Tit balls make little bird's hearts beat faster. When food becomes scarce in winter, the spherical food sources are a popular destination for hungry birdies. To ensure that the dangling buffet is richly stocked with he althy ingredients for growling tit tummies, nature lovers make the bird food themselves. Read this guide on how to make fat balls yourself and hang them up correctly.
- Tit balls are an energy-rich, spherical food source for domestic wild birds, such as tits, woodpeckers, finches and sparrows.
- Good quality fat balls consist of animal or vegetable fat as well as a bird-friendly grain mixture with sunflower seeds, seeds and broken nuts.
- Food dumplings for wild birds are primarily used for winter feeding in the garden, in parks and on the balcony.
Make your own fat balls – step-by-step instructions
The following instructions explain step by step how you can easily make suet balls yourself. To ensure that hungry birds get through the winter he althy, it's important to have the right ingredients. Which fat you use is just as important as the quality of the feed mixture and the absence of a net. How to make premium quality DIY suet balls:
Ingredients and tool supplies
- 1 kg beef or mutton tallow (organic quality from the butcher)
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 1 kg grain mixture (sunflower seeds, oat flakes, millet, linseed, hazelnut fragments, uns alted peanuts)
- pot and spoon
- Coconut ropes or thick twine as a hanger
Which fat you use to make them contributes significantly to the quality of your DIY suet balls. It is important to note that the fat hardens at outside temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius and does not stick to the birds' feathers. For this reason, soft lard is not recommended. To protect nature, the climate and animals, organic products have priority.
How to do it
- Pour the fat into the pot and heat it up, stirring constantly (do not let it boil due to the strong smell)
- Removing the pot from the fire
- Add vegetable oil to the liquid fat
- Fix the grain mixture (1 kg bird food to 1 kg liquid fat)
- Let the mixture cool until it forms a malleable consistency
- Form small balls by hand with a diameter of 6 to 10 cm
- When shaping, work string into the middle as a hanger
After waiting a few hours, the suet balls are dried and ready to hang in the garden or on the balcony.
Excursus
Tit balls with net - useful or dangerous?
Tit balls on the internet are a common sight in wintry gardens and parks. The well-meaning donors, of course, overlook the high risk of injury. There is a great risk that the birds will get caught in the net and will no longer be able to free themselves. Furthermore, a food dumpling in the net is a bitter disappointment for many wild birds because they cannot hold on to the net. Robins and other feathered garden dwellers' stomachs continue to growl, even though there is rich food dangling right in front of their beaks. For this reason, NABU bird experts advocate that suet balls should always be made or purchased without a net.
Tit balls are better hung without a net
Recipe without animal fat – suet dumplings vegan
Without fat, fat balls are missing an important ingredient. But does it necessarily have to be animal fat? Vegan bird lovers advocate the use of vegetable fat as an alternative ingredient, primarily unhardened organic coconut fat. This drives up costs and reduces the energy content in suet balls. In return, you feed your feathered friends vegan bird food. The following recipe for animal-based fat balls without fat has proven itself excellently in practice:
Ingredients and tool supplies
- 250 g coconut fat (without added palm fat)
- 300-350 g bird food (winter mix ragweed-free)
- optional own mix (recipe see above)
- Cooking pot and wooden spoon
- Muffin cases
- Hanger (stick, twine, coconut rope)
If you make vegan fat balls yourself during Advent and Christmas, cookie cutters serve as decorative shapes. In this case, add a baking tray or similar flat surface to the list, lined with baking paper or foil as a base.
How to do it
- Heat the coconut fat in a saucepan (do not boil)
- Stir in grain mixture
- fill into the muffin cups
- alternatively, place the cookie cutter on a flat surface and fill it with the still liquid bird food
- Place the hanger in the middle of the soft mass
After hardening, remove the molds or cookie cutters. If a shape does not come away from the suet balls or suet biscuits, warm the outside of the material a little with your hand or a lighter. Homemade vegan fat balls are ready. If you have neglected to insert the hangers into the suet ball in time, solve the problem with a warmed knitting needle. You can use this to drill a hole in the hardened bird food mixture and then thread a hanger afterwards.
Tip
Hobby gardeners with a penchant for decorative details add creative flair to suet balls. To do this, attach a small pine branch to the hanging rope using binding wire. The distinctive decoration also serves as a welcome seat.
Buy tit balls – test winners at a glance
Bird lovers who have little time to make bird food using the DIY process buy suet balls from specialist retailers. Products with high-quality ingredients that have already been thoroughly tested in practice by human users and end consumers should preferably be added to the shopping cart. The following products emerged as recommended in the fat ball test:
| Product name | Dehner Natura | Bird food 4 fat balls | Erdtmann's tit dumplings | Pauls Mühle all-season dumplings | Anh altiner tit dumplings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test verdict | very good | very good | very good | good | good |
| without network | yes | yes | yes | yes | no |
| suitable for | all wild birds | all wild birds | Grain and soft food eaters | All-season bird food | All-season bird food |
| special advantage | ambrosiafree | Price-performance winner | without insects | without shell waste | ambrosiafree |
| Price per kg | 2, 50 euros | 1, 06 euros | 1, 82 euros | 1, 67 euros | 2, 17 euros |
Ambrosia-free is an important criterion for he althy, high-quality suet balls. Commercial bird food comes predominantly from Hungary and other Eastern European countries. The ragweed plant is widespread there as a weed. Without targeted precautions, the tiny seeds inevitably end up in the harvest of sunflower seeds and other feed ingredients. This can have fatal consequences for birds, as ragweed seeds cause severe breathing problems and even asthma.
Bought suet balls often contain ragweed seeds
Tip
Making your own fat balls with insects is taboo for nature lovers. The invited guests in feathers are among the grain eaters. Tits, finches and sparrows do not necessarily rely on insects as a food source in winter. There is therefore no reason to intervene destructively in the insect world, which is already massively threatened. No insect has to lose its life for delicious fat balls. Seeds, sunflower seeds and all kinds of nuts are sufficient as the main ingredients.
Hanging fat balls – this is how you do it right
Tit balls, homemade or store-bought, deserve a bird-friendly front seat. In order for the spherical food sources to fulfill their task perfectly, the right location in the garden and bed is important. The following overview summarizes which criteria the best place for food dumplings should meet:
In the garden
- partially shady to shady location
- freely hanging in the crown of a tree or large shrub
- on the branch as thick as a thumb that bears neither cat nor marten
- ideally protected from strong winds and pelting rain
When choosing a location, please make sure that there are no hiding places for cats in the immediate vicinity. If a careless bird lands on the ground, it becomes easy prey for a cat lying in wait.
On the balcony
- preferably on the east, west or north balcony
- protected from direct sunlight so that the fat does not melt
- unreachable for pigeons
- as short a distance as possible from window panes
The risk of collision with glass panes decreases the closer you hang the fat ball to the window. Birds are much more attentive when landing if the distance between the food dumplings and the glass pane is less than one meter. The risk of accidents is greatest at a distance of five to ten meters. However, if the food dangles more than ten meters away from the balcony window, there are no risks to birds flying in and out.
Stop the thief – hang suet balls to prevent theft
Squirrels also like to nibble on suet balls - and take them with them when they can
When the garden and balcony are transformed into the “Zur cheeken Meise” restaurant, uninvited guests are not far away. Dark figures try to feast on suet balls and make the valuable bird food disappear overnight. Winged thieves such as ravens and magpies are suspected. Furthermore, the crime is blamed on fur-wearing climbers, such as squirrels, martens and raccoons.
A clever idea puts a stop to this brazen activity. Place the finished suet balls in a metal spiral. The practical fat ball holders are available in different colors, which creates decorative accents in the garden and on the balcony in the dark winter time. Birds appreciate the arches of the spiral as a comfortable place to sit. Feathered or fur-wearing dumpling robbers are primarily at a disadvantage because the bird food in the spiral is theft-proof and only accessible to small titmice.
Background
Making tit balls with children
Tit balls are an excellent opportunity to open children's eyes to our nature. Your smartphone and TV remain switched off when you make the food dumplings yourself with your children. Smart scientists have found that feeding garden birds gives people of all ages access to nature. This doesn't just apply to production in the kitchen. Exciting moments then come from watching who gets to the dangling fat ball. Children take this opportunity to learn more about the ecology of their habitat and have a beneficial interaction with wild birds. Can there be a better approach to addressing conservation for our youngest?
Collect bird food yourself – This is how it works
More than just tea can be made from rose hips
Classic fat balls contain various grains, especially for tits, finches, bullfinches, sparrows and other grain eaters. So that soft food eaters don't go away empty-handed, the food mixture for suet balls should be more varied. Blackbirds, thrushes, robins and wrens will appreciate your thoughtfulness. You can now go to a specialist store, buy both bird food mixtures and dig deep into your pockets. Alternatively, arm yourself with a basket and gloves to collect the ingredients for fat balls yourself in late summer and autumn. The following table provides an insight into the extensive offering for grain and soft food eaters:
| Grain eaters | Soft food eater |
|---|---|
| Crushed hazelnuts | Elderberries |
| Sunflower seeds | Whiteberries |
| Hemp and linseed | Hawthorn berries |
| Poppy | Maple seeds |
| Fruit pits of all kinds | Rosehips |
| Peanuts, uns alted | Millet |
| Walnuts, crushed | Rowberries |
A special treat for both types of food is oat flakes tossed in sunflower oil. However, spiced and s alted ingredients are taboo. Above all, bread, even grain bread, has no place in the perfect food dumpling.
Frequently asked questions
Why should you make suet balls yourself?
Most important reason for DIY suet balls: You know exactly what is in the bird seed. Unfortunately, various testing procedures have shown that cheap commercially available suet balls often contain inferior ingredients. Second-class fat, grain mixtures containing ambrosia and a high water content make industrially produced food dumplings inedible for our feathered friends. If you make fat balls yourself, you can avoid such quality defects and serve hungry wild birds a very he althy meal.
When should we hang homemade suet balls in the garden?
Tit balls can be renewed again and again from late autumn to spring
When you hang up suet balls is primarily determined by the weather. At the latest when the natural food sources dry up in autumn, Mrs. Titmouse, Mr. Woodpecker and Master Finke happily accept the spherical food supply. However, recognized bird experts, such as Prof. Dr. Berthold for feeding wild birds all year round. If you follow the ambitious ornithologist's call, you should hang suet balls in the garden at any time of the year.
We would like to make fat balls ourselves. Which fat is suitable?
As one of the main ingredients, fat in suet balls acts as an energy supplier and natural glue. Suitable fat should harden well at temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius. If the fat is too soft, the feathers become dirty, which significantly impairs the birds' ability to fly. The German Nature Conservation Union (NABU) recommends using beef tallow from a butcher that comes from regional organic production. Due to its soft consistency and low melting point, lard is unsuitable for making food dumplings. Vegan alternative is a vegetable fat. Ideally, use coconut oil.
For which birds are suet balls a food source?
Traditionally, suet balls contain sunflower seeds, nuts, oat flakes, millet and linseed. These ingredients are primarily enjoyed by grain eaters from the bird kingdom, such as tits, sparrows and woodpeckers. Equipped with powerful beaks, these bird species effortlessly crack hard shells. If you make suet balls yourself and mix in dried berries, cereal flakes and seeds as additional ingredients, the winged clientele expands to include soft food eaters, such as robins, blackbirds, thrushes and wrens.
Are suet balls also good bird food in summer?
Advancing urbanization and massive use of pesticides in agriculture have severely limited the food supply for birds. Fat balls are a good solution to at least partially cushion the loss of insects, seeds and wild berries so that birds do not go hungry in the middle of summer. In line with numerous bird experts, we advocate making your own suet balls without a net all year round and hanging them up in the garden.
Tie balls regularly disappear from our garden at night. Who in God's name steals tit balls?
The circle of suspects extends to magpies, ravens, martens, squirrels and cats. In eastern federal states, raccoons are also making themselves unpopular as thieves of suet balls. In the future, fill the suet balls into a metal spiral that you can buy at a garden center, hardware store or on Amazon. This trick is not a 100 percent guarantee against loss at night. At least the variant makes it more difficult for uninvited guests to steal the entire food supply from hungry tits.
Our dog eats suet balls. Is this dangerous?
No, because the composition of suet balls is not poisonous for a dog. This applies regardless of whether it is a home-made or purchased food dumpling. If the bird food was in the net, your four-legged friend's natural digestive process will solve the problem. However, we recommend observing your pet more closely for a few days. If you experience signs such as restlessness, cramps or vomiting, please consult a veterinarian.
We would like to make a large number of suet balls in stock for our large garden. How do the food dumplings stay fresh for a long time?
If you don't hang all the suet balls in the garden, you can store the fatty food in the refrigerator. Fat balls will stay fresh for about a week in a tightly closed container. To preserve the bird food for a longer period of time, you should freeze the food dumplings. The food supply stays fresh in the freezer for up to three months. It is important to note that you allow frozen suet balls to thaw before serving the dish to your feathered guests.
Is there a recommended alternative to the classic fat ball?
The feeding bell is very popular as a decorative and cat-safe alternative to traditional suet balls. Clay pots with a hole in the bottom and a diameter of 10 to 15 centimeters are well suited. As a hanger with seating, tie a stick into a thick cord, which will later protrude at least 10 centimeters from the feeding bell. A knot in the suspension rope closes the hole in the floor. Take the recipe in this guide and prepare the food mixture. While you pour the creamy grain-fat mixture into the clay pot, please pull the hanger taut. Now let the filling harden and the feeding bell is ready.
Tip
In the tit-friendly natural garden, the scissors have a break in autumn. Summer-flowering shrubs with berries, fruits, seeds and nuts do not receive any pruning after the flowering period. Busy insects take care of pollination so that flowers turn into nutritious, natural bird food. Nature-oriented hobby gardeners are therefore postponing planned pruning measures on summer-flowering trees until February in order not to deprive hungry titmice and other feathered winter guests of their food source.