Can wild birds eat cat food

Provide a healthy but tempting smelly food to wild birds in cat food; offering valuable fat and protein which the birds need all year round.

You can feed both wet and dried cat food to wild birds in your garden, as it has no harmful ingredients but only the all important nutritional value; including high in fat and protein, with vitamins if fish based. Feed cat food to birds in a suitable dish or use the hanging mesh tray.

Feed all types of cat food you find in the pet aisle of the supermarket. Quality doesn't matter so much with birds as it does with cats.

Though make sure it doesn't lack nutritional value which is reduced in cheaper brands.

Offer wet cat food that is covered in gravy and the dry kind which is made up of meaty or dry pellets - or simply use a mixture of both.

Remove the cat food from the tin as its could harm birds, then use a bowl or dish you have especially for the wild birds that visit.

You could also use the dish mounted on the poled bird feeding station or what we would recommend; use the mesh feeding tray on a bracket.

Know the dangers before leaving cat food out in the garden as it will for certain attract nearby cats from over the fence.

If you take our advice by leaving it up high and out of the way, this will stop cats feeding well keeping birds safe from attacks.

Cat food with valuable nutrition's

Biggest nutritional value in cat food is fat content, which is especially important during the winter months as birds build up fat.

Know that most cat food ingredients contains poultry, meat or fish; of which all are suitable for common garden birds if they do consume it in little or large quantities.

What you must takeaway from feeding cat food to wild birds is that it is high in fat, which means it could be offered in the winter months for this reason alone.

Likewise, the high protein and fibre content will come useful in the dryer summer months.

What other nutritional value you might get out of certain cat food brands is it might have vitamins which is also a vital nutrient for birds.

Types of cat food

Well its often recommended to offer cats a mixture of wet and dried canned food, you can feed birds a mixture of both or use one or the other.

The wet cat food if you're not familiar with feeding cats at all is the wet variety is often smellier, as its soaked in gravy.

Well dried cat food refers to pellets or rounded meat balls that is on offer for cats, but this one it not smelly at all.

But its always recommended to feed a mixture of the two to cats, so take this advice for birds and feed both types of cat food if you wish.

How to serve cat food to birds

If we take a popular cat food manufacturer in the UK as an example of what there food has to offer, we've based our information off whickas tinned wet or dry food.

Regardless, feel free to provide cat food all year round to wild birds in your garden if you must, though it would be wise to still provide traditional peanuts, seeds and fat balls.

Serve up cat food just as you would feed it to a cat, in a suitable lipped bowl that you use exclusively for wild birds out in the garden.

Never reuse this bowl or dish for people again, leave it by for wild birds only.

Where to leave it out in garden

Once you've emptied the cat food into a suitable bowl or dish its only a matter of where to leave it in the garden.

One suitable spot would be up on an high wall away from the ground to keep bugs away.

With that in mind, the table and chairs on the decking would make a good high point and so would similar items around the garden.

If you're not using a bowl or dish and wish to use the bird feeders, only empty the cat food into the mounted dish on the feeding station or mesh hanging tray on the wall bracket.

Both would need washing after or before use to prevent smelling up the garden in the hot weather.

Cat food brings danger

Where there's cat food there's cat right? This is actually true as cat food will tempt them to come and feed, as they will in many cases smell it out.

There're no areas in the garden you could offer cat food to birds where a cat can't get to, though a high point on the poled feeding station may be significant.

Though this becomes a danger for any cats that visit with a cat near by.

If you're lucky to never get a cat in your garden be warned; the presence of fresh cat food will tempt a cat to visit as they smell it in the air.

And well this may only refer to houses within touch of woodlands; it may also bring badgers, hedgehogs and foxes to feed from the cat food.

Summary

There you have it, you can feed wild birds a standard can of wet gravy soaked cat food or even the dry pellet type.

All of which offers important nutritional value with high in fat for the winter, and high in protein for the summer - but is suitable for all year round.

Its not important what brand of cat food you feed them as they're likely to take to quality brands and home brands - wild birds are not as picky as pet cats.

Remember with the presence of fresh cat food in the garden, this is likely to draw your neighbours cats to feed, just as the occasionally enter our home to eat the dog food.

Locate the cat food high up in the garden to keep the birds safe, with a bracket meshed bird feeder high up on the brick wall the best option.

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