Re: RSPB food

Has anyone experienced my problem with the round cakes from the RSPB.....my birds normally love them and I often have to replace them at least twice a month but for some unknown reason they are not touching them (even over winter).  They have eaten the square ones but not the round and I am baffled by this.  Has the recipe been changed in anyway?  I have many different birds using my feeding station but not even the starlings are going on them :(

That's very odd, Bunty.  I have just got some RSPB ones on special offer and the one I put out this morning has been quite popular already - "my" birds haven't had this brand before.  Hope someone can come up with an answer.

I did read somewhere that they were now less likely to "melt" so perhaps they have added something the birds aren't to keen on. My RSPB fatballs do seem very sandy now

Hi Bunty,

I've checked with our birdcare product manager and he confirmed that the recipe for our hanging bird cakes hasn't changed for over 3 years.

Have you put them out in a different place to usual? If they have been out for a long time, they are probably past their best now and it's unlikely they'll be eaten.

Of course birds, like people, will choose one food over another. It could just be that they prefer the square cakes.

Hi JudiM,

The 'less likely to melt' message you've seen is probably our Super suet cakes. They are a different recipe and manufactured differently to our other suet cakes, so they are less messy and sticky and less likely to soften in warm weather. We don't add any ingredients specifically to stop melting.

We certainly don't add sand (or any other other filler ingredients) to any of our bird foods. There are a number of factors that can affect the consistency of suet balls, from the time of year and type of food the animals were fed on, to the temperature and humidity during manufacture, storage and feeding.

I hope this info helps.