in excess quantity can increase their weight and harm them, which is not suitable for your blue jays.
Hepatic Lipidosis is a disease that occurs in your blue jays if they intake too much fat.
So, serve almonds to blue jays carefully and in fewer amounts. The number of almonds that you can serve to your blue jays should be two to three pieces in a day, do not exceed this amount.
Not all types of almonds are safe for your blue jays, and it is important to check them before serving.
Because bitter almonds are not suitable for your blue jays, they can be fatal and toxic to them. So, before serving almonds to your blue jays, make sure they are sweet almonds. Besides almonds, what do blue jays eat?
Do Blue Jays Like To Eat Almonds?
Blue jays love to eat almonds which are an important part of their diet. But they only like sweet almonds to eat, not bitter ones.
Sweet almonds are counted as one of the favorite treats for your blue jays, and they also carry many health benefits.
Unlike bitter almonds, they can be toxic to birds, and even a single almond can become the cause of death for birds. So, be careful while buying and serving almonds to your blue jays.
How To Serve Almonds To Blue Jays?
Before serving, almonds should be out of their shells. Make sure they are sweet, not bitter or salty. Along with this, make sure you are not serving coated almonds to your blue jays as such type of almonds is not for their health.
You can use an almond feeder to serve almonds to your blue jays. You have to remove almonds from their shells by breaking them to pass through the wired mesh easily.
The feeder you can use to serve your blue jays is the tube-shaped metal mesh feeder specially designed to serve almonds. If you can use it, you can go for any other feeder having small openings.
Bitter almonds can be served to your blue jays. But it would be best if you were an expert in cooking them on one condition. Because cooking these almonds is the only option to remove their toxicity.
So, I advise you not to go for bitter almonds, as there will be a risk factor of whether they are well cooked or not. And if they are not, then your blue jays can go in significant danger.
What Nuts Do Blue Jays Eat?
There are many nuts that blue jays love to eat, but the most favorite nut of blue jays is peanuts. Blue jays can eat peanuts of both types, i.e., without shells and whole peanuts (with shells).
Other nuts that blue jays like to eat are walnuts, acorns, pine nuts, almonds, pecans, beechnuts, macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, and hickory nuts.
Benefits Of Feeding Blue Jays Almonds
The unsalted almonds are healthy for your blue jays and do not do any harm to them. They can be fed as a snack to your blue jays and other pet birds.
Almonds help the cholesterol and blood sugar levels of your blue jays. There are many healthy nutrients like healthy fats, vitamin E, protein, magnesium, etc., that are found in almonds.
Almonds also have a high quantity of healthy fats. They are enriched with fatty acids named omega 3. These fatty acids hold an essential role in keeping your blue jays healthy and other birds, especially parrots.
You can control a common pet bird disease named Atherosclerosis by feeding omega-3 fatty acids to birds. It is a disease in which the arteries get hard and is caused by a diet with high cholesterol and fat content.
But you can prevent this by using omega-3 fatty acids as they inhibit inflammation in the blood vessels and decrease plaque formation. Hence omega 3 reduces the risk of Atherosclerosis in your blue jays.
Last Thoughts
Almonds are healthier to eat for humans, but birds have different eating behavior. So, it is important to know whether blue jays can eat almonds or not before feeding them.
The above post briefly discussed the query mentioned in the topic with the proper way of feeding them.
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