Another silly question from a newbie.
I had some money for Xmas and b'day which I invested in bird table etc. I also bought "proper" brid food. However my birds don't seem to go for suet ball or squares.
Now we don't have a lot of money and I'm spending what we do have on live mealworms for the nestlings - so what I've been feeding is :-
I buy a loaf of wholemeal bread and keep any dripping from sausages, burgers (OK who guessed I've got fussy teenagers? LOL) and roast. I keep the dripping as it comes in the fridge then turn the bread into crumbs melt the fat and add to the bread. I also add either a fat ball melted or a quater of a square thingy, then I add a couple of scoops of bird seed. I do add fruit to a third then kibbled peanuts to another third and dried (mind you've I've plenty of live) mealworms to the last third. I pop these 3 into the freezer and defrost just before i feed. I also feed mashed potatoes and cooked rice which my birds seem to really like.
Is this ok?
COS my birds seem to prefer "Lyndsey's Homemade Patented Mix" to the "proper" food I also put out.
Lyndsey
I didn't get to be stupid by being blonde, I was stupid enough to pay to be blonde!!!
Hi Lyndsey,
What spoilt birds! This all sounds delicious, but there is one thing that I should point out though - fat from cooking is potentially bad for birds. The problem with cooked fat from roasting tins and dishes etc, is that the meat juices have blended with the fat and when allowed to set, this consistency makes it prone to smearing, not good for birds' feathers. It is a breeding ground for bacteria, so potentially bad for birds' health. Salt levels depend on what meat is used and if any salt is added during cooking. Lard and beef suet on their own are fine as they re-solidify after warming and as they are pure fat, it is not as suitable for bacteria to breed on.
Other household scraps you could use include porridge oats, cooked and uncooked pastry, dried fruit and mild grated cheese.
For less than the price of a wholemeal loaf you can buy 1Kg of muesli from a well known supermarket beginning with the letter T. It contains nuts, fruit, and oats. I add extra nuts and suet to it in the winter. The birds love it and it only costs 58p for 1Kg
Hi Cottagegardener thanks for that idea will give it a go.
ooooooohhhhhHHHHHH what a good Idea - I always thought if muesli being expensive!!!
Re the salt and feather problem - the melted cooking fat forms a small part of what I put out and I dont cook with salt MDH has problems with it!! lol. I also only use 100% meat burgrs and sauasages (welllllll if thats all the teenages will eat I gotta do my best to make sure its the best!!) It works out at about 2 tbs per half a loaf plus the proper balls or squares and the proper bird mix so I hope that mitigates it a bit, its just a small part of the mix. If I havn't got any dripping then I just add a known suet brand beginning with A!!!
The problem is they luurrvvrve it!!!
Gosh forgot to say I melt all the fat stuff b4 adding it to the breadcrumbs!!!