The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-01-20
PURE FOOD FOR
PET CAGED BIRDS

n. Y. Sun: say said the bird
store man. i've got job for the re-
formers. Why don't some of them
start pure food crusade and find out
what's being fed to the pets, flesh, fish
and fowl of this country?
You take my line. for instance. Lots
of folks won't buy birds nowadays be-
cause they no sooner get 'em home
than they up and die-the birds do.
Some folks won't take a canary as
a gift. They say, What's the use?
Just about the time the bird begins
to tune up it turns up its toes and
that's the end Of it.
Now. I tell you, here's where the
pure food crusade ought to come in.
Those birds are poisoned, and you'll
find the poison right in their little seed
cups.
Folks think that all they've got to
do is to buy bird seed, any old bird
seed, and then sit back and listen to a
canary most sing its head off. But
there are as many kinds of bird seed as
there are of breakfast foods, and some
of them aren't any more fit to eat than
well, than some breakfast foods are,
and you know I can't make it strong
er than that.
1.-The worst bird seed the good Lord
ever allowed to grow is the kind that
comes from Smyrna. It's bad by nature
and it's worse when it's harvested and
shipped, for it's full then of grit and
dirt and the greatest mess of seed from
forty different kinds of weeds, half or
'en rank poison, ali mixed right IN
with what there is of genuine birdseed.
Why, you might as well feed a canary
on shot and out of the business end
OF a shotgun, too.
.The best seed comes from Sicily.
It's fat and clean and easy to crack.
Mix it up with German summer
rape. Indian mullet and Turkish NAV
seed and your bird will be singing all
right. in its cage instead of with the
bird angels.
Don't give your bird hemp seed,
either. When / say that to woman
she tells me how her bird loves hemp
seed and she talks a lot Of stuff about
the birds instinct and all that. Pshaw!
OF course the bird likes hemp seed. So
does the woman's little girl-if she s
got one-like candy.
We'll. if she let's 'em go it with the
hemp seed and the candy It's gooo-py
birdie and baby Hemp seed is too tat
tening and heating for cage birds. ana
vet they won't eat another kind OF SEED
so long as there is grain OF hemp
to be had.
"Once in a while it won't hurt them
to have a little. But it must De only
little.
BIRDS need a bit OF cuttlefishs bone.
They whet their bills on it and eat q
little too. It's good for them
so is gravel. Sprinkle it on the moor
of the cage. Be sure it is grasei'
though. Some so-called gravel is only
crushed stone. Giving it to a olrd ~
as sure and cruel a way of committing
murder as giving it ground glass.
There's one item of bird food tnat
has already been investigated. Tor IL
bannens TO be one that is used by hu-
man bfpeds also. That's red pepper.
Feed 'em on red pepper? Why sure.
people give their birds cracker ana
egg with little red pepper during
moulting season to make the bird 3
n1,,mage have a reddish tint. On. yes,
it does. But you want to- be sure your
red pepper isn't ground leather
you wouldn't believe it, but there
are folks that don't know any more
than to try to feed a hooking pird th@
same as thew would canary.NWe ciass
the two sorts of birds as hard Diiieu
and soft billed It is considerably more
of a trick to raise the finer singers
than the hard billed species
TT would keep a large-sized ana IN
dustrious family hustling all day iohs
to feed two or three of these sort Diileu
birds with their natural 1000 OF N
scots and worms So there are pre-
nared foods put up for them ana nero
again is chance for the pets pure
food crusade to find out things
..Some of the stuff put out is
ground up mess of old meat, nouids
bread, seed and lard. One mahuiac
turer pretends to sell a food mace Oh
roasted beef heart, toasted "neo
bread, blue NAV meal. ant eggs oIieu
sweet potatoes, pea meal ana oilo
eurrants. IL that's straight it's gooo
enough for any bird
But you've got to give your lloeh-
ing bird, for instance, some variety
Prepared food one day, raw CARROT ao-
ded the next and so on with variety
Of vegetables and fruits, raw OF
cooked
And once in a while. just for a treat
of the finest kind, give him some nies,
worms, spiders and dainties OF thae
sort. TRY meal worms, for eaahipie.
You can keep 'em on hand all the TIME
Inst partly fill an old jar with nTah
and scraps of leather, put some Aieoi
worms in and tie a cloth over the TOP.
Wet up the contents occasionally anu
vo1,.Il soon have a stock of meal worms
to give to the birds.
IF you don't mind handling the
things you can take them out and feeo
them to your pet. It won't be any time
at all till he will be eating out OF your