Wild Bird
Suet and Fat for Wild Birds Explained
There are lots of options when it comes to feeding wild birds. You can feed them seeds, peanuts, mealworms, fruits and much more. You can also feed them many types of suet and fat, but choosing which type of suet can be difficult as there are so many variations. Lets take a look at each suet product available and discover which type is best for you.
Suet Pellets
Suet pellets are exactly that, a small pellet made up of suet, usually with either fruit or insects added. These are an ideal all year round feed especially winter for a large variety of wild birds. A big benefit of suet pellets is that they can be taken away quite easily to a nest or for safe eating. They offer an instant energy boost and are an important part of birds diets.
A suet pellet feeder should be used for feeding these pellets although they can also be left on a bird table or on the ground. As these can be scattered on the ground birds like the blackbird, song thrush and robin are especially interested. Pellets are easy to store and don’t take up as much space as say the same weight of fat balls would do. Pellets are also great value for money compared to other suet and seeds.
Suet Fat Balls
Like the pellets these fat balls are balls of suet usually including fruit and insects. Due to the size of the fat balls it is possible to include mealworms, whole seeds and peanuts which give the wild birds a better option. Again these are an ideal winter feed but suitable for all year round feeding. All types of wild birds will be attracted to these but you can change it up a bit by selecting balls with mealworms for example to attract Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Long-tailed Tits and Starlings. Add fruit to attract robins and blackbirds.
Suet Fat balls are best fed using a fat ball holder. This keeps them in one place and allows the birds to take a much as they like. The fat balls are easy to store and often come in some kind of storage container.
Suet Blacks/Cakes/Logs
These suet products are usually designed to fit in to a particular feeder, for example the logs should be places into a suet log feeder and the cakes into a caged cake feeder. They offer no extra benefit nutritionally but are more convenient when it comes to feeding and cleaning. These are sometimes more expensive as they are individually designed for a particular use.
So, if you are thinking of feeding your garden visitors suet and fat, hopefully we have explained the difference between all of the suet products. Trail and error always seems to work best!
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