what can I feed the birds from the cupboard?

sparklygirl1

I don't feed the birds usually but I am worried about them. What can I put out for them that they can eat safely? ie bread, crushed up cornflakes?! I know they might not eat anything as not usually there so they don't know where to look but I can only try! Thanks in advance and sorry if I'm talking rubbish, just wish I had some bird seed!

nmm

Thats really nice of you, the birds will be grateful You can feed them cereal and bread as you mentioned, cake, raisins, oats anything like that really, some more useful suggestions here

exup

if you have any bacon then cut up pieces of bacon rind then garden birds will go for that

knithryn

We use a block of lard and melt it, pour it over porrige oats, cut up apple, raisins, cheese and any random ends of bread.

Way back in the middle of summer I was lucky enough to get bags of mealworm crumble at 25 pence each so I must have bought about 30 bags. They sat in the shed. Now they are being used.

foxgloves

Bread doesn't have all that many nutrients in it for birds in the really cold weather when what they most need is sources of fat, but i still put it out along with other stuff because I always think it'll help to fill an empty tummy if nothing else. This week (before we got to the market & restocked on bird seed & peanuts, etc), we put out snipped up meat fat, leftover suet from Christmas, raisins, chopped up apples which had gone all wrinkly & porridge oats. Also important that they have some water, not just to drink, but because apparently they need to bathe in order to keep their feathers waterproof so they can fluff them up & keep warm. We melted the ice on our birdbath yesterday (10cms of snow in our garden) and I thought no bird in its right mind would want a bath in this freezing weather, but 2 little sparrows had jumped in within ten mins, so we are going to try & thaw it every day now.

Marsh_Samphire

I heard someone on the radio the other day talking about putting a metal baking tray on bricks with tea lights/candles underneath.

Also see
http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/water/icefree.asp

Winter_Jasmine

I know what you mean, I feel so sorry for the poor little things

If you've got a Netto near you they're doing packs of 6 fat balls for 49p - I just crumble them up on the floor and even the little sparrows will hop down for it (have tried hanging them up but the little birds only come around when it's really cold and they just go for where the wood pigeons and doves feed). I also put out raisins and mix bird seed with either meat fat or vegetable oil.

My Mum & Dad have cultivated a thriving community of birds in their garden (aka made a rod for their backs!) - the blackbirds knock on the kitchen window! My Mum bakes scones every morning to put out as it makes the raisins/sultanas go further (the birds there will easily eat a bag a day otherwise!

I've been putting out warm water for them each day - not sure if this is a good thing but can't think of a better solution (any advice gratefully received).

nikki702

I have a whole bag of skinners ruff and ready dog food ... my dog dont like it so do you think i could feed that to the birds?
This is it HERE

Ingredients

Protein pellets containing beef meat meal,
wheat glucose syrup, cooked flaked maize,
extruded wholewheat biscuits, cooked flaked
peas, cooked wheatflakes, soya oil, vitamins
and minerals.

Winter_Jasmine

One thing I've heard is a definite no-no is rice, even if it's cooked as it can still swell inside their stomachs and cause serious problems - don't know if it's just an urban myth but I wouldn't want to risk it.

nikki702 - I'm not an expert by anymeans but it doesn't look to me like there's anything dodgy in the food - might as well give it a try unless anyone else knows better? I always feel a bit weird giving them animal fats but commercially available bird foods contain suet so I suppose it must be ok

Optimisticpair

Once you start feeding birds they soon get to know where to drop in but I hear it's best to keep on providing it because they will come back and use up precious energy flying into to your garden looking for it. If it's not there the bird has wasted energy and has to expend more flying to the next feeding station.

RSPB website is a good place to find out what scraps you could feed I think its only when there are chicks you need to worry about rice.

Taadaa

I shut my cats in the house yesterday and lobbed some nuts and seeds from the cupboard onto the lawn. We tend to get robins and blackbirds but I don't normally feed them and don't have any mealworm. Poor things have been nigh on getting run over for searching the only bit not covered in snow for food - the road!!