Home made fat balls????

Gingernutmeg

Suet is beef (or mutton) fat, lard is pork fat. There are differences in the kinds of fat and where the fat is from in the animal, but the main difference is the type of animal it comes from

Sue-UU

mrsclecoco wrote: »

Hi can anyone give me any tips on making my own fat balls for the birds please?
My daughter would love this tanks

Some great recipes above - but - it's worth remembering that Fat Balls should NOT be used at this time of year as the fat does them no good

They are wonderful for the winter, when they really do need it.

Good luck with those recipes in the future though.

Sue

BIO_2

Can anyone tell me if waste vegetable oil fat is ok to make a fat ball with?
Many thanks
keith

Sue-UU

Hi Bio and welcome to MSE!

I wouldn't think there would be a problem ~ so long ~ as it hadn't got burnt in ANY way. However, if there is any doubt at all, then please DON'T use it, but if it's fresh from e.g. frying eggs, cooking a roast where the oil hadn't been even a little burnt then I can't see the harm.

Mix it with cereal, oats, nuts, mixed bird seed or sunflower hearts and a little bread (preferably brown), sultanas, stale scones etc and in this weather, they'll love you for it!!!! Even juice from grilled bacon will be adored!!!

Sue

Larumbelle

You can't use vegetable oil to make fatballs. According to the RSPB, birds need high levels of saturated fat and they don't process other fats properly. Added to that, most vegetable fats are liquid at room temperature, and if liquid fat gets onto their feathers it destroys their natural oils, this can result in their death, especially in winter. Vegetable fats that are solid at room temperature have normally been treated by hydrogenation or similar, and again, birds bodies can't handle this.

miggy

The recipe I was taught goes as follows:
Put lard and a little cold water in a pan.
Melt together gently. (DON'T add water to hot fat - you could end up in A&E).
When melted, stir in torn up bread and porridge oats to make a very thick consistency.
Also add nuts, bird seed, dried fruit, bacon rind chopped small so they don't choke on it - whatever is available.
Cool sufficiently for the mixture not to melt empty yogurt pots!
Use to pack around a length of string dangled into an empty yogurt pot so it looks like a loooong candle wick.
Cool completely - best at fridge temperature.
Remove from yogurt pot (not always easy - you may need to dip it in warm water to grease the sides, IYSWIM) and use the string to hang it outside.
Make plenty. Once the birds realise it's there it will be gone almost immeditaely.

I used to use fat from sausages until I started worrying that the salt & additives would harm the birds. Does anyone know if that's the case?

Oh, and don't forget birds need clean drinking water especially in this frosty weather.

Am now feeling guilty for not saving fat from sausages. Still, only a matter of time till we are saving it for dripping on toast like in the old days

BIO_2

Many thanks for the quick replys even if im i bit confused now,id read this
http://www.sialis.org/suet.htm which seemed to say veg oil was ok but i wanted to check first
The reason i asked was i run my cars on waste veg oil (normally rapeseed oil) which is filtered first so i end up with a lot of solid fats-at room temp-and instead of disposing of it i thought fat balls would kill two birds with one stone:D

peter_the_piper

Unfortunate Tern of phrase.

BIO_2

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Unfortunate Tern of phrase.

I bow to a master:rotfl:

peter_the_piper

I keep telling this to my OH but she won't listen.