rancid fat balls

[cecil39]

has anyone else bought fat balls for the birds that smell really bad, I got a big tub of them last week but the birds won't eat them although they must have been really hungry in that cold weather, I have never had any that smelled that bad before, although I had some last year in a red net instead of green, they did'nt like them either, is someone cashing in by putting horrible cheap stuff in (although they were not cheap to buy).

[lankeela]

If you bought them from a shop they may have had them for months, get them loose from the pet stall on the market if you have one, they will be buying them in fresh more often. Same with the ones in celophane packs, they dry out and go stale.

[ethandron]

in my experience, all fat balls smell not very nice. sometimes the birds will eat fat balls...and sometimes they won't, it's hard to tell why. the colour of the net won't make any difference, and in fact you should take them out of the net and use a fat ball holder as their claws can become entangled in the net.
i've bought cheap fat balls, and dearer ones from the rspb. sometimes they eat them voraciously and sometimes they leave them. keep putting them out and they will go eventually.