Free fluff for all! (1 Viewer)

[Georgebirds]

Inspired by seeing the jackdaws gathering mouthfuls of fur after I'd been de-fluffing my moulting shetland pony, I stuffed my own pockets and brought some home for the garden birds. How to offer it up? Re-purposed a spare feeder I'm not using right now.



It'll be interesting to see what birds take some - and there's plenty more for my field birds too, it's unbelievable how much fluff there is on one very very small horse! I thought I'd share the idea here, incase any of you have available shedding fur at this time of year, I think fluffy dogs would work just as well as fluffy ponies.

 

[Kits]

What a great idea!

 

[emc]

Cool idea, so a the birds taking it?

 

[Georgebirds]

I haven't seen any species caught in the act, but I'm not around much to keep an eye out. The fluff is being pulled out through the holes quite a bit, though, the whole thing looks very tufty now and there's much less in there than at the start, so at least one must be taking it.

This fur is always popular at my field, as well as having watched the jackdaws collect it up and fly away (one time, direct from the pony's back!), I've often found old nests in the bare winter trees, or blowing around on the ground having come dislodged in storms, and they've got a lot of blonde pony hair in. My brown horse isn't hairy enough to contribute cos she doesn't grow a very thick winter coat, and the other peoples' horses in fields nearby are all black and white, so I can tell from the colour that it's my shetland supplying the favoured nest-fluff. I always pile the handfuls up in a compact heap after finishing a grooming session, and it's always down to just a scattering of loose hairs by the time I start the next one the following week.

 

[moomac]

We use one of those wire block style feeders and fill it with cat hair (we have four cats, they have an enclosed outdoor 'catio').

We've frequently observed blue-tits queuing up to collect the fur.

 

[pianoman]

Nice idea - goodness know my one cat produces enough hair in the molting season (about 2 months long!) to be useful to a number of birds. i will try the mesh feeder idea