Is It Safe To Add Bacon Grease To A Bird Feeder? Here's What We Know

Bird feeders are a great way to invite feathered friends to your yard. You can save money by making your own bird feed using seeds from your garden, and some people even make homemade suet for their birdfeeders. Suet — a type of bird food made from animal fat — can be an excellent source of calories before a migration or during the lean winter months. True suet is made from beef fat, traditionally from the loin or kidney areas of the cow, but some people substitute bacon grease. While this may seem like a convenient hack, it can actually be dangerous for birds.

Birds may fly away after visiting your bird feeder, so you may not see the harm bacon grease can cause directly. However, bacon contains preservatives that are harmful to birds due to carcinogenic compounds. It may also contain flavorings and sugar, and it's very high in salt, which isn't great for birds either. These ingredients occur in small enough amounts that they aren't harmful to humans, but it's definitely enough to hurt birds. If you raise pigs and make your own bacon this may not be an issue, but for the average person buying bacon at the grocery store, it will be. Additionally, bacon grease is a softer fat than beef fat, and it melts more easily. This can lead to birds getting the grease on their feathers, which leaves them unable to regulate their body temperature. That's not good in any season, but it's particularly dangerous during winter.

Suet birdfeeders are one simple way to attract songbirds to your yard, but even though bacon grease is off the table, you can still make suet at home that's totally safe. The most important step is to ensure your starting fat isn't greasy. Even grease from cooked beef, such as hamburgers, is too soft for suet. 

Instead, start with uncooked beef and trim the fat off to use. If you'd rather skip this step, your local butcher may have beef trimmings, or tallow, available. You can also find tallow at many cooking supply stores. Lard, which is made using pork fat trimmings, is also a safer option than bacon grease. Render the fat by melting it in a pan or pot on a low heat setting, then let it cool slightly before pouring it into a food-safe silicone or plastic mold. Mix in your birdseed, let it harden in the freezer, and your suet cake is ready to use.

Avoid leaving your suet cake in direct sunlight, and take it down when the weather is hot. As with any animal product, the heat can make it spoil, which is unpleasant to deal with. While suet doesn't melt as easily as bacon grease, it can melt if the temperature gets hot enough. Having melted fat on your grass can attract all kinds of pests, from rodents and local pets to bears! While you can repel rats with essential oil, bears are much harder to get rid of, so be sure to keep an eye on the temperature when you put your homemade suet out.