Why not make your own fat balls for the birds?
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Discoveries, General care, Wildlife | 74 comments
Watching the birds feeding just outside the kitchen windows gives me enormous pleasure. Since the bird eating cat that used to lurk in our front garden has moved away there are many more ground feeding birds and quite often I spot mice collecting seeds. Mice in the shrubs are fine. When they come into the house they are a problem.We give the birds mixed seed and fat balls all year. We only put out peanuts in the colder non nesting months as baby birds can choke on peanuts. Finally my large tub of fat balls for the birds has run out. So I decided to make my own. My friend Bunty, pours off all her warm leftover fat into flat plastic containers and she strings these up for the birds. This works well in the depths of winter when it is freezing outside. I tried it once in the summer and the fat melted in the sunshine.
I had a bit of a sniff about on the Internet and discovered that lard or suet seems to be a good fat base for home made fat feeders. There is an interesting thread in the Wild About Britain forum with several recipes and useful suggestions such as adding raisins to the mixture.
I found an old coconut feeder knocking about in the barn. We buy wild bird seed in 25 kilo sacks. So I filled the half coconut shell with mixed seeds and poured the melted lard over the seed. I put it in the fridge to harden. It hangs in a sunny spot and has not melted. Lard is cheap, and the massive sacks of bird seed are under ?10. So this homemade mixture is so much cheaper than the commercially produced balls.
Yesterday I spotted a coconut in the supermarket. After we have gorged on coconut I plan to use the shells to make two more reusable bird fat feeders.
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Has anyone tried grinding their peanuts and sunflower hearts to add to DIY fat balls. I do using an old coffee grinder for just a short burst.. I also soak chopped up cheap dried fruit which has been soaked in a small quantity of boiling water for a while. The birds love this mixture, especially the soft bills who cannot deal with hard seeds etc. I put some on a ground feeder (blessed starlings) and some hanging.
Some great ideas here! One word of warning though-using dessicated coconut is not a good idea, as it can swell up in a bird’s gizzard or stomach, and cause death. It needs to be reconstituted first by soaking in water. Best to stay with the seeds, nuts (unsalted) and dried fruit (not as bad as the coconut, though it might be worth soaking these in water first too). Wholemeal flour, Porridge oats are good, and cheap. Make sure any peanut butter you use is unsalted, as salt will dehydrate a bird.
Hi
Just want to know if any body thinks it s safe to make fat balls from the fat off left over roast dinners ?
After reading this thread a few days ago, I very successfully made some fat balls by rubbing kitchen bits into lard, including chopped up bacon rind, end of breakfast cereal and seeds etc
Only thing is it dissapeared rather quickly!!!
Will be making more, one feeder I made by using a small plastic milk bottle, cutting out a hole on the opposite side of the handle near the bottom (but leaving a small ledge for birds to perch on), tying string onto handle and hanging it from a branch, this kept the smaller acrobats busy !
thanks for the tip mate i,ll start making my own right away i wonder d if you had any more tips for garden birds
Hi all,
I enjoyed reading the comments but I had to say something about birds cutting their tongues on the store bought fat balls.
I can’t think of a scenario where I would be able observe such a thing. I’m sure birds however small have the intelligence to cope with the plastic netting from store fat balls. If I’m wrong, I stand corrected.
I would say however to dispose of these nets responsibly as they could cause more harm to other garden visitors, especially hedgehogs.
Thanks for the tips on the ingredients, that’s why I googled and stopped to read this site. very helpful.
Does anyone know how to prevent starlings from bullying the smaller birds. One afternoon last week starlings mugged me for 4 fatballs but they couldn’t use the seed feeders.
Hi Bird Lovers
When I put out fat slabs on the feeding tree….all I get is flocks of Starlings which eat it all in about half an hour and the tits and finches and other small birds do not get a look in…..
what can I do to discourage them and give the little birds a chance???
Any advice accepted
Thanks in Advance
Hi Carol
It’s difficult to say what’s going wrong with your fat balls.
Whay not try a new recipe. There are several in the comments above. The fir cones, peanut butter and bird seed ones sound tempting!
I must be doing something wrong then, the birds in may garden prefer the shop bought fat balls! I melt veg lard, add a variety of seeds, chopped nuts, bits of bread, and set the balls in the fridge. I sometimes fill coconut shells too and even they seem to do better than the fat balls. Am I doing something wrong, cos when I put the shop bought fat balls out, 4 are gone within an hour!!!
Maybe its the veg lard! try using ordinary animal fat. I use supermarkets cheap lard and it certainly does the trick. It doesn’t set as hard as suet but so long as you fill it full with dry ingredients there’s no problem. It seems to work better grinding all the dry ingredients up.
Hi Sam
Thanks for leaving a comment. Feeding the birds can be such fun.
Hello Kylie
This is a great idea – thanks so much for sharing!