A good breakfast cereal is not only a simple snack for you but also a quick and easy one for the wild birds in your backyard! Wild birds can consume breakfast cereals, but you’ll want to check the individual ingredients and avoid any ingredients that may be toxic to birds.
This short guide outlines the basics of feeding breakfast cereals to the wild birds in your yard, including suggestions on 12 breakfast cereals you might be tempted to share.
Why Feeding Breakfast Cereals to Wild Birds Is a Good Idea
Most breakfast cereals are just as appealing to birds as they are to you.
The ingredients in many breakfast cereals are Wholegrain and fruit which most bird species find palatable and will clear the cereal quickly if you leave the cereal on a bird tray or in a bird feeder.
Stale cereal or leftover cereal will not have any harmful effects on birds, but if you consider feeding breakfast cereal to birds on a more regular basis, you will have to be careful of the sweeter chocolate types of cereals or cereals with any ingredient that could be harmful if consumed regularly.
Key Ingredients to Watch out for When Feeding Cereal to Your Garden Birds
Birds will eat almost anything and everything, except if your breakfast cereal has certain ingredients that may harm your birds.
Be careful with these ingredients:
- Salt: Too much salt can be fatal for birds, as it can upset their osmotic balance. Birds that consume a lot of salt, can also become dehydrated when they try to find water afterwards.
- Sugar: Many species of birds do not have the enzymes needed to digest sucrose, which may lead to diarrhea.
- Milk: Milk should never be fed to birds, as they do not have the ability to digest milk. In fact, some species of bird can die from consuming milk products or whey powder.
- Additives, preservatives and flavourings: Some examples are Congo red dye, soy lecithin, and BHT. Some of these additives are true poisons, while others are still classified as carcinogenic.
12 Breakfast Cereals to Feed to Wild Birds
1. Can Wild Birds Eat Frosties
The frosted cornflakes of Frosties make them one of the sweetest breakfast cereals around.
And if they are too sweet for a human, they might be absolutely excessive for your garden birds. As previously mentioned, birds have a hard time digesting sugar.
To the sugar content, Frosties themselves also have quite a bit of salt which would preclude their use as food for birds.
If You Must: one or two flakes from the bottom of the box would likely do no harm if they are out as an occasional offering.
2. Can Wild Birds Eat Lucky Charms?
Lucky Charms is a well-known happy colored American breakfast cereal that children might wish to share with their local garden birds.
Lucky Charms is extremely high in sugar and low in protein and fiber, which means it provides very little nutritional value for wild birds.
Lucky Charms also use genetically modified (GM) corn which could have surprising/unknown effects on birds.
Research has even shown that the Red 40 food coloring in Lucky Charms may have a mutagenic and carcinogenic effect on small animals like birds.
3. Can Wild Birds Eat Cornflakes?
If the lowly cornflake is languishing in the back of your cupboard, it is certainly sensible to feed this breakfast cereal to wild birds.
First of all cornflakes are made from corn, and second of all, they do not come with anywhere near as much sugar that some breakfast cereals have, so they are a healthy option.
They may be a little salty, but when providing for wild birds a popular bird table will mean that the visitors will not eat enough to get any issues from the salt.
4. Can Wild Birds Eat Cheerios?
Cheerios are a well-liked snack for wild birds who will squabble over these delicious whole grain loops.
Like with many snacks, nothing should be in excess, as Cheerios do have added sugar in the ingredients.
They should certainly not be an excessive snack, but can be offered a few times per week, as a single snack or as a few in a container, or threaded on string to present a challenge to your more social bird table visitors.
5. Can Wild Birds Eat Muesli?
Muesli is an excellent wild bird food, packed with wholegrains, dried fruit, and nuts that all birds will eat!
Muesli is akin to a buffet for the birds because they can choose whatever they like.
However, it’s good to check the muesli for added sugar, salt, or whey protein, which will create digestive issues for the birds.
You can also combine muesli with lard to create tasty fat balls to leave outside for the birds to enjoy.
If you put muesli down on your bird table, don’t let it get wet from the rain as it goes soggy quickly.
6. Can Wild Birds Eat Puffed Rice?
Puffed wheat and puffed rice are a convenient and sustaining food that can easily be eaten and digested by all kinds of birds.
They are low in sodium and sugar, and the only ingredients that some may be concerned with are preservatives such as Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT).
You can also offer other puffed grains in rice cakes and corn cakes.
All birds can eat cooked or processed rice, but only pigeons, pheasants, and doves can eat raw rice. The best choice is plain and scattered puffed rice.
When presenting puffed rice at the bird table, always avoid anything with added sugar and salt.
7. Can Wild Birds Eat Oats?
Birds can benefit from raw porridge oats, an energy-rich food perfect for feeding wild birds, in winter, and an option that can be provided regularly.
Porridge oats are easy, natural and safe for all birds to digest.
The only warning is do not offer oats after cooking, as the porridge-like glutinous part can, literally, “stick” the bird’s beak together.
8. Can Wild Birds Eat Granola?
Granola will be a favorite snack for feathered visitors to your yard and typically includes the grains, fruit, and nuts your birds enjoy.
These tasty treats come in bird friend varieties that can be purchased at your local pet store.
You can feed your birds the major brands of granola once in a while because their sugar content can be very high as they may include many syrups and sweeteners to bind the granola together.
Pro Tip: Granola could possibly contain some ingredients that are harmful to your birds (like sulphur dioxide, a preservative).
9. Can Wild Birds Eat Grape Nuts?
You may enjoy them or find them tasteless, but those leftover Grape Nuts will get gobbled up by the birds in your area if you toss them outside.
Grape Nuts go against every sugary or otherwise overly-processed breakfast cereal out there. They are made of whole wheat and malted barley flour, salt and yeast.
These wholesome ingredients are perfectly safe for birds to eat, and the small portions are perfectly sized for bird feeding.
10. Can Wild Birds Eat Golden Grahams?
You should know by the color, texture, and taste of this cinnamon-flavored breakfast cereal that you should never feed it to birds.
It has a tremendously high amount of salt and sugar; the adult serving size has 13 grams of sugar and more than 21 percent of the RDA of sodium.
while the whole grain cereal ingredients are technically good for your birds, those amounts of salt and sugar significantly outweigh any benefits.
11. Can Wild Birds Eat Bran Flakes?
Bran flakes will be good for garden birds and can be given generously in your backyard.
The flakes can be crushed, so they’re the size of a beak, and mixed in with regular feed or seed mix.
All-Bran or fruit and fibre can also be offered to birds, but we advise caution if sulfur dioxide is present within the ingredients of the cereal.
Cereal makers use this preservative on dried fruit similar to banana and coconut.
12. Can Wild Birds Eat Weetabix?
Weetabix is an inexpensive and enjoyable filler that your birds can chip away at.
It has no sugar added and is low in salt so this grain cereal will do no harm.
You can just toss a couple of Weetabix blocks into your garden or crumble into existing feed.
As Weetabix is so dry, have a freshwater source nearby to give birds a refreshing drink after their meal.
Rounding Up
Once you break out the good cereal, you will certainly find that your bird table is the most popular spot in your neighborhood with your local birds!
Try making thick balls, seed mixes, and homemade granola that include breakfast cereal to feed your birds.
Don’t forget to provide the birds with lots of fresh water to enjoy with their meal!