The Iron content of different forms of sugarĭigging a little deeper into this fear of organic sugar by the “experts” There’s a lot of variables in choosing the best form of sugar to feed your wild hummingbirds so I created this chart to make your decision easier. So if you have room, create a hummingbird habitat along with providing them with supplemental nectar. Their nectar also contains other beneficial antioxidants and flavonoids that keep hummingbirds healthy. Wild sources of nectar including red flowers contain varying amounts of glucose, sucrose, or fructose, depending on the flower. Hummers fed alternative sugars may ignore the offered nectar and seek out wild sources of food. Feeding hummingbirds supplemental nectar using fructose or glucose won’t harm the hummingbirds but it isn’t their preferred diet. Sucrose is the preferred form of sugar consumed by hummingbirds, so when choosing a supplement, it’s good to give them what they want. Presumably, the nectar of the flowers favoured by hummingbirds also contain sugar in its sucrose form. When metabolized in the human body it breaks down into its building blocks of glucose and fructose. ![]() Sucrose is the chemical sugar that is obtained from sugar cane or sugar beets. But there is one other variable that needs to be looked at when choosing which sugar is best for supplemental feeding of wild hummingbirds. This zoo fed a nectar supplement that contained 40 mg/kg dry weight for 13 years and was able to rear hummingbirds successfully in captivity, so the 20 mg/kg is a reasonable limit. One would assume then that provided that the sugar used in preparing your hummingbird nectar has less than 20 mg/kg of iron, dry weight, the sugar would be safe for hummingbirds when made into t he 1:4 hummingbird nectar supplement commonly used. The recommendations to avoid all organic sugar in favour of nonorganic in hummingbird feed seems unsubstantiated with science. Nor has a study been done comparing the feeding of GMO sugar beet sugar to organic cane sugar. Further, no study has ever been done comparing the results of feeding regular granulated cane sugar to feeding organic white sugar in wild hummingbirds. There is no way to scientifically move from this study to any recommendation for avoiding organic white sugar. Read the report for yourself and see what conclusions you would draw. This report led to the conclusion that one (unnamed) manufacturer understated the actual amount of iron in their sugar nectar supplement for hummingbirds which presumably led to the death of 25 captive hummingbirds in a 5 month period. No additional pathology has been reported. Subsequently, the zoo reevaluated the diet that they fed their captive hummingbirds to reduce the amount of iron to 20 mg/ kg in the dry nectar powder. The captive hummingbirds’ diet consisted solely of this supplement nectar and fruit flies. The iron listed on the package was 40 mg/kg and this was added in the form of iron sulphate to the nectar feed by the manufacturer. The nectar supplement was found to contain up to 886 mg/kg of iron (dry weight). An analysis was done on the artificial nectar powder provided to the hummingbirds in captivity. ![]() It was inconclusive however, it was noted that the birds had high amounts of iron in the cells of their livers, although there was no evidence of liver pathology in the report. For 13 years until this die off, the zoo had successfully maintained hummingbirds on a diet consisting of a manufactured nectar supplement which reportedly contained 40 mg/kg iron.Ī necropsy was done on the birds in the University of Arizona Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. These fears are based on a single report in 2003, based on an Arizona zoo that had a mass die-off of 25 hummingbirds in a 5 month period. Some of these recommendations cite a single report so I had a closer look at this report to see if the hysteria was warranted.Ī single report not a scientific experiment There are a lot of urban myths that are dictating that people choose exclusively non-organic refined white sugar because of the supposed danger to wild hummingbirds from the trace amounts of iron that may be in organic white sugar. I’ve had a lot of comments about my recommendation to use organic sugar in my healthy hummingbird recipe. Is organic white sugar safe to feed to hummingbirds? Let’s agree that what is best for hummingbirds should dictate our choice. ![]() Get the facts and take a deep dive into the report that this urban myth is based on. Is organic sugar safe to feed hummingbirds? The internet says “NO” but science has a different opinion.
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