Smart Tips for Safe Suet Feeding

For birds, greasy feathers are a deadly liability.

Picture this: A chickadee lands on your carefully crafted pinecone feeder, coated with peanut butter or suet and seeds. You're feeling good about helping local wildlife. But wait! As your neighborhood bird rehabilitator, let me share a secret that could save birds' lives.

Feathers are more than beautiful—they're an essential survival tool. Their intricate structure includes thousands of tiny barbs that lock together to form a waterproof shield and provide insulation. They are an engineering masterpiece that makes NASA jealous! In winter, down feathers trap warm air, keeping birds cozy. In summer, feathers protect against heat.
 
Here's the catch: when fats or oils get on feathers, they gum up those delicate barbs, creating gaps that let water and cold air reach a bird's skin. Clean feathers are crucial for survival – nature's version of an all-weather survival suit.
 
Imagine a bird landing on a shortening-covered pinecone or an exposed suet cake. As it hops around feeding, its feet or feathers pick up small amounts of fat. Later, while preening (with feet or bill), the bird spreads the grease onto its plumage. Sadly, birds can't fix it– bird saliva can't remove oils any more than we can wash oil off our hands without soap.

For birds, greasy feathers are a deadly liability. Compromised birds may spend days desperately trying to fix their feathers, taking time away from feeding and becoming weaker by the day. Many succumb to starvation or hypothermia, hidden from sight as they struggle.

 
Feed Safely, Feed Smart
First, choose the proper feeders. Avoid exposed suet balls, fat-slathered pinecones, or spreading fat on trees, which allow direct contact with greasy substances. Use cage-style suet feeders that stop birds from standing on the food. Squirrel-proof feeders are especially effective. Place feeders in the shade to keep fats from melting, and avoid feeding birds in forested areas with more nutritious options.

Selecting the proper fats is also crucial. True suet, the hard fat from a cow's loin, is ideal because it stays dry and crumbly, even in warmer conditions. Pure peanut butter is another safe option if you pour off the oil. Avoid soft fats like vegetable oils, bacon grease, or fatty meat trimmings—they spread easily and can harm feathers.

Additionally, clean feeders regularly with hot, soapy water to prevent grease buildup, and replace suet weekly during winter. Birds also benefit from breaks in suet feeding, encouraging them to seek more nutritious natural foods. Finally, avoid feeding suet in spring and summer. During these seasons, birds need high-protein diets to raise their young, and suet doesn't match the nutritional value of insects or seeds.
 
Suet feeding is relatively new in the mass-produced bird foods scene. Sadly, we lack the science for some of our food options. For example, suet "doughs" are a no-melt, no-spread option but come at the price of being nutritionally deficient (being mainly processed, low-nutrition grains). They have caused gout in cases of overfeeding.

Some add chicken starters to their homemade suets, but this high-fiber food is meant for birds with powerful gizzards, not the tiny, weak gizzards of songbirds. (Chicken starter is made with course corn, wheat, and soybeans, not fine ground flour.) Thus, it is slower to digest, requiring grinding in the bird's gizzard. Nutritionally, these grains are notoriously pesticide-ridden and cannot even come close to the nutrition of natural foods or bird seeds like sunflower, millet, and thistle. 

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Other Alternatives for Birds
Sunflower seeds, which are nearly 50% fat and 22% protein, provide excellent nutrition without the risks of greasy feathers. Gelatin-based wreaths with de-hulled sunflower seeds are another bird-safe option and make a fun craft project.
 
These small steps will support your feathered friends safely, making you an ally in their survival. Here are two crafty 'suet' or feeding options that are fun for adults and kids both.

Option 1 Gelatin Wreaths: This homemade project is much easier than making messy suet cakes!
1. Gelatin: large amount, not the small packets. Follow the recipe in the Bird-Safe Wreaths below.
2. Make your own shape, as instructed.
3. OR dip pinecones into the gelatin mix, ensuring you get it deep into the center. 
4. Roll the cone in de-hulled sunflower, millet, and peanut chunks. Be sure to stuff these into the cone's cracks, down into the center. 
5. Hang with heavier wire, not string (that can get loose and wrap around bird toes). 

Option 2: Peanuts and sunflower Cakes: Feed this only in feeders that do not allow the bird to land on the fat. 
1. Best: Get freshly ground, chunky peanut butter, or buy chunky peanut butter with nothing else added, and pour the oil off. 
2. Place on wax paper.
3. Add a bit of organic, all-purpose, unbleached wheat flour. 
4. Mix to a heavy paste. Consistency of cookie dough, not pudding. 
5. Mix in chunks of peanuts, de-hulled sunflower and thistle seeds, dried fruit. 
6. Spread 2 inches thick on bottom of a rectangle pan (wax paper helps). 
7. Freeze. 
8. Cut to size, place into feeder, and go spoil your birds. 
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Squirrel-proof feeders stay cleaner. (Duncraft)

Add a perch to a log feeder.

Avoid dirty & poorly-made feeders.