Suet balls vs pellets (mess?)

Hi, I’m currently feeding suet balls which works well on my small-bird feeder, but the starlings make an absolute mess of theirs, throwing most of it below them for the pigeons as they eat. I tried attaching a tray but a small tray didn’t catch any food from the top of the feeder and a large tray allowed pigeons to perch… Would feeding suet pellets create less mess? Would I put these in a seed feeder or a peanut feeder? I also saw a suet cake feeder from Supa that had a decent tray attached but the small size of it would limit how many starlings can eat at once, plus I’d like something I can easily top up.

  • I commonly notice with the suet pellets birds take one and fly off so you may notice less mess with them. I put mine in a hanging domed feeder, you can adjust the height of the top to allow larger birds like starlings to perch. I’ve found putting the suet pellets in a seed feeder causes them to get clogged up. Hope that helps!

  • Thanks! I tried them in a seed feeder and there definitely seemed to be less mess (and fewer pigeons). Fortunately/unfortunately I don’t think they’ll get clogged up as a full feeder - as well as 4 suet balls - was emptied in half a day! Maybe a large weatherproof seed feeder would be good.