Have you noticed that a lot of birds have been paying a visit to your yard in recent times? If you would like to make your feathered friends feel more at home, you might wish to look at setting up a couple of suet bird feeders for them. Suet is derived from raw beef from the loins and kidneys, and there are lots of birds that enjoy it tremendously.

Before you get a suet bird feeder, you need to take note of the kinds of birds that are visiting your yard. Bluebirds, cardinals and woodpeckers will eat suet, but it will attract squirrels as well, so you might want to get a feeder which is squirrel-proof. You will want to ensure that you cover up the feeder on all sides except for the underside. This means that only those birds which can suspend themselves upside down will be capable of using the feeder, and this will keep away the pests.

After you’ve found a good feeder, you’ll have to buy the suet to put inside. You can buy the meat that you need for the feeder at the supermarket or butcher shop, but if it stays in the feeder for an extended period of time it’s going to get rancid pretty fast, particularly if you live in a hot climate. Consequently, you might wish to buy suet cakes from your nearby pet store; make sure to keep an eye out for labels describing ‘no melt cakes, ‘insect cakes’ or ‘berry cakes’ to get the ideal supplies for your feeder.

If you want to make the food for your suet feeder from scratch, it’s possible to trim the fat from the beef that you get for your own use and stockpile it in the freezer until you have enough collected to place in the feeder. You’ll need to grind it or finely chop it before you put it in the feeder. As well, heating the beef fat over moderate heat until it becomes liquefied will make it suitable for the feeder; once you heat it, be sure to strain the fat by pouring it through cheesecloth. Let the suet cool off so that it becomes hard, and then heat and strain it once more so that it can become caked.

If you’re thinking of hanging a bird feeder in your backyard, but you also have a lot of squirrels in the neighborhood, you don’t want these small critters to get to the food before the birds can. Fortunately, there are a number of squirrel proof bird feeders that you can choose from so the birds can eat uninterrupted.

Squirrels enjoy much the same food that birds do, which is why many people have a tough time preventing squirrels from getting into the bird feeder. Seeds, nuts, and fruit are quite appealing to squirrels, and these little guys are pretty smart and can typically reach the food with ease.

One of the best squirrel proof bird feeders available right now is the Yankee Flipper; the squirrel’s own weight causes a battery-operated motor to start the platform spinning, which eventually causes the squirrel to be gently thrown from the perch. Although more expensive than most bird feeders, this is a highly rated product with many positive customer reviews.

You can also get feeders that leverage the squirrel’s weight to shut the door to the food; when the squirrel abandons the feeder, the door releases once again and birds can enjoy access to the food once again. Other designs use a baffle to keep the squirrels away. Large tubes or domes are built on the feeder, which squirrels can’t leap over or climb around.

Caged feeders will keep the little critters out by use of a wire cage that surrounds the feeder tube. The gaps in the cage are the perfect size for birds to feed from, but are way too narrow for squirrels.

While you won’t find any squirrel proof bird feeders which are 100 percent successful every time, there are lots of products that should get the job done satisfactorily. Visit Amazon.com for a great selection of squirrel proof bird feeders, where you can also read customer reviews to see which ones are most appropriate for you.