In frost and snow, additional feeding of our feathered friends is appropriate because the animals use a lot of energy to maintain their body temperature. The important thing is that when you start feeding, you consistently offer the birds the right food until the end of winter. You can easily make fat balls yourself, without plastic waste and in pretty shapes.
How can you make suet balls yourself?
To make suet balls yourself, you need a mixture of grains or seeds, coconut oil or animal fat, cooking oil and silicone baking cups. Fill the molds with the mixture, pour the warmed fat over them and insert a skewer. After it has cooled, pull the thread through and hang it up.
Ingredients:
- Commercial grain mixture or alternatively one
- Seed mixture made from two quarters of sunflower seeds and one quarter of hemp seeds. The remaining quarter should consist of equal parts oat flakes, chopped nuts, small seeds and mealworms.
- For soft food eaters, use a mix of wheat bran, berries and oat flakes.
- Coconut fat, beef or mutton tallow and some cooking oil.
- small silicone baking cups. Molds that already have a hole, such as mini Bundt cakes, are particularly practical.
- For hanging: toothpick or shish kebab skewer and coconut thread.
Preparation
- Place the baking cups on a baking tray.
- Heat the fat in a pot. If you mix one fifth of the hard fats with cooking oil, the food will not crumble.
- Pour the seed mixture into the molds about 1 centimeter high.
- Pour fat.
- Depending on the silicone mold used, insert a skewer or toothpick into the mixture.
- This remains in the food mixture while it cools down, creating a hole.
- Remove the solidified food from the mold and carefully remove the skewer.
- Thread the coconut thread through.
Since the coconut thread poses no risk to wild animals and does not deteriorate, you can hang these fat balls outdoors without worry. However, make sure that the place you choose is in the shade, otherwise the fat could melt on warm winter days.
Make your own coconut shells and food bells
You can alternatively put the above mixture in halved coconut shells or flower pots. Beforehand, stick a branch through the eyes of the nuts or the drain hole in the planter. The lining can be hung on the upper part. The animals can hold on to the protruding part at the bottom while eating.
Then fill in the still soft food mixture and let it harden completely. You can then attach the bell in a shady place.
Tip
If you don't want to go through the trouble of making dumplings, you can use feeding stations and spirals. These are available in different designs, suitable for traditional dumplings without a net or the jars of bird peanut butter that are very popular with the animals.
