Instead of purchasing a dedicated suet pellet feeder, why not just add pellets to your existing peanut feeder?
If you have a peanut feeder, you may use it to hold suet pellets; the holes in the feeder will allow birds to easily grab a bite or pull the pellets out entirely. Incompatibility concerns may emerge due to the accessibility of the pellets or peanuts, respectively. It’s possible since peanut feeders are similar to those used for suet pellets.
You are reading: Suet Pellets Can Be Put In Peanut Feeder
Bear in mind that suet pellets are converted beef fat, thus the suet will leave a thin greasy coating on your previously clean peanut feeder.
Grease on the peanuts may dissuade birds, so it’s best to save the feeder for wild birds right away or at least test it out with your best or worst suet pellets.
For the time being, try substituting some suet pellets for the peanuts in your bird feeder and see what happens. The pellets will likely be picked at by the birds, but they won’t be able to carry them off entirely.
The birds won’t be able to carry off a whole suet pellet, as opposed to peanuts, because the pellets are much larger.
The greatest peanut feeders for birds and the cheapest options both have smaller holes because that’s what the birds need.
That being said, a peanut feeder can still be used with suet pellets, although some alterations may be necessary.
Cut up the suet pellets into smaller pieces, about the size of a peanut, and the birds will be more likely to accept them.
Pellets can be put in Peanut feeder
Suet pellets are a tubular kind of beef suet, approximately an inch in length, that birds may pick up and consume on the go or at the feeder.
Birds can take up a single peanut at a time from a peanut feeder, which is a steel mesh bird feeder with a crossing wire design. All of the peanuts are contained in the spaces between the wires, and a single peanut can be pulled through.
If you have a feeder designed for peanuts, which are a very different shape, I cannot guarantee that the suet pellets would fit properly. However, I do recommend giving it a go.
You can place suet pellets in a peanut feeder, but the shape of the wire feeder determines how easy or difficult it is for birds to catch the peanuts (or the suet pellets, if they are too large).
In any case, I think a good number of nut-eating and, by extension, seed-eating birds can perch or cling to the wire mesh and get at least some of the suet pellets they want.
You can use a long, spherical, or wreath-shaped peanut feeder to hold suet pellets, but the birds may give up on it if they can’t get to them.
Birds will be seen taking bites out of pellets, but if they can’t get at the whole thing due to the wire gaps, they’ll give up.
Good fit if pellets accessible
Put suet pellets in your wire mesh peanut feeder; if they stay put, it’s a good fit.
These relatively large suet pellets will not fall through the holes in a wire peanut bird feeder; if they do, the feeder was likely designed for use with sunflower seeds, or it may not have been intended for use with pellets at all.
If a peanut feeder you’ve been using to suspend suet pellets isn’t attracting any birds, you shouldn’t keep using it.
The birds will act as if they are using a peanut feeder that has been replenished with suet pellets, but the pellets will go uneaten.
If you use a peanut feeder, the birds might not be able to get to the pellets even if they wanted them, therefore you shouldn’t put them there. It’s possible that some birds just have no interest in eating the pellets, despite the fact that no common backyard bird will turn down suet.
Certainly, a compatibility issue exists if no birds will eat any of your suet in the yard.
If the birds can get their beaks into the pellets stuck in the spaces between the wire, then you’ve got a winner; if the birds can pull a complete pellet through, then you’ve got an even bigger winner.
Suet pellet feeder similar to wire feeder
I’ve seen two distinct types of suet pellet bird feeders: a clear plastic tube like a seed feeder, and a wire feeder that resembles the peanut feeder.
The peanut bird feeder is unique in that it has narrower slots to prevent the nuts from falling through.
To remove these huge tubular suet pellets, birds must drag them through the wire gaps of a general bird feeder, but these spaces are too small for a specialty suet pellet bird feeder.
Personally, I find that the wire mesh variety of suet pellet bird feeder is the most effective.
Because of the warm, moist conditions that develop inside a bird feeder, any bird food left inside will quickly germinate. The suet in a wire suet pellet bird feeder can cure in the cool air outside.
While you can use pellets in most peanut bird feeders, switching from peanuts to pellets in a wire mesh feeder can cause serious compatibility concerns because of the shape of the two different foods.
Restrictions may apply
But this is precisely the rub when attempting to mix suet pellets into a peanut feeder; there are often limitations due to the fact that the two are not designed to work together.
A wire peanut bird feeder’s peanuts compact in when you refill it, and the level gradually decreases as birds eat individual peanuts.
Read more : Can Birds Eat Pecans?
It’s not recommended to use a peanut feeder with suet pellets because of potential compatibility difficulties.
Tubular suet pellets are an inch long and round, so they won’t compact in as peanuts would.
Because of their irregular shape, pellets tend to fall in all directions, leaving plenty of wasted space. This can cause the birds to be unable to get their food because the pellets are sitting at an angle that makes them tough to bite.
Because of the potential for waste when using suet pellets in a peanut feeder, it is recommended that significantly less pellets be used in this type of feeder.
Few birds that consume suet pellets may be able to figure out how to use even a simple hanging bird feeder, much less one made of wire with nowhere for them to perch. Remembering to always have some pellets available in your bird feeder can ensure that these birds have food.
Suet pellets can go in others
While suet pellets can be used well in a peanut bird feeder with a long mesh, a ball or wreath shape feeder, additional options are available.
For one thing, a transparent plastic tube seed mix feeder isn’t going to work because it’s meant to sustain smaller-sized seed mixes. As opposed to this, the internal workings of a suet pellet feeder are rendered irrelevant by their placement in a transparent tube.
For the reasons stated above, I think wire suet pellet bird feeders are the ideal solution.
However, when using a plastic tube with a hot inner surface, the beef fat suet pellets can become slightly greasy due to the overheating that occurs in the humid environment.
If you’re willing to splurge, I recommend upgrading to a suet pellet bird feeder, which has larger holes in the metal mesh so that birds can easily remove even the largest particles.
For this reason, peanut in shell bird feeders and ball-style nut feeders, both of which use wire mesh, will see pellets just drop out.
To sum it all up
A suet pellet wire style bird feeder can be purchased, and it resembles a peanut bird feeder except that the holes in the suet pellet style are larger.
I think it’s possible to use a peanut feeder with suet pellets, but I wouldn’t want to get your hopes up too high.
This smaller wire mesh peanut feeder can also hold suet pellets, although I wouldn’t expect to see many birds using it.
It’s possible for birds to make it look like they’re devouring suet pellets when in reality they’re not. The birds that would otherwise devour the pellets can’t get to them.
Suet pellets don’t compact in as nuts do, as pellets have more of a loose fit, while peanuts in their own wire bird feeder can be observed to nearly pour out of the gaps.
The problem is that the suet pellets may not be accessible if they are placed closer to the middle of the peanut feeder, which can lead to incompatibilities.
Birds may easily get their beaks into peanut feeders designed for pellets, and they can even remove the pellets by pulling them through the spaces.
Source: https://petstutorial.com
Category: Birds