How to Make Homemade Bird Suet: 6 Recipe Ideas

Attract birds to your outdoor space with these simple ingredients

By Melissa Mayntz
Updated on 08/30/22
Reviewed by
Kathleen Miller
Kathleen Miller
Reviewed by Kathleen Miller
Kathleen Miller is a highly-regarded Master Gardener and Horticulturist who shares her knowledge of sustainable living, organic gardening, farming, and landscape design. She founded Gaia's Farm and Gardens, a working sustainable permaculture farm, and writes for Gaia Grows, a local newspaper column. She has over 30 years of experience in gardening and sustainable farming.
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Fact checked by
Sarah Scott
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Fact checked by Sarah Scott
Sarah Scott is a fact-checker and researcher who has worked in the custom home building industry in sales, marketing, and design.
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bird at a suet feeder

The Spruce / Candace Madonna 

Project Overview
  • Working Time: 1 hr - 1 hr, 30 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hr - 1 hr, 30 mins
  • Skill Level: Beginner
  • Estimated Cost: $0 - $20

Suet is animal fat that has been rendered to form hard cakes, balls, or other shapes. Suet is a great food to offer birds when they need more calories to maintain their body heat and energy levels. While there are many commercial suet blocks, cakes, and plugs available, making your own suet bird food is much cheaper option.

When to Feed Birds With Suet

Birds are in greatest need of the energy and calories provided by suet during the fall and winter when their other natural food sources have dwindled. Making suet laden with seeds and nuts can be a good holiday activity to begin about Halloween. Molded suet cakes will keep almost indefinitely in the refrigerators, and they can be a good gift for the bird lovers in your extended family.

Working With Suet

Making homemade suet is just as easy as making hummingbird nectar or creating a custom birdseed mix for your backyard chicken flock. It is also more affordable than purchasing commercial cakes, bells, plugs, or blocks. Making your own suet allows you to customize the ingredients to appeal to the types of birds in your yard or those you specifically wish to attract. A homemade suet mixture is also free from preservatives and dyes that might be found in purchased suet products. Individual birds may be sensitive to these additives so it is always preferable to feed birds natural, organic food substances.

Homemade suet recipes do not need to be complicated to attract a range of hungry birds. Before offering the suet to birds, however, it should be rendered to help it maintain its shape more easily. When you purchase suet in cakes from a bird supply store, this step should already be complete.

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Click Play to Learn How to Make a Homemade Suet for Birds

What You'll Need

Equipment / Tools

  • Sharp knife or meat grinder
  • Saucepan
  • Wooden spoon
  • Bowls
  • Cheesecloth or a fine-mesh strainer
  • Containers for molding suet

Materials

  • Animal fat
  • "Treat" ingredients, such as flour, peanut butter, seeds, and dried fruit (optional)

Instructions

  1. Prepare the Fat

    Chop the fat into small pieces or run it through a meat grinder. If you are getting the fat from a butcher, they may be willing to do this for you. Make sure all traces of meat, bone, or other tissues are removed.

    cutting up beef suet into smaller pieces
    ​The Spruce / Candace Madonna 

  2. Heat the Fat

    Heat the chopped fat on low heat until it is fully liquefied. Do not use higher temperatures to melt the suet more quickly, as this could lead to fires or scorching. Stir the fat constantly to help it melt evenly without burning.

    liquefying the suet over heat
    ​The Spruce / Candace Madonna 

  3. Strain the Suet

    Strain the liquid fat through cheesecloth or a fine-mesh strainer to remove any particles or contaminants. The liquid should be strained several times so it is as pure as possible. It may need to be reheated between each straining to stay fully liquid and strain more easily.

    straining suet over fine mesh
    ​The Spruce / Candace Madonna 

  4. Blend in the Treats (Optional)

    Once the suet is rendered, it can be fed to the birds as-is or you can add simple ingredients to make it more appetizing to a wider range of birds. (See recipe options, below.)

    Popular ingredients to customize a suet recipe include chopped, unsalted nuts, especially peanuts (do not use coated or flavored nuts), dried fruit bits or whole, unsweetened raisins or cranberries, birdseed, kitchen scraps (use only very limited quantities), and insects, such as dried mealworms, flies, or crickets.

    mixing together suet ingredients

    The Spruce / Candace Madonna 

  5. Mold the Suet

    Allow the pure suet or mixture to cool slightly to thicken, then pour it into molds or containers to use. Allow it to cool completely until it forms solid blocks. Refrigerate or freeze suet until it is firm and you are ready to use it. Extra suet may be kept frozen for up to six months until needed. The cakes can be chopped or cut to be fed to the birds, or you may use containers that are the appropriate size to fit your suet feeders.

    pouring suet into molds to cool
    ​The Spruce / Candace Madonna

Easy Recipe

Here's an easy recipe for suet:

Blend 1 cup rendered fat and 1 cup chunky peanut butter together until they are smooth and liquid. Add 3 cups ground cornmeal and 1/2 cup white or wheat flour. Mix the ingredients well. This makes the suet more crumbly and easier for birds to eat, as well as less messy in the warmer months.

Homemade Bird Suet Recipe

The Spruce / Jo Zixuan Zhou

5 Other Recipe Options for Homemade Suet

There are several ways to acquire different types of animal fat for making your own cakes, and many birders have one method that is easiest or preferred for them. You can try different methods to find the type of fat that is most popular with your backyard birds as well as best for your budget.

  1. Purchase rendered plain suet cakes or chunks from a wild bird supply store, garden center, or pet store. These cakes can be used as-is or can be melted down to be used in more specialized suet recipes. This will usually be the most expensive option, as these cakes have already been processed and shaped for feeders.
  2. Purchase suet or beef fat trimmings from a local butcher. This is a less expensive option and depending on your butcher, you may be able to have these scraps for a drastic discount or even for free. Also, consider asking beef farmers or anyone who butchers cattle about fat trimmings they will give away or sell for a small price.
  3. Save bacon and pork meat drippings to create your own suet. This will be softer than rendered beef fat but is still suitable for the birds as a rare treat. Do not feed birds exclusively bacon drippings, however, since some compounds from that type of fried fat could be detrimental to birds in the long term. Furthermore, excessive salt in these drippings could be harmful, though more study is needed to determine how much salt birds can ingest safely.
  4. Buy lard at the grocery store. Lard is typically found shelved near the butter or margarine products and can be used the same way as plain suet, though it will be somewhat softer and may melt more easily on hot days.
  5. Buy vegetable shortening, such as Crisco, if you prefer to make suet without animal fat. This is a preferred choice for many vegan or vegetarian birders who prefer not to use animal products, and it is still suitable for the birds. Vegetable shortening is typically stocked on the shelves with other baking supplies
FAQ
  • Should I feed suet to birds year-round?

    While birds will eat suet whenever it is offered, homemade suet does not hold up well in very warm weather, when it can grow liquidy and become susceptible to mold. Fall and winter are the typical seasons when birds make best use of suet. In spring and summer, natural food sources abound.

  • Will suet feeders attract squirrels?

    Squirrels do not eat the fats in suet, but they are often attracted to the nuts and seeds that are embedded in the fat. Placing your homemade suet in wire cages will limit the piracy for which squirrels are infamous.

  • Is animal fat bad for birds?

    No. Many birds are natural carnivores, subsisting mostly on a diet of insects. Animal fat in suet offers them a good supply of calorie-providing food that makes winter survival easier. Birds are not prone to overeating when offered fat-based suet.

  • What birds eat suet?

    All birds will be attracted to your suet feeders, especially in the winter, but you can tailor the mixture to attract the birds you want. For example, pure suet made from only animal fat is likely to attract mostly insect-eating birds, such as woodpeckers, nuthatches, and chickadees, while blending in seeds such as peanuts, sunflower seeds, and cracked corn will broaden the appeal to include cardinals, bluejays, grosbeaks, juncos, and other seed-eating birds. Check with a local birding supply store for advice on what to include in your homemade suet mix.

  • Should I change out the suet when it gets old?

    Yes. If you notice birds landing on your suet feeders but then leaving, it means the fat has probably grown rancid. Empty out the feeder and replace the contents with new suet.

Bird Diet Types

Watch Now: Top 7 Bird Feeding Mistakes

Article Sources
The Spruce uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

  1. DIY Suet. University of Florida Gardening Solutions.

  2. Nutritional Disorders of Pet Birds. Merck Veterinary Manual.

  3. About Suet, Mealworms, And Other Bird Foods. Cornell University.