26
Why everyone needs to stop putting out cheap suet blocks
Honestly, I visited a friend's backyard last weekend in Portland and saw her feeder covered in cheap suet that was basically just fat and fillers. The birds were ignoring it and starlings were fighting over the scraps. Has anyone else noticed a big difference when you switch to the higher protein blocks?
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
simonw4127d ago
You are absolutely right. I got a big box of those cheap generic suet blocks from a chain store once and it was just greasy mess. The woodpeckers and nuthatches would barely touch it but the starlings would tear it apart. I switched to the peanut butter and insect suet from a local bird shop and it was like night and day. The good stuff barely melts even on a warm day and the birds clean it up in a couple days instead of it just sitting there going rancid.
9
Yeah I read somewhere that a lot of those cheap blocks use beef fat and corn syrup which is basically junk food for birds. They fill up on empty calories and don't get the protein they need for winter. The good stuff uses rendered beef suet or lard with real nuts and insects mixed in. I noticed the same thing with my feeder last year, the woodpeckers just sat on the branch looking at the cheap block like they were confused.
5