- 1). Acquire suet from your local butcher or grocery store. Suet, by itself, is the hard white fat on the kidneys and loins of livestock animals such as cattle and sheep. It is a common ingredient used to make foods like puddings and pastries. When offered as bird food, suet is an important source of fat for woodpeckers, flickers, chickadees, titmice, creepers, kinglets, thrashers, cardinals and bluebirds. Suet becomes especially important in the winter when other food sources are scarce.
- 2
Melt the suet in the microwave or on the stovetop.Jupiterimages/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
Melt the rendered suet in the ceramic bowl in the microwave until melted (30 seconds to 1 minute). Alternatively, you can melt it on the stove over low heat. - 3). Stir in all of the ingredients. If the suet begins to solidify, reheat the mixture until it softens again. Continue until all ingredients have been stirred in.
- 4). Pour your suet mixture into a mold that has been lightly coated in vegetable oil. If you want to form a suet cake for a square feeder, use an 8-inch-by-8-inch plastic food container (the kind available at a deli). You can also use tin foil baking cups, small bread loaf pans, pine cones, or shaped gelatin molds. If you plan to make suet plugs to insert into trees or log feeders, pinch off 1-inch balls of the suet mixture and shape by hand. Allow mixture to solidify by refrigerating or freezing.
- 5). Place your suet cakes in a suet feeder -- a cage-style feeder, nylon mesh onion bag, or another kind of your own making -- and hang from a tree with heavy-duty string. Suet feeders are best placed on dead trees where woodpeckers tend to dwell. Suet feeders enable you to enjoy the splendor of wild birds while simultaneously helping them raise young, live through the winter, or refuel for migratory journeys.
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