Flavoured Fat balls, Fat Sprinkles etc what do your birds like?

Hi Blackbird, I mentioned before how strange it is that birds tastes vary so much from garden to garden, it must be what they get used to, my birds love the insect suet pellets, but I have recently changed to berry and after two days of not touching them, they have given in and started eating them, but my robins are still refusing and making do with their oats. Apart from the suet sprinkles I have Haiths suet cake the seed one hanging in a cage, and the starlings occasionally peck at this, it's mostly eaten by the Long tail tits it's all they eat in my garden.

Thanks Blackbird for starting this thread. Interesting what your birds like.

These are what I put out:

Firstly, berry suet pellets. These are expensive and as we know get gobbled up by the starlings as fast as you put them out, but which other birds eat them in preference to other suet treats? I know my sparrows do, and they don't eat any other sorts of suet treats whatsoever. Therefore I feel obliged to continue giving them.  Jackdaws also like them. I have never seen my robins eat these. I sprinkle them under the bushes as well as on the table and ground feeder, so it is possible the blackbirds and dunnocks eat them. They certainly disappear quickly.

Secondly, tub cakes etc. I have insect and peanut ones. Only my robins and starlings bother with these, so it takes forever for them to get eaten. I got 6 free cake blocks with my last food purchase and still have 5 of these left, which will last all year at this rate. However, I wouldn't like to deprive my robins of their treat.

Thirdly, home made half coconuts. The blue tits go for these - but I have so few tits of any variety that they last forever uless I give them to the starlings and jackdaws.

Fourthly, fat balls. No takers for these, not even starlings. I have a box full of unused ones. I did crumble them up during the snow but found a greasy mess everywhere afterwards, so stopped doing it after the snow went. I currently have one in the ground feeder - it's been there 4 days and is untouched. I may melt them down, add some goodies, and use them in the half coconuts.

I have never seen any finches eat any sort of fat treat.

I feel as though I am offering too much choice and spending too much money on the pellets. I am in a mess with it all to be honest, and feel disorganised.

Lol Sparrow, I know what you mean, I see now how so many of you end up with so many feeders and different foods now, every time a new visitor arrives in the garden we find out what there food preferences are and what position they prefer the feeders so cater to them to keep them visiting, it all gets very complicated doesn't it, my collection of foods and feeding locations around the garden is gradually getting larger now.

Hi Sparrow

Thank you for your answer and no problems with starting the thread.  You raised a few issues that need to be addressed.  So this our chance to have a good old chin wag on this thread about the subject of fat in a birds diet.

Interesting what you have said with all the purchasing of your bird food.  I feel like you and think that I overspend at times too.  OH quickly tells me how much the bird food costs.  He foots the bill at the end of the day, but he does love birds on an equal basis to me, so that helps issues close to our hearts.

As you know yourself, we sometimes we regret buying certain 'bird food' purchases as they do not suit birds requrements

1. Sprinkles/pellets:  Forgot to mention that my birds are not too bad with the berry sprinkles but they are not favoured as much as the insect sprinkles.  Maybe it is that the insect sprinkles are larger and chunkier (the insect ones  have are bigger than the RSPB ones).  I place all types of Pellet/sprinkes into the contents of my ground feeder.

It is the berry/flavoured fat balls that birds never liked in one of my former gardens.  I have to say I have seen less and less of the flavoured fat balls in the market place now.  They where never a hit as it appears to be the case .... otherwise they would still be around in the shops.

I have noticed that Blackbirds and Thrushes go mad for the Pellets/Sprinkles, and the Robin is partial to an insect suet Sprinkle or two.  i place some Sprinkles every day, along with my Robin's mealworms on my disused birdtable in the bushes at the bottom of my garden.

2. Fat/tub cakes.  I only have unflavoured ones a tthe moment.  The one fat/tube cake I have was purchased (RSPB).  It took ages for the birds to ever go near the fatcake at all,  They where either blind to the fact it was there, or they did not like it.  I relocated the fat cake and it seemed to draw more attention from members of the Tit family.  Now the resident Starlings enjoy sitting on top of the tube cake, and devouring the contents when they feel like it.

3. Bought Fat filled coconut.  The coconut is well loved by the Blue tits/Great tits and they spend a lot of time hanging upside down eating the contents.  This seems to be their favourite area to fed, and they never tire of the coconut.  must remind them of a branch of a tree and something to hang from in their usual manner.

4. Like yourself, the 'unflavoured' Fat Balls are a damp squid here and are not touched very much.  I do crumble them into the mixed contents of the ground feeders, and I feel that a lot of the contents are hovered up by the larger birds.

I agree with you about the Finches that they have their own eating agenda, unless they do eat the contents of the Fatballs and Pellet/sprinlkles form the ground feeders.  Need to study waht they eat a little further.

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Susan H said:

Thanks Blackbird for starting this thread. Interesting what your birds like.

These are what I put out:

Firstly, berry suet pellets. These are expensive and as we know get gobbled up by the starlings as fast as you put them out, but which other birds eat them in preference to other suet treats? I know my sparrows do, and they don't eat any other sorts of suet treats whatsoever. Therefore I feel obliged to continue giving them.  Jackdaws also like them. I have never seen my robins eat these. I sprinkle them under the bushes as well as on the table and ground feeder, so it is possible the blackbirds and dunnocks eat them. They certainly disappear quickly.

Secondly, tub cakes etc. I have insect and peanut ones. Only my robins and starlings bother with these, so it takes forever for them to get eaten. I got 6 free cake blocks with my last food purchase and still have 5 of these left, which will last all year at this rate. However, I wouldn't like to deprive my robins of their treat.

Thirdly, home made half coconuts. The blue tits go for these - but I have so few tits of any variety that they last forever uless I give them to the starlings and jackdaws.

Fourthly, fat balls. No takers for these, not even starlings. I have a box full of unused ones. I did crumble them up during the snow but found a greasy mess everywhere afterwards, so stopped doing it after the snow went. I currently have one in the ground feeder - it's been there 4 days and is untouched. I may melt them down, add some goodies, and use them in the half coconuts.

I have never seen any finches eat any sort of fat treat.

I feel as though I am offering too much choice and spending too much money on the pellets. I am in a mess with it all to be honest, and feel disorganised.

Hi Sparrow & Blackbird

I have bought insect flavoured suet pellets that I mix with mealworms and raisins and they are eaten by starlings, tits, blackcaps, robins, wagtails and blackbirds. I don't know who is eating what.

Here the starlings seem to eat anything as long as it is fat based because I also have suet filled coconuts, suet cakes and tub cakes dotted around, plus I break up RSPB buggy suet balls and place that in my ground feeder, and the starlings eat them all. The great spotted woodpecker also seems to prefer a suet cake to peanuts at the moment.

I did try a small pack of berry pellets and they all ate those just the same as the insect ones.

The tits also seem to concentrate on the suet based food, although they eat the JJ special mix seed as well.

Best wishes Chris

At 9-47 this morning I said I had never seen my robins eat berry suet pellets. They have since made a liar out of me. I caught one tucking in and eating several, one after the other, later on today.

Hi all

I forgot to mention that I also buy suet coated sunflower seeds (last batch from Jacobi Jayne) and these are much loved by all of the tits, plus the robins and the starlings.

Strangely, these are very variable in size. Some are as big as a peanut and some are quite small, but they always seem to be eaten.

Best wishes Chris