I agree with others' comments, that suet needs to contain the right
ingredients for the birds. But here's a good vegetarian option ---
Last winter I had great luck making my own suet here at home. It is
really easy to make, it does not make any foul odor, it is a
vegetarian recipe, and (I think) it is nutritious for winter birds. I
followed the recipe at Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy's web site, thanks
very much to Nicole Hamilton. Here's the link. Note there is an
option to replace the lard with shortening, which I did.
http://www.loudounwildlife.org/blog/2008/12/page/2/
As of this morning's snowfall, I am making up my first batch for this
coming winter.
- Steve Johnson
Fairfax, VA
On Dec 5, 2009, at 10:51 AM, Deapesh Misra wrote:
Hi,
My wife and I, have been thinking hard for a vegetarian replacement for suet.
My wife came with an idea which is working great. Here is the recipe:
* knead wheat flour and water so as to obtain a mass of dough
* mix in the bird seeds into the dough (we are currently using 'Kaytee Ultimate Nut and Fruit Blend'.
And that is it, we put the dough out in a suet cage!
We have had the following birds eat from it so far:
* Carolina Wrens
* White Breasted Nuthatches
* Carolina Chickadees
* Downy Woodpeckers
It seems to us that one advantage of this system is that, when the dough is still soft, smaller birds feed from it. And when it dries out and gets hard, woodpeckers and wrens only continue to feed from it.
-Deapesh
Fairfax, VA
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