Static8.com Journal Entry

19 April 2003 ... Cats and Birds

Charcoal, our stray cat, is gone. The maintenance guys worked on our porch the other day, and we've not seen Charcoal, since. His food dish is still out there, but only birds and ants have been eating the cat food.

I miss Charcoal. But he's a free spirit, and I wish him well on his travels.

And now, SO has suggested putting up a bird feeder. I think that's a good idea, except I don't think that SO really appreciates the potential mess the birds will make of our back porch. I anticipate sweeping up sunflower shells every few days. :)

And plus, I have a pet peeve about the producers of the Wild Bird Seed bags you buy in the store.

You see, Wild Bird Seed is _not_ vegetarian.

"What are you talking about? It's just some sunflower seeds and millet and milo and stuff, right?"

Yeah. And then they coat the seeds with some Vitamin D3.

Vitamin D comes in two forms, Vit D2 and D3. D2 is plant-based. D3 is animal-based. Birds can only absorb the D3 version.

But, as we all know, our skin makes Vitamin D every time we step out into the sunshine. This goes for birds as well. So why in the world would bird seed companies want to give wild birds, who are out in the sunshine all flippen day, even more Vitamin D? Mostly because people are stupid...

Stupid people who own caged birds, see this Wild Bird seed on the shelf and notice it's quite a bit cheaper than the formulated food they usually feed their caged birds. So, they buy it and feed it. And indoor birds _do_ need supplemental Vitamin D3 because they don't get outdoors much.

[and of course, the stupid people's birds will have nutritional deficiencies because they aren't feeding the right thing. grr. stupid people.]

So, the Wild Bird Seed companies are catering to stupid people. Which of course annoys me. And it's just crazy that wild bird seed isn't vegetarian!








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