Knowing how to clean bird feeders or tables can be a life saver for the birds that visit your garden.

We all love feeding the birds in our garden. Filling a bird feeder or scattering a bird table with food is a great way to get birds to come to your garden and eat.

When we feed the birds in our garden however, we need to keep the bird’s safety and health in mind. Bird feeders and tables can become a breeding ground for nasty bacteria that can make birds really ill.

It’s important that you know how to clean bird feeders and tables so that the birds that visit you garden are eating in a clean and safe environment. Here are our top tips on how to clean bird feeders or tables.

1. Dispose Of Any Uneaten Food.

A lot of the time disease is caused by contaminated food. Sometimes this can happen when the bird droppings get mixed in with the food, this is often the case with bird tables that go uncovered.

When you are cleaning your bird feeder or table, the first step is to remove any uneaten food and throw it away. If you reuse the food, you might just be putting the cause of disease right back into your clean bird feeder or onto your clean bird table.

2. Clean Your Bird Feeders And Tables Outside.

Cleaning your bird feeders and tables can be a very messy job, especially if there is a lot of uneaten food that needs dealing with. Its best to clean them outside and use utensils and cleaning equipment that you only use on your bird feeders. Don’t use the same cleaning utensils you use to clean dishes in the house as this can spread bacteria and make both you and the bird ill.

3. Rember To Clean The Feeder Deeply

You can’t just wipe a bird feeder and assume its clean. You need to make sure you are getting every little nook and cranny in the bird feeder clean.

Fill a bowl with hot soapy water and submerge the bird feeder so that the water covers it completely. This alone might take care of a lot of the leftover feed and grime that has accumulated on the bird feeder.

You may find you still need to scrub to get certain marks and stains of the bird feeder. Build up food and bird dropping will come off if you scrub the feeder with a strong bristled brush.

Once its clean, rinse of all the soap and leave it to dry.

4. Scrub Your Bird Table Thoroughly

Bird tables can gather a lot of bacteria so it’s vital that you clean them regularly. First of all, you need to brush all the uneaten food of the bird table. Be sure to do with a dustpan and brush so that nothing gets dropped on the floor. If bird food ends up on the floor, bird will eat it, but it might attract other pests like mice and rats.

Once you bird table is clear from food you can begin to clean you bird table. If your bird table is made from plastic or stone then it will be easy to wipe down, but if your bird table is made from wood then you might need to scrub a little harder to get it clean.

Use hot soapy water to clean you bird table. Soak a cloth in the hot soapy water and use this to clean the surface of the bird table. You might need to use a scouring brush or scrapper to get some of the tougher dirt and droppings off.

Once the bird table is dry, you can simply leave it to dry on its own out in the sun.

It’s a good idea to do a few checks on you bird table every now and then. Over time bird tables can become loose so you might find you need to tighten the screws or place it a sturdier area.

5. Know When To Replace Your Bird Feeder Or Table

You can keep cleaning and tightening your bird feeders and tables but eventually they will become to tired and worn for you keep using, or they might become so bad that you just can’t clean then to a standard that you are happy with.

When this happened its probably time to replace you bird feeder or table. Here at Kennedy Wild Bird Feed, we have a wide verity of reasonably price, innovatively designed bird feeders so that you can feed the birds in you garden with ease.