Are suet feeders messy

Difference between a suet feeder and other kinds, is that suet tends to be less messy overall, thus less cleaning up but easy to do so when it happens.

Suet feeders are messy unless you don't maintain the feeder, along with the area below it. Suet does not break up so bad as seeds, so birds tend to not throw suet as much. When they do the white suet feed is easy to spot on the ground, but the suet can create grease that rubs off onto the feeder under heat.

Feeders made to hold suet within a cage surround are less messy than others, but a mess can build up if not cleaned and maintained over the lifetime of its use.

How a suet feeder is used is birds poke their heads through the open gaps to peck out chunks of ingredients contained within the suet. And its in this process a mess can build up underneath the suet feeder on the ground.

That can depend on the kind of suet in use and whether it maintains its hold, rather than completely crumble up under a little use.

Suet will be thrown about as seeds or nuts often do, but as its incased in white fat, it should stand out for you to clean up off the lawn or patio.

Feeders designed to hold suet cakes are easy to clean up regardless, so bare that in mind. Whereas suet pellet feeders are much like seed feeders, so in turn are much more difficult to clean internally.

To feed suet to your backyard birds is vital for birds to replace energy they often loose while foraging and going about they daily routine, so don't let a suet feeder that can get a little messy stand in your way.

In the end you could always use suet cakes or pellets without a feeder, saving you the bother maintain the said feeder, thus leading to extra expense.

Options are available to you to keep the ground under feeders clean for suet or other feeders in use, or adding suet to platform feeders would be less messy overall.

Suet feeders do get greasy

Feeders that are designed to hold all types of suet can indeed be messy in the grease sense, so more a layer of grease and less residue.

What that means is while suet feeders stay quite clean early on in their use, its the suet cakes or fat balls that begin to cause issues.

To insert a fresh, brand new suet into a cage suet feeder of any type, there's no mess.

However, issues begin to arise once the strength of the sun hits the suet for a long period of time, thus causing the suet to melt ever so slightly.

You can troubleshoot that issue by only using no melt suet cakes, as oppose the cheap suet that has no real balance in terms of strength in harsh weather.

You won't end up with a huge melted blob in the suet feeder, no - instead it will result in the suet cakes, fat balls or pellets leaving a film of what will be grease on the coated plastic wiring, what makes up the cage bird feeder construction.

Grease is not so messy but it can indeed contribute to other residue and bird food build up piling up on the grease - as it acts as a sort of adhesive to anything it comes into contact with.

Cage type cleaner than others

Benefit to suet feeders is that they can be less messy than say the regular seed or nut feeders that you'd would hang up along side the suet.

Baring in mind all bird feeders will in time fade in color, but suet feeders are less likely to see a build up of leftover bird feed rottening in any corner or crevice it can get into.

Feeders for suet are designed like a crisscross metal cage, thus never allowing serious bacteria ridden food to pile up in an unknown crevice.

Suet feeders are messy for sure, but in terms of maintenance they are sure easier to keep clean other any other kind of bird feeders.

And as suet feeders are popular with a long list of common backyard birds who use feeders - it might be wise to cater to those that feed on suet in cake or pellet form, but only if you want to see less mess.

To use a suet feeder for suet cakes or blocks, be sure to only buy the best quality suet cakes for your backyard birds, thus avoiding early melting under little heat or going rotten far sooner with inferior ingredients.

In regards to are suet feeders messy on the ground below it, that is a possibility but the way suet cakes or other types are made - the grease holds the entire block together with little to no bits dropping to the ground.

Easy to clean mess

Its because of the way suet is made it this type of bird feed that is generally easier to clean up over say peanuts or what can be described as the messiest kind... bird seeds.

Suet feeders hold what is a suet block that begins its life as quite hard to touch, but easy to feed off for birds. In due course this suet will begin to soften thus causing melted grease to latch onto any suet feeder its inserted in to.

However, your backyard birds who feeds off it will indeed throw out suet when they begin to feed off mostly seed or peanut mixes contained within.

And herein lies the mess that can be caused, as birds throw seeds or mixes over the ground, along with the suet fat.

But while it can get messy or actually not at all, it can be tidied up with ease. That is due to suet blocks will break into larger pieces while seeds or peanuts are near impossible to locate once they hit the ground.

What you need to do then is tidy up a couple of times a weeks as to prevent the build up of suet on the ground.

Now, I don't believe the grease blocks on the floor can be a tripping hazard, but I would play it safe by always sweeping up when possible.

Maintain cleanliness

While its important to leave hanging bird feeders to their own devices; basically leaving them alone for birds to come and go at peace, its important to maintain standards.

What can be more troublesome on your part is indeed not cleaning bird feeders at all; not only will any one bird feeder begin to wither with no cleaning to maintain its strength, but the residue and hard build up could never be lifted off in hard to reach areas.

To avoid that ever happening with suet feeders its important to clean the feeder two or three times a week.

And while its not so important to continue to change out suet everytime, you can place suet back in the feeder once its cleaned.

To maintain a busy cleaning schedule can guarantee the suet cannot inject too much grease onto the cage surround - thus making it near impossible to remove later on.

Trick is to maintain cleanliness as best you can, because a once in a while cleaning would not do, so would be made much harder unless the feeders are kept to a high standard of hygiene over the course of their use.

To summarize

Suet feeders can be messy for sure but the way seeds, peanuts and other bird feed are incased in the suet, it causes a little less mess.

It can be an issue where suet it not changed out too regularly, resulting in the fat the suet is made out of, rubbing onto the outer cage.

As you know grease can be a real bother to clean up, but its a little less troublesome on a bird feeder that holds suet - and even less if its cleaned up more often.

To not clean a suet feeder can see it build up of grease on the cage surround, in which would dry up with bits of seeds and peanuts stuck to it.

Suet can melt, especially the homemade kind so this can adhere to the suet feeder cage where it crosses over on the plastic coated wiring, which can make it harder to remove on your part.

While suet feeders do get messy the clean up is quite easy. Whereas the equivalent seed or peanut feeder can discolor more and so to the birds generally do throw bits over the ground more as they bite into the seeds or nuts.

Suet on the floor underneath your bird feeder is less an issue, but more obvious to notice so easier to sweep up when it does happen.

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