Plastic Netting on Fat Balls

[Snuckie]

Hi

I remove the netting and use a feeder for them. However my birds seem to find the fat balls very hard. If I chop them up and put them on a table then they eat them. They have no trouble with coconut shells with suet in them. Maybe they're just fussy.

[Wild-Woman]

Birds do get caught in the net. I know this for sure as my Mum untangled one that got trapped by its foot and was hanging upside down.
Definitely take the net off- or buy netless ones.

[Elizabeth B]

A bird supplies retailer had this to say::

"Many of the cheaper fat balls really shouldn't be called fat balls as they don't actually contain all that much fat! I'm sure some of you would be surprised to hear that some of the cheaper ones contain fairly significant amounts of sand and flour 20 - 30% in some cases. Ever wondered why they're so hard and how they can last for years without going off?! You should be able to crumble a good fat ball quite easily, and be able to readily identify the ingredients".

I prefer to make my own fat blocks, then I know exactly what's in them! I make them in batches of four - each one weighing about 360g. Here's one shortly after it was put out:



They often get eaten quite quickly!

[mamma-p]

I bought a pack of fat balls which didn't have nets so googled to find where I could buy netting to make my own, what came up in the search was this topic and now am so glad I got the ones without nets! Earlier this year I had a bird with a broken leg visiting my table and it makes me so sad to think it could have been injured in my garden . I'm glad I found this forum now and will never use nets again!

[Deb London]

Welcome to WAB, mamma-p. It's a very informative place. Hope you stick around.

[Littlesparrow]

I hadn't heard of this problem before either, so I will be out in the garage tomorrow making some wire holders for the rest of my fat balls. Thanks for the heads up.