The reason I believe it may be a Vit. a deficiency is that the BB foot looks like a possible ~bumblefoot~. Of course Vit. A deficiency is not the only cause of such a condition, that is to say, a corn / hyperkeratosis / swelling of the bottom of a foot but it certainly is near the top of the causes that may predispose birds to the condition and a secondary debilitating bacterial condition. They may also get a secondary yeast infection of the foot. If a Vit. A deficiency is recognized fairly early, supplementation will result in resolution of the deficiency starting within a week. In reality this does not occur so rapidly as the secondary infections also need to be addressed and treated. The primary sources for Vit. A are plant materials in deep green and orange veggies as well as egg yolk. Suet is high in protein, fat and the B vitamins. I do not know the specifics of the product mentioned in the article linked. A Vit. A deficiency, or any nutritional deficiency, may occur in any species. A varied diet is the best diet to decrease the occurence of a nutritional deficiency. Just as an aside ... for those who use suet ... If you take some suet product and grind it into the tree bark of the trunk and various branches ... you will increase the WP, Nuthatch, Creeper and other visitors! They **REALLY** like eating the suet this way and more are able to feed at a time if the food is spread around some. I am NOT an avian specialist but just offer this observation as my ~best guess~ for the condition in question. It may or may not be the true problem.

If it is true I wonder if you could stick the meal worms in the freezer and save them to the fall time, I know they go dormant in the refrigerater but would sticking them in the freezer be too much for them, would you end up with dead meal worms. This would be practical for me since I've got about 1000 meal worms and the birds are not even touching them and it makes me wonder if the meal worms are killing them since I've got the last batch which so happen to be right before the last batch fledged two weeks ago, Never saw them again after they left, I expected them to stick around for the free meal worms, I hope they are still alive. And I'm not sure if this currect adult pair, if it is the same pair that had the first two clutches. I suspect one of them isn't and the other one ran off with the kids. Never the Less, this female has laid 5 eggs and has probably been sitting on them for a week, haven't been watching them as much as last clutch. Anyway many Questions and mysteries in life, Keith

First thought, I'd rather hold it in a double boiler than reheat it. But I'm not sure how long it would hold well. Second thought is this probably takes less than ten minutes to make start to finish, and if you had it made through the reduction, you'd get that down to about 3 minutes of last minute work. Third thought is I'm surprised at the "melted butter"... most butter sauce recipes I've ever seen use room temp or slightly warmed butter. Enjoy!!!

FOAS, no I haven't eaten it. I can't, as the ranch dressing has garlic in it. My DS & DS have had it tho and like it. I don't like hot foods, so I probably wouldn't have tried it anyway. The anniv party is a big back yard open house type party, so it will go great. Thank you for thinking about making sure it was a tasty recipe. She has made this for over a year that I know of, and it is always a hit. Tami