Bird Food

[Mexican18]

My wife and I spend about£15 a week on bird food. Is this a lot? Imust add that we don't begrudge a penny. We get enormous pleasure from the birds in our garden.
Is it a lot,or not much?

[woofgang]

How many rats is she feeding?

[Vagus]

Yes it’s a lot, but if you can afford it and it gives you £15 a weeks worth of pleasure, then why not?

[Mexican18]

Thanks for the sensible answer,Woofgang.

[ladybirder]

Good on you for doing it Mexican. They can do with all the help they can get.
I suppose cost depends how big your garden and how many feeders you need to keep your visitors happy.
If you're buying good stuff and not cheap rubbish and have a large garden and lots of feeders then it is about what you would expect to pay.

[Tilly2]

We buy ours whole sale. Goodness only knows how much it costs. Sunflower hearts, seed, peanuts, fat balls, suet, and mealworms.

Like you, it's every penny well spent.
We get ours from Croston Corn Mill in Lancashire. Brilliant service and excellent products.

[gness]

Lovely to read, Mexican.....we do too. Keep it up!

[Tilly2]

Just looked at my account. We spend about £40.00 every three months or so.

[Mexican18]

Our birds seem quite fussy! There are some brands they don't like!

[gness]

Ours too, Mexican....so we buy the stuff they love and they change their minds and go back to the old stuff!

[Tuvok]

I get my seed from Home Bargains £4 ish for 12kg ish bag.

Imget my hedgehog food from these sites - they also do bird food

arkwildlife.co.uk

birdfood.co.uk

[Buenchico]

If it gives you pleasure (and you can afford it, of course), it seems like an excellent thing to do.

My friend (in northern Italy) feeds a very large colony of feral cats every day, which must cost her thousands of euros every year, but she's not short of a euro or two and she obviously gets great pleasure from doing it, so the expenditure must be worth it to her. (Many of the locals in her area wouldn't agree though. She regularly gets abused and sworn at by them!)

[wolf63]

Chris - I hope that your friend also TNRs the cats - Trap, Neuter and Release.

Mexican - as long as they are eating the seeds and you enjoy their company I can see no reason to change what you are doing.

[lankeela]

Can I say as someone who used to make a living selling pet food I wonder how you think birds have survived all these thousands of years in the wild? Fair enough feral cats need a bit of help but birds really don't as long as they have access to fresh water. But if it gives you pleasure then who am I to question it?

[Buenchico]

Yes, Susan. My friend, Margaret, works with the local cat santuary ( http://www.ilgattile.it ), seeking to trap, neuter and release all of the feral cats. It involves a LOT of hard work!

[wolf63]

Chris - that is was the Cats Protection do. The cats are probably still wild and they have a very hard life due to the nasty humans who want to eradicate them.

[Buenchico]

Registered colonies of feral cats (as the one my friend helps with is) have legal protection in Italy, Susan - much to the annoyance, it seems, of some of their neighbours!

[wolf63]

Cats seem to annoy most people, they are very good at annoying people. I'm being advised that it is now time to go upstairs to bed. I am allowed to read for a while and then must settle down to scratch Frankie's back.

[Buenchico]

I've got lots of things I need to do before bedtime, Susan, but Biscuit doesn't seem to want to leave my knee ;-)

[Chipchopper]

I buy bird food as and when required, it varies depending on the time of the year. They're not getting through very much a the moment because they are feeding on high protene food like caterpillars and aphids etc.
I try not to think too much about the cost otherwise I'd have even more sleepless nights than I'm getting already.
I've found a very good supplier,who will deliver the following day. They sell all kinds of bird related items (not just food). They also keep customers well informed with regular news letters. They are known as Vine House Farm and I beleive they're based in Norfolk.
Peanuts are the main staple here and the large cadge that I bought from them has saved me a fortune, as the larger greedier birds can't get through the bars of the cadge.

[Old_Geezer]

On hobbies & interests, £780 a year isn't unusual. As long as you get the enjoyment. But aren't many birds supposed to be eating bugs, grubs and stuff in the warmer weather ? Perhaps consider cutting down of the food this time of year and providing water, nesting boxes and bird baths instead to attract them ?