How to clean suet feeder
To clean a suet feeder of its stubborn grease coating is very much how you would tackle cleaning grease in the washing up.
How to clean suet feeders is to submerge it in a long, 10-20 minute hot soapy bath, using dish soap and nothing more. Allow time to pass for the dish soap to dissolve the grease - then proceed to clean with a cloth to remove suet or bird poop. Stronger but safe degreaser is a bacteria killing vinegar, water solution.
I will say as soon as you begin using a suet bird feeder which creates harder to remove grease, is to clean this feeder more often than peanut or seed feeders.
In turn the suet bird feeder will not be given time to buildup in a greasy coating, with any suet residue or bird poop staining the interior or exterior.
How to clean a greasy feeder, in which this is what will happen as a fatty bird food - is to simply use a degreasing dish soap you use at home. Its readily available, cheap and easy to use on bird feeders.
With that in mind, understand dish soap residue must be rinsed off to prevent this soap staining the suet feeder itself, or indeed being ingested by birds.
Long soak in a boiling hot bowl of water can loosen the bird poop or stubborn suet, whilst allowing the grease to dissolve part way, or most of the way.
After this long soak there will be grease remaining, in which case can be wiped off using a cloth - or use a scour if a persistent buildup of suet can't be lifted up.
Hard to reach suet residue can be removed using a soft bristle brush, but do go carefully as to not create splashing.
If in need of a strong but effective cleaning solution, revert to a 1:1 ratio of white vinegar to boiling hot water. You'd need to submerge the suet feeder in a bowl of this homemade cleaning agent, while rinsing it off to remove any odor.
Cleaning solution using vinegar can be sure more of that suet grease film along with any stickiness can by dissolved - all while its made to beat any bacteria.
Be sure to provide a clean, fresh round of suet bird food for your common backyard birds that feed off suet - while taking note all kinds of suet feeders would be cleaned this way.
Long soak in hot soapy water
How you would go about cleaning up a suet bird feeder of its messy coating, is with a long soak, but only to begin with.
How long to soak in a hot soapy bath is usually about ten minutes or so, to loosen up the grease on the plastic coated wire cage. If there is signs of suet remaining on the feeder in this time, continue to soak, for a total of 20 minutes.
Don't begin cleaning a suet bird feeder before a long soak, or else stubborn residue won't soften up, thus you'll need more elbow grease to lift up remnants of bird food, or indeed bird poop.
What to use to dissolve this greasy mess mostly caused by bird suet is with simple dish soap.
You will fill up a bowl used exclusively for cleaning bird feeders with, before allowing it to be submerged in its hot soapy bath.
And that is it, once enough time has been given to at least remove most of the grease that dissolves into the hot water, it will in turn soften up the most stubborn residue.
It doesn't end there, as you need to go on to scrubbing down the suet bird feeder.
Cloth is preferred to clean
How to clean a suet feeder once its out of its hot soapy bath, is to begin scrubbing down the entire suet feeder, being sure to reach the wiring on the inside and out.
Push the cloth into where the wire overlaps, as this is where residue likes to build up.
Disassemble the whole bird feeder if you can, but as with any type of suet bird feeders, you can only lift up the lid, without removing it all together.
Not an issue as the long soak to begin with will make sure the scrubbing with what would be a disposable cloth, is made much easier.
Cloth in use won't be disposable, but anything used from your kitchen can't be put in the wash to be used again.
If the occasion allows it, you can use a scour for residue that insists on sticking to the plastic wiring, being careful not to scratch up the surface.
Soft bristle brush is the final solution to pickup up hard to remove residue, baring in mind the bristles can create a splashing effect; whilst possibly landing on your face which in turn will see you ingest it, so be gentle.
All cleaning cloths or scours must be thrown away while the brush can be cleaned outside to be used again in the week.
Rinse off soap residue
What is more dangerous than a dirty suet bird feeder coated in hard to remove grease, is any soap residue left over.
Not deadly I might add, but for wild birds to ingest soap residue can cause an upset stomach.
Much like cleaning all types of bird feeders you will need to be sure this soap residue doesn't remain on the feeder.
Soap left behind can dry up in patches or soak into hard to reach crevices, thus can often go unnoticed and allowed to remain. To notice any soap residue it normally dries up white, with no guarantee you can see it.
What you must do then is to wash off this soap residue while the soap is still wet.
You'd need to empty your soapy bowl of boiling hot water, while replacing it with clean hot water.
Submerge your suet bird feeder in the bowl while aggressively shaking it in the clear water - then proceed to remove the feeder to rinse off any pockets of water.
Allow the suet bird feeder to dry in the sun while cleaning up your cleaning tools or throwing away any used cloths or scours - and now the suet feeder is nice and clean until the next time.
Clean in vinegar solution
I can't guarantee for your circumstances the use of cleaning grease coated suet feeders will lift up grease at all.
I therefore suggest you go one better by using an additional grease removing solution, with the use of white vinegar, added to clean hot water.
Begin by adding a 1:1 ratio of white vinegar with boiling hot clear water only.
Submerge the suet feeders into this bowl of vinegar cleaning solution to dissolve the most stubborn grease - insisting on remaining on hard to reach areas.
And much like soaking the bird feeder in a soapy hot bath, do so for at least ten minutes until the grease has dissolved into the solution; any other residue in the suet or bird poop is easily lifted up off the cage feeder at this point.
Cleaning suet feeders with a vinegar solution is safe, cheap and quick, as it also works to disinfect bird feeders of any bacteria.
You can continue to clean greasy bird feeders with hot soapy water, but if it insists on not cleaning properly - you can allow the suet feeder to dry - to then clean it again in the effective but safe vinegar solution.
You would still need to rinse the suet feeder to remove the vinegar solution, along with any odor that could continue to linger if not washed off.
To summarize
How to clean suet feeders in all their forms is with a safe but widely available household degreasing agent.
Which is just as well because the soap used to wash dishes is perfectly acceptable for this purpose - with no other cleaning agent needed.
Begin by soaking what would be grease covered suet bird feeders in a long hot bath of soapy water, for 10 to 20 minutes to allow most of the grease to dissolve into the hot soapy water bath.
Remove suet feeder out of the bowl of hot soapy water and proceed to wash the exterior and somewhat restricted interior with a cloth - or a scour if hard to remove residue insists on not being picked up in the water bath.
To get into the crevices of what would be plastic coated wiring making up the construction of the suet feeder cage; a soft bristle brush can certainly reach areas you won't with a cloth.
Finally submerge the suet feeder into a bowl of clean boiling water to remove any soap residue.
If doing this you find the suet feeder remains coated in a thin layer of grease, you can use a something more powerful but safe to dissolve, vinegar cleaning solution. While at the same time being sure to kill off any bacteria.
Simply use a 1:1 ratio, or if you like 50% white vinegar to 50% boiling clean water to create this simple but safe cleaning solution for bird feeders.
Proceed to add the troublesome suet feeder to a bowl of this vinegar solution for up to 10-20 minutes, then wash the feeder with a cloth before rinsing off any remaining vinegar, as a faint vinegar smell can be left behind.
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