Man, I feel that. It's wild how something that looks totally fine on the stand can turn into a nightmare once you put any real load on it. Definitely learned that lesson the hard way myself.

Wait, hang on. Did you say scraps every other day AND they still hammer layer pellets? That is wild. My birds would straight up boycott the pellets if they knew scraps were coming the next day. Mine act like I'm starving them if I miss one single morning of kitchen leftovers. How did you train them to be so polite? I'm jealous.

Wow, only 30 seconds? That's just not right. For 80 bucks you'd think you'd at least get a few minutes of resistance. I had the same thing happen to me a couple years back with a U-lock I bought at Canadian Tire. Came back from lunch and my bike was gone with a cut lock on the ground. It's gotten so bad that I just don't leave my good bike locked up outside anymore. I use a beater bike for errands now and keep the nice one in my garage. Honestly, a grinder will go through pretty much anything if they want it bad enough, so you might be better off buying a cheaper lock and using it as a deterrent rather than a fortress.