Fat Balls
Aug 30th, 2008 by Birdy Trish
Have just been topping up the bird feedrs and also been melting some fat and coating some bird seed and scraps and moulding them into fatballs. Have put together three different fatball recipies I use. -
Recycled Scraps Fatball,
Easy Peasy Fatball,
The No-Fatball Fatball.
Interested - read more
RECYCLED SCRAPS FATBALL
We’ve had this fatball recipe written down in our family for years. I think it came from my parents. Have used it lots of times. I vaguely remember doing something like this when I was a child. It’s just a case of mixing ingredients with melted fat
As long as it is half the amount of fat to the amount of DRY food you have.
My kids used to enjoy mixing it all up and then putting them outside in the garden. I made sure to keep them away from the pan when I was melting the lard though! Kids seem to like mixing things up and getting messed up.
You need -
SUET or LARD - 225 g / (8oz) .
FOR THE MIXTURE - 450 g / (1lb) - See below for a list of ingredients you can use.
- cake, (fruitcake especially would be welcome!)
- oatmeal,
- peanuts and other nuts,
- dried fruit
- cooked rice.
- cooked potato,
- oats
You can use bird seed mixture for part of the dry food.
Put all the dry in gredients into a dish, half a coconut shell, small flowerpot or any other suitable container.
Pour the melted fat over the dry ingredients and allow to set.
The bird fatball ‘pudding’ can either be placed on your bird table or left in the container and hung from a branch or table.
So come on give it a go. Feed the birds and recycle your scraps at the same time.
Remember, don’t through away the scraps of food, put them into a fatball pudding. Get the kids to join in and Feed the Garden Birds.
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EASY PEASY FATBALL
Bird seed and fat make a really good home made fatball. Birds love it. I love this recipe. It only takes a jiff to do.
Here’s the step by step recipe -
- 1 kilogram of mixed bird seed
- 500 g (1/2 lb ) lard. IT MUST BE FAT. IT CANNOT BE VEGETABLE OIL. BIRDS NEED FAT FOR ENERGY.
- Small containers lined with greaseproof paper or kitchen foil.
- Melt the lard in a frying pan. The lard does not need to get hot. Just needs to be warm liquid.
- Mix the bird seed and lard together in a large tub (as the lard wasn’t hot I used an old plastic ice cream tub
- Divide the mixture into the smaller tubs.
- Wait for the lard to go solid and the mixture to set
- Put the mixture from one of the small tubs on bird table and save the others for another day
- Sit back with a coffee and a biscuit and watch as they flock to eat the food.
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THE NO FAT BALL FAT BALL! - For use on a birdtable.
This receipe is for coating bird food in fat and putting it loose onto the bird table. It will give birds extra energy. You only need 3 items. 1. Mixed Bird Food. 2. Lard. 3. An old metal container
- melt lard in a frying pan and
- pour the lard over any type of bird food which has been placed in an old metal container.
- Mix the melted lard and the bird seed together. Let the lard coat the bird seed. Don’t bother making it into fat balls.
- Put some of this fat coated bird food on the bird tables
- keep the bird tables topped up all day with this mixture
- This mixture is good for a windy day when the hanging bird feeders may be out of action due to the wind
I know it sounds like a fat ball, but it’s not.
The lard coats the bird seed and makes it can be scooped onto the bird table. This has five good points -
- In very windy weather it stops the bird food blowing away
- It gives the birds much needed fat
- It only takes a minute to do. Melt fat then pour over bird food.
- There is no need to measure. It’s easy to tell when there is enough fat coating the bird seed
- Any bird food can be used. I put a general mixture and included peanuts but there other bird food you can use.
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DO NOT USE VEGETABLE OIL WHEN MAKING FATBALLS. BIRDS NEED FAT. VEGETABLE OIL IS NO GOOD
IF YOU BUY FATBALLS WRAPPED IN WIRE MESH - Always remove the bag before putting the fat ball inside the fatball feeder as the soft mesh can trap and injure birds.
Fat balls are an excellent food. So come on. Lets feed the Birds. The fresh air will do us good.
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A year ago today - Bird Table News 30th August 2007 - I must have been busy - I wrote in this diary three times on that day!!
A bird photograph I am proud of
Photo of fledglings on my fence
Hedgerow - Home for British Birds
Feel free to print the bird fatball recipes off or if you would like me to email you them as a PDF let me know.
