Cheap bird food attracts rats to your garden, experts warn

Seed mixes that often come in large bags at garden centres and discount stores may not contain as many nutrients and remain uneaten - putting your garden at risk of rats.

Lucy Taylor of Vine House Farm Bird Foods says such mixes typically fail to attract more “interesting species” and even common birds like Robin and Blackbird will show little interest.

More worryingly, rotting or dropped bird food could be potentially fatal to others who peck on it and attract unwanted visitors such as rats.

“Like so many other things in life, when it comes to bird food, buying cheap is a false economy,” Ms Taylor said.

“Not only that, but the poor quality and lack of suitable ingredients in cheap bird food can end up being hazardous to garden birds, plus attract unwanted visitors like rats.”

Why you should not use cheap bird food

The food doesn’t get eaten and fails to attract many species

Ms Taylor, from Vine House Farm Bird Foods, said: “Often, cheap seed mixes have a tiny proportion of useful seeds like black sunflower, but for birds like species of finch to get to these in a feeder, they’ll turf out the low-quality stuff in the process – which then just ends up on the ground.”

Rotting food generates harmful bacteria and harbours potential diseases

“The dropped food might be eaten by species such as Wood pigeon or even House sparrow, but more often than not it will just sit on the ground and start to rot.

“This then becomes an issue because birds may pick through it and potentially contract one of several different diseases – which are generally fatal in most cases.”

The risk of attracting rats

“The other major issue with dropped food on the ground is that it can attract rodents and notably rats.

“Rats are most active at night, but their presence can often be detected first thing in the morning if the dropped food has suddenly disappeared overnight.”

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Low-quality fat balls are also an issue

“More expensive high-quality products will have a high-fat content which is blended with ingredients such as peanut flour, whereas cheap low low-quality products will have much less fat and can have various non-edible fillers – even sawdust and sand,” Ms Taylor states.

Why should you buy high-quality bird food?

If you go for a high-quality husk-free mix, then it should keep all species of birds in your garden happy, including soft-bill species like Robin and Blackbird.

“But if price is an overriding factor for some people because they have a limited budget to work to, then it’s far better to buy high quality in smaller quantities than it is low quality in larger quantities for the same money,” Ms Taylor adds.