Bird Suet Recipes

Bird Suet is a high energy food made from animal fat (hard fat surrounding beef kidneys) and is particularly attractive to woodpeckers.

Bird Suet feeders are mesh containers which hold suet blocks and allows "clinging" birds to feed through holes. The wire cages helps keeps out squirrels and raccoons.

During the summer months, suet can go rancid and be a problem because it easily melts due to the warmer temperatures. Here is a recipe that you can use to prevent those issues:

No Melt Hot Weather Suet Recipe

• 1 cup lard
• 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 2 cups quick oatmeal
• 2 cups plain yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar (optional, but gives a little calories/energy boost, especially for wintertime use)

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Melt the lard and peanut butter in the microwave or in a pan over low heat. If using a microwave, stop and give it a stir at least every 30 seconds or minute.
3. Pour the lard and peanut butter mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well.
4. Pour the mixture into a container for cooling that will either fit the dimensions of your suet holder or you can divide and roll the mixture into balls or any shape you wish. If using say a bread loaf pan, line it with wax paper so the loaf will be easy to lift up and remove. You can also use cupcake tins lined with cupcake holders as well. You can cool the mixture in the refrigerator.
5. After cooling, if needed, cut your suet loaf into individual suet cakes to fit your suet feeder and enjoy the bird feast to come!
6. Any additional suet cakes can be stored in the freezer for future use. I use one big ziploc bag and place the individual cakes between pieces of wax paper so they will be easy to separate later.

Other Suet Recipes

The above recipe is a basic starter recipe for suet. You can replace the cornmeal, oatmeal and flour with nuts, fruits, sunflower seeds, wild bird seed mixes, etc. You just want the proportion of the lard and peanut butter mixture (wet ingredients) to be enough to hold together the dry ingredients.

If starlings are a problem at your suet feeder, discourage them by using a suet feeder with access only from the bottom or which requires birds to hang upside down. Starlings are reluctant to perch upside down.

If you want to buy bird suet online, the commercially produced suet cakes are processed in such a way to help prevent the suet from melting and going rancid.

We like Stokes High Energy Bird Suet because of its easy-open, no-mess packaging and melt resistant formula. It is also fortified with calcium for egg-shell and bone development.

And if you have a problem with squirrels, then here is a good Squirrel-proof Suet Feeder to keep squirrels from stealing!

Types of birds attracted to suet:

Black-capped and other Chickadees, White-breasted & Red-breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice, Downy & Hairy Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Creepers, Cardinals, Wrens

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