Help & Advice

FAQs

What type of food should I use?

Cleaner Feeders 1, 2, and 4 were designed to use granular feed (e.g. seeds like sunflower hearts).

We do not recommend using a seed mix, even a high quality one, as the birds will pick out the seed they like and discard the rest, making a mess beneath the feeder.

The Cleaner Window Feeder was designed for granular seed, suet pellets, and peanuts.

The Cleaner Peanut Feeder was designed for peanuts, although you may try suet pellets too.

Only feed peanuts that are Aflatoxin tested to ensure they are safe for garden birds.

How much food can they hold?

The Cleaner Feeder 4 can hold 6.5l of food, over FOUR times as much as a conventional feeder.

Cleaner Feeder 2 can hold 2.79l of food, more than TWICE as much as a conventional feeder.

With multiple feed chambers, Cleaner Feeders 2 and 4 are more like a feeding station than just another bird feeder.

Cleaner Feeder 1 holds 1.79l of food, more than most conventional feeders.

Cleaner Peanut Feeder holds 0.7kg of peanuts.

Cleaner Window Feeder has a capacity of 0.3l.

Why aren’t the feeders made from recycled plastic?

The nature of recycled plastic means it has impurities that restrict the quality of the final product.  The waste from defective products would negate the benefit of using recycled plastic.

We believe that building from recyclable plastic makes our feeders high quality, durable, and able to be recycled after many years of use.

We continue to research recycled plastic and hope that, as technology moves forward, we will be able to use it in the future.

Are they squirrel proof?

Unfortunately our feeders are not squirrel proof.

Depending on the extent of your squirrel problem, you can hang a baffle above, or below the feeder to deter squirrels.

We will shortly be introducing a squirrel cage to protect the CF1, CF2 and Cleaner Peanut Feeder from squirrels.

How often should a bird feeder be cleaned?

Bird feeders are at the highest risk of spreading disease when the food becomes wet, as parasites and bacteria live longer in damp conditions.

Cleaning Conventional Bird Feeders

Most bird feeders recommend that cleaning takes place every 1-4 weeks, however this has more to do with pleasing people than keeping feeders safe for birds.

In practice it is best to clean feeders once the food is wet, or at least once a week, whichever is shorter.

For conventional tube feeders, with multiple side ports at different levels on a feeder, you should also disgard any seed from the feeder, as moisture, parasites and bacteria can move through the feeder.

Similarly, for mesh feeders that do not keep the feed away from the elements, food should be disgarded once it is wet.

Cleaning Finches Friend Cleaner Feeders

All of our feeders keep food clean and dry in a sealed feed chamber, with a rain cover to keep the feeding area as dry as possible too.

We recommend cleaning feeders at least once a week, or whenever they are emptied, whichever is shorter.

You can turn off the feed flow on Cleaner Feeders 1, 2 and 4, giving birds a chance to finish what’s in the tray before cleaning, and minimising waste.

For the Cleaner Peanut and Cleaner Window Feeders, try to fill them according to the rate the food is eaten to minimise waste.

The removable parts of our feeders are designed to be cleaned quickly and easily, so there is no excuse not to keep a regular cleaning routine.

Cleaner Feeders 2, 4, and the Cleaner Window Feeder have a spare feed tray so you can swap with a clean one and take care of the soiled one at your leisure.