Make suet for birds at home with your own suet recipe. This page contains suet recipes for making suet for birds. Home made suet is appreciated more by the birds than suet purchased in the store.


Suet is enjoyed by woodpeckers, flickers, nuthatches, chickadees, cardinals, and stellar jays.


When you purchase suet at the store, save the forms to make home made suet.


The first suet recipe has been shown to be slightly more appreciated than the second recipe, however, you may want to try both to see which one your birds will more readily accept. I don’t use suet in the summer as it does not stay as fresh as it does in winter. Remember to keep your bird feeders clean using a small bleach solution every so often. When cleaning your feeders, make sure they are completely dry before putting back out and filling with suet.

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup vegetable shortening (like Crisco)
1/2 cup shelled peanuts
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup corn meal
1/2 cup cracked corn


Mix all of the above ingredients together. Not all ingredients need to be used (use whatever you have on hand), as long as the mixture will stick together. Feel free to add in a little bit of bird seed as an added bonus!

Melt together 2 cups chunky peanut butter and 2 cups of lard.


Add 4 cups oatmeal, 4 cups cornmeal, 1/3 cup flour, and 1 Tablespoon sugar. Mix everything together.


Place in forms. Freeze. It’s that easy. Pull out of freezer when ready to use.


Lard might not be available at every grocery store. You might need to shop aaround. Lard sometimes is also called Manteca.


This recipe makes about 6-7 forms worth of suet.