Hi Katie, I tend to supplement seeds with raw pastry put into a fat ball or suet feeder. Plain flour, lard, grated mild cheddar cheese and a few kibbled peanuts and suet pellets bound together with a little water. If I buy seeds I tend to look at the seed content as a lot of cheaper brands put too much wheat in their mix and the birds just leave it so its very wasteful. I think if you go for the premium seed mix something like THIS it has no wheat in it and if you supplement with raw pastry it will lessen the overall cost. I buy the ingredients for the pastry from Aldi or Tesco; lard 39p, flour 49p, Good luck Katie.
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Regards, Hazel
Hi Katie
Ive been using sunflower hearts and Nyger/Niger seeds. They have brought a lot of variety to the garden. Heres a wee video I made today.
http://youtu.be/Z65sr8OQKrU
Cheers
Neil
Hi Katie, the feeds that my birds take voraciously are sunflower hearts - siskins, goldfinch and greenfinch in particular - and suet pellets, I use the RSPB buggy nibbles with insects in them. All types of tit, sparrows, starlings and even GSWs go mad for them. Even blackbirds and squirrels if I ground sprinkle them!
I can endorse Hazy's pastry recommendation. The birds, all kinds, go absolutely mad for it. Being a bloke, however, I find the suet pellets an easier option (I know, I know!).
Regards
Ian
The site mentioned by Hazy I have used too and I usually buy the feed shown on the link below and like Hazy's it also has no wheat.
www.pet-supermarket.co.uk/.../harrisons-wild-bird-food-premier-wild-bird-mix
Regards Shane
My Photos in Flickr.
Hi Katie, blackbirds and robins will prefer a ground mix that has softer seeds in it as their bills are not designed for cracking seeds. Blue tits and great tits are generally interested in peanuts and sunflower hearts. For a selection of wild bird food mixes that are designed with certain birds in mind you can always check here. www.brinvale.com/.../All-Mixes.html
Hi Katie, I buy Johnston & Jeffrey premium bird seed, it has the usual seed plus suet pieces and sunflower hearts. No waste at all, I was using wild bird seed to begin with but was fed up sweeping up all the hard pieces that the birds do not eat. I also put out Niger seed which the finches like sunflower hearts, fat logs balls and cakes, peanuts and have made pastry.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Hi everyone, 8kg of Harrisons Premier Wild Bird Mix got delivered yesterday - the blue tits have already been busy, although so have the squirrels and wood pigeons!