Bird Fat Ball recommendations

Roy1234

For years I've bought Wilco's standard bird fat balls, 50 for about £6.  The birds love them.  Unfortunately, my local store has supply issues with these and other products.  Online reports suggest they may be having general supply issues.

So I'd like to find an alternative, perhaps an online bulk order to save delivery costs.  But past experience of swapping to a supermarket product was that the little blighters were reluctant to change brands.  So I'm looking for recommendations for an economical fat ball which my feathered friends will approve of? 

claire07

Ours love Ultimate Fat Balls by Wild Garden from Home Bargains which last time I bought were £6.99 for a box of 40.  They do have cheaper ones but as with you when I tried them they were ignored!  With these I fill up two feeders once/twice a day and there is never any waste.

Roy1234

claire07 said:

Ours love Ultimate Fat Balls by Wild Garden from Home Bargains which last time I bought were £6.99 for a box of 40.  They do have cheaper ones but as with you when I tried them they were ignored!  With these I fill up two feeders once/twice a day and there is never any waste.

Thanks claire07.  I will look into those, but it's a shame they're almost half as much again as Wilco's.  Interesting that you also found the birdies just ignore certain brands, I thought wild creatures were desperate for food.  Clearly we must both have spoilt them.

twopenny

Indeed we've spoiled them....they no long have to eat the bugs because they have better and easier in the garden

I found they didn't like the Poundland ones but we have a set of hardware stores called Proper Job and they love those. £1 = 6

But the fat blocks they all seem to love. Even the pigeons annoyingly because they can eat one in a couple of days.

boots_babe

Ours can't gobble Buckton's fast enough. We put out 15 a day and they are gone within 24 hours.

I buy from Amazon on subscription,  so 15% discount on the listed price, which is same as your Wilko ones.

Bucktons Fat/Energy/Suet Balls, Pack of 150, green https://amzn.eu/d/bwalUT3

Roy1234

boots_babe said:

Ours can't gobble Buckton's fast enough. We put out 15 a day and they are gone within 24 hours.

I buy from Amazon on subscription,  so 15% discount on the listed price, which is same as your Wilko ones.

Bucktons Fat/Energy/Suet Balls, Pack of 150, green https://amzn.eu/d/bwalUT3

Thanks boots_babe, online is potentially more useful due to weight/transportation without a car.  We put out about 30 every two or three days at peak season, similar to yourself.  We have grown a dependant population, evidenced by  countless Sparrows, Goldfinches, Coal Tits, raiding parties of Starlings and the occasional Sparrow Hawk preying on all the above.  I think they'd have limited sympathy with Wilco's logistical issues.

I note the above are an Amazon reseller not Amazon fulfilled.  How flexible are delivery options, or are you always at home for deliveries?

Ditzy_Mitzy

I've had a fat ball feeder for years and can't say that I've noticed any particular difference between any of the various makes of fat ball it has held over the years.  The fat balls seem to disappear within a couple of minutes, regardless of where they came from.  Perhaps our garden birds are less discerning?  

Chloe_G

Our birds are very choosy.  They did eat Peckish fat balls which I bought from Tesco (but they won't eat Tesco own brand suet pellets.)

Roy1234

Chloe_G said:

Our birds are very choosy.  They did eat Peckish fat balls which I bought from Tesco (but they won't eat Tesco own brand suet pellets.)

Well I suspect that just like people, some birds are posher than others 

mjm3346

Wilco could be going under

UK homeware retailer Wilko has warned that it is on the brink of collapse, putting some 12,000 jobs at risk.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66395824

Roy1234

mjm3346 said:

Wilco could be going under

UK homeware retailer Wilko has warned that it is on the brink of collapse, putting some 12,000 jobs at risk.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66395824

Well I had read some similar rumours before posting originally, but hadn't rushed to say so.  It does explain prolonged shortages of many lines there however.  Everyone I know really loves Wilco, great stuff & prices in convenient locations.  And as the fat ball suggestions above confirmed, it had often the cheapest and the best.  I do hope it survives, but being based on the High Street is unfortunate nowadays.