Neighbor insisted her suet recipe was better - killed my feeder traffic for a month

My neighbor Carol gave me her homemade suet recipe back in February, swore it was what attracted goldfinches and woodpeckers to her yard. I swapped out my usual store-bought suet for her mix of bacon grease and peanut butter. For four weeks straight, my feeder sat empty except for a single starling. I finally switched back to my old suet block last Tuesday and within two days the chickadees and a downy woodpecker came back. Has anyone else had homemade suet recipes totally flop on them like this?

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1 Comment

sageburns1mo ago

Oh boy, let me just stop you right there. That suet recipe is probably fine for attracting starlings and squirrels, but bacon grease is way too greasy and salty for most birds. The peanut butter, if it's the real stuff, can also be a mess because it doesn't hold together as well as solid fat. Store-bought suet blocks are usually rendered beef fat with just the right consistency and fewer additives. I'd bet your neighbor's mix was just too runny or sticky for woodpeckers and goldfinches to bother with. So no, the recipe didn't flop - it was just made for a different kind of bird table. Stick with the good stuff.