Feeding wild birds leftover food scraps?

NualaBuala

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure where I should be posting this really. Maybe a helpful board guide would move it this if it's in the wrong place.

I hate wasting food and was wondering if scraps are ok to feed to the wild birds in my garden?

In particular, I have fat from the ham and soon will have seeds from the inside of a melon and butternut squash.

In general, what scraps are ok and what should I avoid? So far I'm just making sure they have ice-free water to drink/bathe in and I've put out fat/seed balls that I got in Lidl.

Thanks in advance!

YorkiePud_3

The fat from the ham would be ok if you cut it up into tiny pieces ... long straggly bits will choke the smaller birds and I think there'd be a chance the melon seeds would too.

Bits of cheese chopped up tiny ... chopped up raisins and sultanas ... leftover cake (they'd love Christmas cake!) ...

I put Webbox dog food out ... chopped up into tiny pieces. There's never anything left to clean up and with it having a high water content, it provides them with moisture too.

I also butter bread with smooth peanut butter (both cheapie versions, not named brands) and chop that up into small pieces to afford them some fat for keeping 'em warm!

If you have a B&M, they sell tubs of mealworms for £1.99 (£3.99 elsewhere) and if you mix that in with a bag of sunflower hearts (you can get a good size bag for a couple of pounds, if that) then that would keep them happy for a week ... you don't need to break the bank to feed them and there's such a lot of household stuff they shouldn't have *S*

YorkiePud_3

... should have said too ... porridge oats are grand to put out for them. Just the dry oats ...you can buy a huge bag of porridge oats in Morrisons for just under £1. Just don't put any out if it is wet!! You'd have a devil of a job to clear it up!!

mazza111

and really encourages foxes and other vermin into your garden. Sorry to all you bird lovers out there, but i hate it when the old git next door puts his food scraps in our shared garden. Every night without fail, the fox comes and eats it all before the birds get a sniff at it. Have even spotted a very large rat eating his left overs

Chocolate80

Birds can only have "hard" fat as opposed to "soft" fat because the soft fat gets stuck round their beaks and when they preen themselves, the fat then gets stuck in their feathers etc etc.

Ours love their mealworms

YorkiePud_3

mazza111 wrote: »

and really encourages foxes and other vermin into your garden. Sorry to all you bird lovers out there, but i hate it when the old git next door puts his food scraps in our shared garden. Every night without fail, the fox comes and eats it all before the birds get a sniff at it. Have even spotted a very large rat eating his left overs

Ah well that's something I wouldn't do ... I don't put anything in the garden on the lawn and certainly wouldn't if I shared the garden!!

I have a shed at the bottom of my driveway (right at the bottom of my garden) that has a flat roof and I put food out on there. It's nowhere near the neighbour's garden ... if it was then I wouldn't put anything up there incase it blew off into theirs.

I clean any leftovers up twice a day, morning and tea time although there usually isn't anything much left except a bit of bread ... no, I agree with you .. you've got to have some commonsense about it and not go overboard.

YorkiePud_3

Chocolate80 wrote: »

Birds can only have "hard" fat as opposed to "soft" fat because the soft fat gets stuck round their beaks and when they preen themselves, the fat then gets stuck in their feathers etc etc.

Ours love their mealworms

I don't put anything like that out but thanks for the advice ... I didn't know that!!

giantmutantbroccoli

Birds are very bad at dealing with salt in their food, so makes sure you don't give them anything salty - no crisps, salted peanuts, peanut butter (unless it's unsalted), bacon etc. Ham would probably be okay, but I really would not recommend giving them cheese unless it's not got any salt in it. They'll eat it anyway, but it can and will kill them especially if you're not he only one in your neighbourhood putting out salty party snacks.
Seeds from squash etc will be good for them, though- you could smash up the seeds to make them more accesible to smaller birds.

NualaBuala

Thank you all for the replies! I knew there'd be folks here who know about this sort of thing!

YorkiePud, no Christmas cake here alas and I'm too stingy to give cheese unless I have a leftover scrap. I have given them raw porridge though and it's easy to remember as I put out the flakes when I'm making my own for breakfast!

It sounds like the soft fat of the ham is a no-no - thank you Chocolate. I was worried it might be too salty too.

Mazza, I was worried about attracting rats!:eek: I like foxes though and we had one during the summer. A beautiful fellow that just used to sit basking in the sun doing no harm at all (as far as I know).

My regular visitors are blackbirds, robins and small brown birds - sparrows I think. And I think I've seen tits too. My neighbour has a bird table/bath and lots of hanging feeders so I guess she's luring lots of wild birds our way.

It's wild, wet and windy here today and the only bird I've seen is a blackbird pecking enthusiastically at the compost heap - there are always loads of worms there and I guess that's why he likes it.

Thanks again everyone, and Happy New Year - we're almost there!

NualaBuala

giantmutantbroccoli wrote: »

Birds are very bad at dealing with salt in their food, so makes sure you don't give them anything salty - no crisps, salted peanuts, peanut butter (unless it's unsalted), bacon etc. Ham would probably be okay, but I really would not recommend giving them cheese unless it's not got any salt in it. They'll eat it anyway, but it can and will kill them especially if you're not he only one in your neighbourhood putting out salty party snacks.
Seeds from squash etc will be good for them, though- you could smash up the seeds to make them more accesible to smaller birds.

Your name gave me such a giggle! That's got to be one of the best ever!

Grand, will smash up the seeds in the pestle and mortar. I could dry them and put them in a tub and put out a bit every day. Thanks for the advice. I think I'll steer clear of the ham fat - I'm just feeling super frugal and thrifty (I've been reading the live on 4k challenge thread!) and am loathe to waste anything.:o

bank_of_slate

I put out sunflower hearts (in the bird feeders) any that get dropped are soon hoovered up by the wood pigeons.

We put monkey nuts in shells out for our resident squirrel and the magpies try to get them too.
Our Home Bargains sells the mealworms which they love and today I put some dried cranberries out too.
...Linda xx