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Too much Suet Dough?

18 years ago

Have any of you heard about this? I only feed mealworms sometimes and regular peanutbutter-woodpecker suet. This seems alarming.

Here is a link that might be useful: bluebird foot problems from too much suet dough?

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Comments (4)

nhblues
Original Author
18 years ago
I see my woodpeckers eat quite a bit of suet this summer... it seems there's a lot of babies around my house. Could this happen to the woodies? C3D maybe you can answer?
chickadeedeedee
18 years ago
My first impression is there is a Vitamin A deficiency but need to look up what's in the suet. I don't have time right now but will look into it later.

As with any diet for any species it is best to vary the foods so there is less of a chance to get a deficiency of this or that. We offer here a minimum of 6 kind of suet blends and more kind of seed and nut mixes than that. Plus the moistened dry dog food, fruits, berries and nectars. That way the birds are more likely to sample from the variety than stick with one type of food.

I'll look into the suet later.

C3D
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LOL Tsuga. I think with the warmer weather we were having I was getting overzealous. I even started painting my garage, yet to be finished. I've been feeding suet all winter. In the past month, I've seen my first downy woodpecker as mentioned earlier, and another unidentified bird...same size as a sparrow, almost looks like a sparrow at a distance, but a closer look shows a muted red on its head and neck region, and when they spread their wings you can see a red spot on their back. Not bright red like a cardinal, a soft muted red. I've never seen them before. In one glance, I have robins, cardinals, juncos, the unidentified bird, chickadees, and usual sparrows in my yard. Tons of activity. They seem to be enjoying the new evergreen thuja green giant I planted last year too. I just purchased some black oil sunflower last night, have to figure out where I'm going to put it. I read the seeds inhibit plant growth.
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You are probably correct about the corn and millet but my intended purpose is to photo document as many species of birds as I can. To that end I put out a large variety of foods that will attract all birds, whether they are consodered desirable or not. In fact,as long as I keep the feeders full I see very little actual competion between any of the species. Now I will freely admit that sometimes I have to refill the feeders 2 or 3 times a day and I scatter a considerable amount of seed as well as Bread, orange peels and apples on the ground but I get the apples free and 10 loaves of bread for a dollar, and there is an upside to this method. 1. The Squirrels actually prefer the bread.: . 2. generally the starlings and sparrows prefer to feed on the ground, here again, often preferring the bread to the seed, not to mention that there is a flock of 31 wild turkeys that come in shortly after daylight to get the bread and corn that is left on the ground. Even the Bluejays and Cardinals prefer to feed on the ground and often I see a half a dozen species of birds feeding right alongside a squirrel or chipmonk and on two oc occasions I have seen a groundhog feeding with the birds. Now I am sure that I could get a more selective clientele if I changed the menu but at my house Nobody goes away hungry.
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Excuse the typos. Im on my iphone Im in milwaukee and winters i typically get chickadees cardinals downy woodpecker Sparrows (avoid adding Millet to suet) and the occasional Junco. Haven't seen chickadees this year as of yet, possibly Due to warmer winter. Purchased a squirrel proof suet feeder from menards. Saves Me lots of suet, I just give squirrels a spoon of Peanut butter every day as they're hungry too use chunky peanut butter. Lard and white or wheat flour I also add the following ingredients until mix Turns into easy texture to press into 9x18 cake pan, freeze Then cut to size with spatula. Rolled Oats Cream of wheat Wheat germ Corn meal Crushed fritos (Attracts juncos) Crushed cereals Chopped dried fruits - apples cranberries raisins Nuts- sunflower walnut peanut crushed Syrup or molasses or honey or all three Sugar Sometimes I add strained bacon grease w/lard I added millet once and it attracted a lot of sparrows Which tend to chase other birds away so I stopped Using millet. I tried rendering the real suet once and birds Preferred the p-butter suet mix, happy me it's much Easier. Getting a platform feeder will attract a wider variety Of birds. Juncos like to feed closer to the ground So I put suet crumbs in a pie pan on top of my Central air unit near my suet feeder, but they also Visit my hanging feeder that I keep near brush so they Have shelter from predators. I hang suet feeder On shepherds hook outside my window. At our cottage about two hours north With the same suet I get a lot of juncos Chickadees red bellied woodpecker. Downy woodpecker Nuthatch and cardinals. Do a search for Sialis + bird suet and you'll find A number of recipes there. I sort of "wing" it and Add a bunch of ingredients until I get the desired Texture. No pun intended.
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Comments (13)
Thanks for the response, Jim! The other day I mixed up some peanut butter, cornmeal(organic), a bit of bacon grease, a bit of molasses, some chopped apple, and made what I call "dough balls" like we used to for fish bait. It held together well, so I put about 4 golf ball size chunks in the wire suet feeder. Even the HOSPs are climbing all over that wire feeder to get to the dough balls. I also bought some regular popcorn (not microwave; nothing in it) that I thought I would fix and toss out on the ground for the ground feeding birds. Right now I am not able to get to the store to get seed. OKC had 14 inches of snow (unprecedented for us) and we are definitely not prepared for snow of this magnitude. We usually get ice that melts the next day, but it is going to be so cold for the next 10 days or so, so not much melting anticipated. Just trying to think up things I have available in the pantry to feed the birds. Appreciate all the good info I am getting on this forum! Susan
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nhblues
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks C3D for checking. I offer all sorts of different seeds, too (safflower, millet, regular and black oil sunflower, woodpecker nut mix - pistachio, peanut cashew, almond, etc, finch blend w/niger) plus suet (I like the no melt kind). I am glad to hear there is a good reason to.
chickadeedeedee
18 years ago
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.

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