Fats and Oils

Hoping someone can give me simple and unambiguous advice - I know this has been discussed before, sorry, but the advice out there seems to be conflicting.

Making up winter feeding mixtures, the advice has always been that it's better to use hard, saturated animal fats such as lard and suet as they provide more, sustained energy. I understand that, and we don't need to go over it. But recently there seems to have been a strong message (perceived as?) going out from RSPB and others (and repeated back to me by a number of wildlife gardeners) that unsaturated fats, e.g. vegetable oils, are actually bad for birds - despite these originating from the same nuts and seeds that we feed regularly in the garden (sunflower, peanut) or that wild birds forage on in farmland (rape and flax seed etc.).

Doesn't sound right to me, and I can't help thinking that people are getting the wrong end of the stick. Surely it's better for us to use vegetable fats and oils, if that's what we have available, rather than putting out lower-energy mixtures of cereals, fruit etc. with no fat in them for fear of doing more harm than good? I should add that ours is a vegetarian household, so the birds are getting vegetable fats or nothing from us!

This is coming up again and again, particularly as some water companies are offering householders fat traps (to avoid problems with blocked drains) and encouraging their customers to use waste fats and oils to make fat balls. Is it really that bad to use leftover oil or waste from your roasting tin to feed the birds? What if it's only vegetable fats (as in our case as vegetarians)? RSPB advice suggests that oils and soft fats can be a problem if they get onto birds' feathers, but we always absorb ours into lots of grains/cereals, and mix with fruit, so it doesn't feel greasy when we put it out on our feeding tray.

It seems a waste to throw away a good resource, and in these economic conditions I can't necessarily justify going out and buying any more fat snacks specifically for bird feeding. On top of this, my personal politics are that it is morally dubious to be raising farm animals just to render them down into lard to feed wild animals. I don't want to do anything that's actually harmful though, so if it's really a problem I'll just stop feeding fat altogether and go back to offering nuts, grains, seeds and mealworms, and maintaining a wildlife-friendly garden where birds can forage for worms and insects.

Cheers for your comments and advice!

  • I have mostly perfected Vegan Suet Cakes. Not just Vegetarian, which I am, but they end up being Vegan.

    I am still working on them, and will move to get them certified as such. They are also 100% human-grade, which means we can eat them too, tho they're not made for us.

    I always thought that lard was disgusting. It's not good for humans, why would it be healthy for birds?

    I have tried most of the oils, they didn't like coconut oil, turns out it's not good for them. I tried palm oil once, but it's destroying the environment. I'm back at vegetable oil.

    My suets are never out long enough to grow mold or bacteria. I've done multiple Suet Taste Tests, mine vs. holders with 8-10 store-bought brands, any brand, any flavor. Mine are GONE in a few hours, the others will linger long after.

    I seem to have recently perfected a great Woodpecker recipe. I live in a forest, they didn't super care about the suets, until I've upped the peanuts. Now it's a beacon call for "Angry Woodpeckers." Did you notice they only fight with their own kind? There will be a dozen birds on 1 suet, and the WP's all go after each other, then do their silly left-right-left-right dance.

    I am not working on environmentally-friendly wrappings, then I hope to sell them. Right now, I spend a lot of $$$ and give them away for free, such as to Seniors who love birds too.

    I am in the Detroit area. They are called Dinosaur Feet Suets. In case you see them one day.
  • From what I have read, it is not to do with ingesting but to do with the birds ability to weatherproof if the oils from the fats get onto their feathers. Harder fats like proper lard and suet are crumbly and do not stick to the birds feathers as much, whereas vegetable oils and other soft fats stick to the birds feathers and make them greasy. It's very hard for them to 'degrease' therefore you are affecting their ability to stay warm in the winter. 

  • Do not feed any wild birds. Vegetarian or fat. Also why post in a thread from 2013!