cheap bird feeders

[BloodyDisgrace]

Hanging baskets are dying and I decided to replace them with bird feeders. Got some from Poundland and bird peanuts - but not a single fucker came. No one is pecking and I'm distraught!
AIBU to be so tightfisted as not to get a proper expensive (like 18quid) one from the garden centre, plus whatever dry poop goes with it?

I'm not that concerned about birds, mind. It's that the indoor only cats can be entertained watching the birds from a safe distance, such as kitchen tops and dining table.

Here I invite every judgemental perfectionist to come and throw their superpowers and leave the posters with real problems to more considerate commenters.

It takes birds a long while to realise there's a new source of food around - up to three weeks.

Peanuts may not be the most immediately attractive food. Sunflower seeds are good, and fats - a lot of people find fat balls are very popular.

Peanuts may attract grey squirrels, and they are wonderful at entertaining cats.

I treated myself to a bird feeding station for my birthday in May.
I had a bit of trail and error finding the food that worked best.
So far peanuts have been completely ignored.
Mine like B & M stores seed mix in a seed feeder. Fatballs, coconut fat and mealworm feeders.
I also put loose mealworms and porridge oats out and make sure the water is always topped up.
Its really well established now. Although I've yet to see a robin which is a bit frustrating.

Yeah can take a while for birds to get accustomed to a new feeder being put out. I replaced my old one last winter (an established feeding station), and the birds wouldn't come near the new one for nearly 4 weeks.

get lots of blue & coal tits, finches and robins. And 3 squirrels.

A good cheap way is collecting pine cones, mixing seed / old cereals / nuts etc in peanut butter and filling the holes of the cones. Then hand up with a piece of string.

You say hanging baskets - are they hanging on the house? Might be a bit too close for comfort for some birds. Try putting them on a wall?

Ours rush down for fat balls; pieces of cheese; scraps like quiche crusts; raisins - and they stripped a feeder of wild bird seed in about a day and a half (it wasn’t that expensive though, only a Tesco one I think!).

Although luring the birds to entertain the cats makes me a bit

MaggieSimpsonsPacifier - excellent name, by the way! :)
the baskets are mainly on the fences, one on the wall. Definitely will try a fat ball.
Nah, the cats can't get out of the house, so the birds are safe. They might not even see the cats indoors, especially if they come to feed from the feeders away from patio door/window and to those on the fences.

MereDintofPandiculation - aha, thank you, 3 weeks then. And yes, sunflower, or other seeds seem to be the option. I don't mind feeding squirrels but then it will have to leap onto the wall where the feeder is, from an outside table. Not only the cats, even I would want to see that.

PaleRider1 - thank you for the pine cone idea. We do a lot of country walks where I can find a few cones and try just that.

MrsTommyBanks -yeah, seems like robins prefer to crop up on Christmas cards ... Hope you'll see one sooner.

Wilko do cheap seed feeders and packets of no mess food which I tie to branches with a bit of string, the birds love it, I never have any success with peanuts or fatballs . You can get stick on plastic window boxes from Amazon.

I have a lot of bird feeders in the garden and find they don’t like ones near a fence/tree which a cat sometimes climbs, they habitually use ones a metre further away

Also despite trying nuts/mixed feed etc they all only eat sunflower hearts by the sackful. They also adore fat balls but not the cheapest ones, seems even birds are fussy

Only my pigeons eat anything and everything bless em

If food is left uneaten for too long before the birds notice it and come, it can go mouldy - so ant some point empty out on the ground for pigeons etc to gobble up. (Do this in the morning, you don't want food on the ground overnight attracting rats).

Re robins - they're mostly ground feeders, or other flat surfaces I think, not much given to hanging off feeders. Blackbirds and thrushes likewise.

ErrolTheDragon - thank you re: ants. We killed the buggers this summer, definitely don't want them back. And I wondered if birds eat damp food.