How Often Change Hummingbird Feeder?

Hummingbirds are a species of beautiful birds. Although attractive and homely, feeding them is a task of careful hygiene. A Hummingbird generally feeds on Nectar, making it a careful task to know how often you should change their feeder.

Hummingbirds are a special breed of birds of the Trochilidae family, the Apodiformes Order, Aves class, Chordata Phylum. They are of small structure 7.5 – 13cm, with an average weight of not up to 2g. However, there have been reports of larger hummingbirds with height up to 23cm and weight of 18 – 24g.

They are called Hummingbirds because of the humming sound they make during flights. Their wings produce some sounds audible to the human ears because of the high frequencies of their wings flapping. With a beat range of 12 – 80 beats each second, depending on the size and weight. The buzzing sound that these birds produce is worthy of calling a beauty to admire.

Although they are known to reside in America, they do this in-between migration through different seasons. You will find Hummingbirds in Central America/Mexico and South/west USA during the Winter period.

Taking care of Hummingbirds might not seem to be an easy task. Ranging from understanding the Nectar’s shell life to taming the Hummingbird, it is a walk of gentle care. However, the first step to taking care of a Hummingbird is to get a feeder. This is to provide a hygienic container to serve them their regular meals, Nectar.

Best Nectar Feeder 2020

1. More birds Ruby Hummingbirds Feeder

SPECIFICATIONS:

Dimensions: 7.8 x 7.8 x 10 inches
Weight: 1 pound

This 20oz capacity Nectar comes in a Garnet design with seven feeding Systems and a detachable part of its base. This offers a safer hygienic way to clean through and full in for fresh Nectar. Its Plastic is of BPA free materials and is highly recommended against using a dishwasher or microwave.

With this, you are sure of the safety of your bird with worries of chemical combination. It is designed with a custom ant moat that works in keeping the Nectar fresh.

The essence of advising against using a dishwasher or microwave in cleaning the feeder is because hot temperature damages the plastic part of the feeders. This is also because health researchers have discovered that using a dishwasher does not assure full cleaning as there could be diseases left hanging therein. This also can damage the glass parts of the feed. It is causing some of its parts to strip off, which could eventually end up in the bird’s digestive tract.

Pros

Cons

Cleaning Hummingbirds Feeder

Cleaning your hummingbirds’ feeder is an essential routine, but how and when you go about it matters. However, you must ensure that the hummingbird feeder is cleaned for at least twice each week. This is to achieve fresh Nectar always and avoid accommodating mold. During this cleaning period, you need to ensure that you empty and refresh the Nectar. Avoid recycling old Nectar.

Cleaning your feeder depends on what you are cleaning for. Cleaning a slightly dirty feeder will require fewer efforts when cleaning a Feeder infected with mold. To clean your dirty feeder, you can use a mixture of soap and water. I will prefer that the water is hot. WHO speculates that water boiled up to 140°F – 150°F effectively kills germs. Aside from its ability to handle bacteria, viruses, it is also super effective in washing off the oil.

Scrub through the insides and outsides of the feeder, leave no spot untouched. For feeders infected with mold, you can use hydrogen peroxide, bleach, or vinegar in soaking the feeders. These items work great as a disinfectant. After soaking, you can go on to scrub massively till it is sparkling clean.

Feeding a Hummingbird without Feeders

There might be some need or scenarios where it becomes necessary that you might need to feed your Hummingbird without Feeders. This is usually rampant during their tender ages. At this point, using the feeder method might be an entirely wrong idea. Baby birds such as the Hummingbird do a lot of sucking in a while eating.

A baby Hummingbird can weigh up to 0.62 grams at this tender age, without Feeders and fragile, weak and tender. At this time, it is not a wise option to subject them to feeding directly from a feeder. Aside from the fact that baby Hummingbirds are too weak to handle Feeders, exposing them to the external environment might pose them with threats of catching a cold or even death as they cannot regulate their body heat.

These baby birds have a mad flow of appetite, having a mad surge for food every 20 – 30 minutes. This doesn’t just place great responsibility on the border to see that they are healthy but to hinder them from starvation.

In feeding a Hummingbird without the use of a feeder, you can make use of an eyedropper or slender tube. Tiny drops of semi-liquids and mash are a good way to train your baby Hummingbird.

FAQs

Do Hummingbirds become dependent on Feeders?

As real as it may sound, hummingbirds do not depend on feeders for survival. Statistically, they spend 2/10 of their feeding plan on the feeders and artificial nectar provision. The other part of the day, they roam about getting Nectar from their natural habitat.

They are used to flying around, sourcing food for themselves. However, the feeders make it easy as they have an already made package waiting for them, but that doesn’t mean that they rely solely on it.

Is it easy to Clean Hummingbird Feeders using Cleaning Chemical?

Keeping a Hummingbird Feeder entirely clean is essential, but most times, it is necessary you know what is safe enough to clean your bird feeders. The material used in cleaning goes a long way in deciding the healthy consumption status of the bird.

The need to disinfect a feeder drives us to use Chemicals. However, this is also a safer means of keeping the Hummingbird Feeder sparkle clean. Using bleach solution or Vinegar solutions helps in giving a full thorough germ-free scrub.

But I will advise you to keep the solution mild to avoid poisoning the nectars with chemical leftovers. Bleach can have an adverse effect on the bird. Always make sure to dry the feeder after each wash. Don’t refill any feeder with some amount of water still left in them.

What Happens if I don’t change the feeder?

It is very necessary you change the feeder regularly to provide a health assured feeding pack for your birds. Hummingbirds are natural borne habitat birds, Birders who understand this and make sure that the birdcage and rack are kept clean and safe to keep the birds voluntarily flocking in.

When you don’t change the feeder, you risk scaring off the birds from coming close to your garden. There is a lot of Nectar these birds have access to in the neighboring surroundings, ranging from fruits to insects and seeds. At this reveal, Hummingbirds wouldn’t want to get tied to your feeder if it is unkempt.

Moreover, a bird has the tendency of going dead after feeding on an unkempt feeder. Feeders that are not regularly cleaned, will accumulate a lot of mold and bacteria, which, if fed upon by a bird, can lead to its sickness or death. Nevertheless, no matter the nectar solution you might be using for your Hummingbird, always make sure you clean them thoroughly to avoid spoiling the Nectar.

Conclusion

Making sure that most of these organisms and animals stay alive should be a duty and responsibility of every considered human. It costs just little to hang out a feeder in your garden and have these amazing birds regularly visit your garden. Hummingbirds are usually a good bird to behold its beauty in a garden, but they also serve a greater course.

Hummingbirds are a great source of pollination. While sucking off Nectar across flowers, flower shrubs, Hummingbirds take off as much Nectar as they can, and more importantly, they pollinate the flowers, seeds. This makes them so essential to have hummingbirds flying around your garden.

Cleaning off a Hummingbird is a duty of strict caution geared at handling dire issues and needs. If you are embarking on taking care of a Hummingbird, always make sure to clean and refresh the Nectar, keep no stale nectar, sanitize your feeder to achieve zero disease transmission and healthy life for the birds.

Always be sure not to use plastic materials that contain BPA Bisphenol-A. This element is dangerous for consumption and will leave certain plastic debris down the throat of the bird. Every bird deserves every care that can be mustered.

Author Profile

Gabriel Tackett

Double major in Engineering and Geology at the University of Minnesota. Experienced shooter & hunter for over 15 years. Certified NRA officer for over 10 years working as a writer at Ballachy.com .