The birds in my garden do not eat the "fat balls" at all just the seed.?

i bought some from the garden centre along with peanuts and mixed hedgerow-bird seeds. all of the birds including blue-**** completely ignore the "fat-balls". why??

The birds in my garden do not eat the "fat balls" at all just the seed.?
we have lots of birds visit our garden...and it is only the starlings who are interested in the fat balls...maybe you dont have visiting starlings? if you do...leave them out anyway...they will find them.
Reply:Not sure where you live, but usually you don't put those out until it is very cold. The fat gets rancid and the birds will not touch it. I buy a cheaper brand of peanut butter when it gets really cold and know it will stay below freezing all day long, and use peanut butter to put on the sticks that honey sticks come on that my cockatiel eats. Then roll the sticks with the peanut butter on them, an put them in the freezer. When it gets really cold, I tie them in the bushes and the birds love those. Smell those balls, I bet they smell rancid.
Reply:Don't use shop bought fat balls, make your own, the birds in my garden love my home made stuff.





Put peanuts and mixed poultry corn in a blender and grind it up, put that in a margarine carton then pour over and mix it up with some melted unsalted lard, put it in the fridge to set then fix the carton to a fence panel or wall and sit back and watch the birds.
Reply:Either the fat balls are the wrong consistency or the birds simply prefer the seeds. Not all birds will eat fat; woodpeckers seem to like it, though.
Reply:Birds are not daft! they will eat the seed first!


Blue t**ts go for the peanuts first like- wise most of the other birds will eat the seed .


When the first frost comes along then they will go for the Fat Balls or if there are no Peanuts or seed!


They use the Fat Balls as emergency ration's.
Reply:They may not be the who eat.
Reply:When was the last time YOU ate a ball of pure fat? Birds are no different from you. Most will not eat pure fat.
Reply:The fat balls always go quickly in my garden.





Perhaps you have too much food on offer or perhaps you only have certain birds visiting. If you attract a wider variety of birds some of them will eat the fat balls.





Put water out for the birds as well as food.
Reply:we chopped a couple up and gave them to the swans and ducks at the park they loved them