Bird Feeding Station - No birds!!

MrsRogers

Hello all

I wonder if any experianced bird lovers can help me.

My DH and I bought a bird feeding station 2 weeks ago from B&M its cast iron and has 3 feeders hanging off it ... fatballs, seeds & peanuts as well as a plate for scraps and a water bowl.

No we do have a cat however it is in a position that she can not get at it and to be honest she doesn't go out that often (more of a house cat)

Its been up now 2 weeks and doesn't look like its been touched! I dont get it. Ive had feeders in my old house and birds loved them.

My neighbor has feeders and the birds are eating them.. do you think they just prefer his?

Any advice appreciated

ariba10

I think the problem is the cat.

picklepick

id think i was definitely because of your cat. Are there any high vantage points for the birds to sit and assess the danger? the birds in my mums garden wait in the trees until they see the cat disappear inside and then they're all over the bird table.... until she reappears from the catflap and the birds vanish.

if they dont have a good view, perhaps they wont risk it.

YorkiePud_3

Try some Atora Beef Suet too ... the shredded stuff. Sometimes when it's frosty and icy the smaller birds have trouble eating the fat balls yet this stuff is so soft and lovely for them ... they all love it in my garden, from starlings to the littlies ... plus, if you mix it in with the birdseed, they can see it easily with it being white.

It's a feeding frenzy here when I put everything out.

I do put fat balls out though and the larger birds seem better able to cope with those.

I wouldn't have thought the cat would be the problem though ... there are two cats who come into my garden (till I run out screeching at them to scare them away from my birds!) and the birds just fly into the trees but come straight back down when they are gone.

You don't have a sparrowhawk in the area do you? They only have to see one once and it can make them very shy at coming down.

I would stick at it though .. keep putting it out ... if they are coming to the neighbour then they will come take a peep at what you have on offer too .. and it's always good to have something different to what everyone else is putting out.

My ultimate bird food is Webbox dog food ... you know the sausage shaped chub food? If you chop one of those up into small cubes (don't worry, the birds can't choke on it with it being so soft - plus it has a high water content so you'll be helping by providing more moisture for them), stick it on your plate you use for scraps and that ought to have them coming flocking!!

Mankysteve

My parents have got a bird feeder thing in there back yard and our cat is dreadfully killer, birds still come she was taking pigeons off one of the lower shelf's until they moved it. They wont go for the stuff that falls off the table though, usually the local fox gets those bits.

The birds just need some time to figure out they can get the feed without being picked off by the cat i suspect.

meritaten

mealworms! birds love them! my sons cat will lie almost underneath the feeder and the birds still come in for them! mind you, the feeder is about six foot off the ground hanging from a arch thingy!

maiden_scotland

MrsRogers wrote: »

Hello all

I wonder if any experianced bird lovers can help me.

My DH and I bought a bird feeding station 2 weeks ago from B&M its cast iron and has 3 feeders hanging off it ... fatballs, seeds & peanuts as well as a plate for scraps and a water bowl.

No we do have a cat however it is in a position that she can not get at it and to be honest she doesn't go out that often (more of a house cat)

Its been up now 2 weeks and doesn't look like its been touched! I dont get it. Ive had feeders in my old house and birds loved them.

My neighbor has feeders and the birds are eating them.. do you think they just prefer his?

Any advice appreciated

I have the same feeder as you bought from B&M along with a few other feeders all on my tree at the bottom of my garden which have been very busy, birds learn which gardens have feeders and are most likely used to going to your neighbours garden but once they learn you have one too I'm sure they'll start feeding there, specially now that sources are scarce .

KxMx

The birds need time to find out that it is there. Once they do, they'll come in frequently.

They might not like the position, is it in an exposed area? I had a bath/feeder on my patio for ages, wasn't touched, moved it to hugging the fence and the next day I saw a bird there

LoopyLil_2

give them time to find it, once they do the will become regular visitors. At this time of year the birds will welcome suet & grated cheese. I put this out for the birds every morning and it's soon gobbled up. We also put out live mealworms as these are protein stuffed treats for all birds.

If you have no success, try moving the station to a different area, perhaps near a tree or somewhere they can easily fly to should and danger crop up.

We have 3 cats and they are quite happy watching them from the window, but we made sure we placed the feeder where there is nowhere for the cats to hide.

MrsRogers

Many thanks for all your helpful suggestions. I have taken your advice and moved the feeding station closer to the hedge so they have somewhere close to fly.
I dont think my cats an issue .. she wasn't in our old house also she has never caught a thing in her life!

Ill also try and put some different food stuffs out.

Thanks again all for your helpful suggestions

ALIBOBSY

We have been watching the local birds dart in to pinch bits of food from our pampered chuckies lol. I wrongly assumed if we put out say meal worms for the garden birds that the chickens might take some food, but we have even seen bluebelle chasing a blackbird off the garden lol.
Now started to put some stuff out the front away from the chucks.
The chicks made me laugh this morning have been giving them a treat of porridge oats in hot water (a sort of basic chicken porridge lol) to warm them up in the morning, this morning I forgot and was sorting out the baby who is a bit of colour with a cold. As soon as I walked past the patio window they were all lined up by the glass waiting and started tapping maddly on the glass. Porridge wolfed down in double quick speed lol. BTW they have normal chicken food and fresh water everyday, but they clear up our leftovers lol.

To op defo the finding thing, it can take a while for them to spot the food espcially if they normally just fly past your garden to the neighbours.

ali x