A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 Homemade Suet Cakes

I'd put them in the blender first...

ok. i have random pieces of cat food that the cat's dribble around. i figure that might be a good use for it!

Good idea!

I keep all kinds of random stuff like that...in a big zip lock bag in the freezer...then dump it all in the blender every once in awhile and make a kinda flour thing out of it.

Also I save leftover cooked rice in the fridge for whenever I make cakes. (I make suet cakes at twice once a week...)

I just made suet cakes a few minutes ago...and used half a box of old Cheerios in them.

I did not know you could use cooked rice. That is very cool, I always have rice hanging around.

i use the rice to feed the dogs. rice is so much better than any of the other grains for dogs. stands to reason the birds would like it too!

Thorn barks and wags his tail happily and looks at Jiffy with his ENORMOUS puppy eyes, licking his lips hungrily.

thorn, do you want calrose, long grain, or jasmine?

WOOF!

Jiffy if you use cat food in your suet, you MIGHT get Catbirds.

What kind of birds will I get with the suet cakes made from dog biscuits?

A Chihuahuan Raven.

Cindy's suet is a hit!! The birds are fighting over it!
That's a carolina wren a female downy woodpecker and if you look to the right you see my buddy the brown creeper on his way to break up the party!!

I had lots of breeds there all day. I had a nuthatch and a red belly together. And the carolina wren wouldn't budge - he shared meals with lots of birds. He thought he was a very big bird today.
God Bless Cindy!!!

Oh, COOL!!!

Brennan (my grandson) loves to watch the birds fighting over the suet cakes. I usually have 3 cakes on one limb, and there's so many birds there at one time it's awesome.

It sounds like a lot of trouble to make your own suet cakes, but it really doesn't take that long.

Glad you made some...
...but the bad part is, once the birds get used to them, they won't eat the store-bought ones anymore...at least mine wouldn't.

Mine won't either. I have one out now and it has been there for 2 weeks and still not gone. I have to get more suet supplies so they can have the good stuff.

Suet Sub or is a Suet Hoagie?
Hi all

I am having a lot of fun with Cindy's suet recipe. Hubby was late home from work and rejected old garlic bread. I was going to break it up and put in the suet, but I couldn't resist making a suet sub - that's a suet hoagie for all my PA friends
Would would you like that with a side of sunflower seeds?

That is so cute..
I love it!!!

Hi all
I have had so much fun with Cindy's suet recipe. I hope you saw my suet sub I posted earlier. I have a big bowl and I save all bread scraps and such. All my friends save stale high protein stuff - nuts! My bowl looks a lot like the one cindy prepared earlier in this thread.

I'm a one pan/casserole dish kind of gal, so I wanted an alternative to saving old suet containers from store bought stuff. So I started playing ...

Here is my new method:



#1 -- I lined my glas pyrex brownie/casserole pan with "press'seal Freezer wrap. I am not crazy about the regular press'n seal but I am really like the freezer variety.

#2 -- I mixed the bread/nut/rice/etc. scraps in a big bowl with lard melted in the microwave (I mix with a wooden spatula.. me no likey to touchy :p )and then I poured it into the lined brownie pan.

#3 -- I took a length of press'nseal freezer paper and cut it lengthwise. I used one piece length and four shorter lengths and with a pancake I carefully pressed the frezzer part in the suet to create the six cakes.

#4 -- Freeze it!

Once it is frozen I let it sit out a bit and then it falls right out of the pan.

Finally, I break it up,bag it and tag it!

Cool idea for freezing!
(...get it..."cool"...."freezing"...)

I used to make stuff like the suet sub, but I moved my big platform feeder when I dug the new pond and never have gotten around to putting it back up. So all I have right now is the big suet cage things... Now that I really need that feeder put back the ground is frozen solid and i can't dig the hole for the post. :rolleyes:

You know I bet you could go to those Dollar Stores and find yourself those popcycle makers' for kids and spray'em maybe with Pam and do the same kind of thing... only they'd be Suet cakes' on sticks...

Cindy....do you think I can put over ripe bananas in my suet?

I have put over-ripe bananas in my suet cakes several times.

I made these tonight Cindy! I sure hope my birds like them! Will put one out and see! I'm sure they will like them if I made them right!

I am sure they will LOVE them Jessica, but beware, they get spoiled and will NOT eat the store ones after they get the real thing!

Well I like to spoil my birds!

Me too!! So how did the birds enjoy it?