Question about fat balls (1 Viewer)

[susananwms]

Hi I am new to this forum and have been feeding wild birds for about 2 years, I feed them seed, fat ball, shredded peanuts and suet pellets
Since lockdown I have been ordering feed online and in bulk to cut back on postage costs. Consequently I have ended up with a few tubs of fat ball still unopened.
I do not know if this true or not but was told that fat balls could choke baby birds if fed to them, so I never use them from Spring onwards
My question is, will they keep till next Winter? I have ground feeders and hanging feeders in a dog cage for the small birds and hanging feeders in the tree for the bigger birds. I know I could put out a few more feeders in the tree, keep filling them and these fat balls would go in no time so if they wont keep that is what I will have to do
Would appreciate some advice on this

 

[Deb Burhinus]

I have never heard of fatballs choking young birds. I would be interested to know where you saw that. Whole peanuts can I understand, but these are hard. Parents of smaller species of songbirds tend to feed their youngsters natural food such as caterpillars and insects but if you are worried, just bash them into small peices/crumbs and put them on a bird table or on the ground. (Just a few handfuls a day)

Welcome to Birdforum Susan! 🙂

 

[delia todd]

Yes, I agree with Deb. Adult birds will make use of the food you put out, which saves them a lot of time hunting to feed themselves. They feed the young on the nest mostly with caterpillars.

May I take this opportunity to welcome you on behalf of all the Staff and Moderators. I'm sure you will enjoy it here.

 

[Kits]

Welcome to Birdforum! I am sure that you will find lots to interest you here and I hope that you enjoy your visits.

I think it is perfectly safe to feed fat balls all year round; I have done for years with no problems.

 

[Wainb]

I also have fed fat balls all times of the year.l find sometimes they do stop eating them.

 

[pianoman]

The choking warning you may have heard usually refers to whole peanuts - thus if feeding peanuts best to have them in a cage so the bird can't take a whole one. But with fat balls you should be fine

 

[KC Foggin]

I've had no problems with fat balls either.

Hi Susan and a warm welcome to you .
We're glad you found us and please join in wherever you like

 

[susananwms]

Thank you all for your replies, its been a great help, I should have checked up on this and asked the question ages ago. I will keep on putting the fat balls out all year now. It will save me some money too as they go through all the other foods as if there is no tomorrow, at least the fat balls last a bit longer
I will have a good look around on this site and am sure I will pick up a lot of information (I am still in the process of identifying the most common birds so have a lot to learn)

 

[Deb Burhinus]

I will have a good look around on this site and am sure I will pick up a lot of information (I am still in the process of identifying the most common birds so have a lot to learn)

Glad to hear it Susan, often people join for a specific question and then don’t take the opportunity to do exactly that, so enjoy - everyone of us is still learning what ever stage we are at in our time on here!