Anyone used forage cakes ??

[wegotchickens]

Seems like you could make suet chicken cakes by using scratch to replace the wild bird seed. My peeps would love it! They would love it even with the bird seed in it. And you could use crumbles for the cornmeal. A way to liven up the regular feed, keep them busy, and add some fats & oils to their winter diet.

 

[mudhen]

That's what I was thinking. Making you own might be possible, but I've never tried making the ones for birds, so I'm not sure how it would work out.

Bayouchica is on to something here, I too love to give my spoiled girls a little something extra, and this would be great in the winter.

By the way, I didn't realize the size was salt block dimensions, I thought it was like the little ones you get for birds. I think I saw it was around $17, so that really isn't too bad if your local feed store has it.

 

[wegotchickens]

Salt block dimensions would be too big for my flock of 7 birds, I think.
Suet cakes are not at all hard to make. Just a little messy. And you can add variety by putting in raisins or dried fruit and other stuff they like. If you poured it into a big leftover Cool Whip tub it would make a big block they could work on for a couple of days!

 

[mdbucks]

I buy a couple of suet cakes then reuse the plastivc mold mix in with bacon/sausage grease andbirds love it I guess just substitute with chicken stuff instead of sunflower and bird mix

 

[wegotchickens]

I re-used the suet cake package, too, when I made my own cakes. But I think I'd like to make something a little bigger for the peeps. That's what made me think of cool whip or sherbet tubs. Smaller than a salt block but bigger than a traditional suet cake...

I also used to recycle grease when I made wild-bird cakes. Also, if I didn't have any birdseed handy I used stale cereal. It absorbs more grease but the birds seemed to enjoy it.

I never thought od this, but the birdwatcher site said to add crushed eggshells to suet blocks. It would work for the peeps, too!

 

[dlhunicorn]

I wont let my birds near suet >bad for their heart and there are too many risks associated with rancidity issues.
I make "blocks"/"cakes" with any leftover feed in their feeders (more than two days old) by mixing it up with cooked oatmeal (cooked in water not milk) and adding more feed to it along with dried cranberries and chopped fruits and such and throw in some poultry supplement/vitamins and some wheatgermoil and some ground sunflower and pepita seeds then freeze it... I give these "cakes " (make up in sizes what will get eaten in a day) in the winter for them to peck at...

 

[joanm]

I have given my birds wild bird seed as a treat. Is that a bad thing?

 

[panner123]

Quote:
That is a 2.5 lb. block for $17.50. A salt block is a lot bigger and heavier than that. My reason for saying it would cost me $350 per day to feed it to my flock.

 

[mdbucks]

The purina ones are salt block size

 

[mudhen]

Quote:
Sounds yummy...chicken trail mix in a block!
I think I will try making this, thanks dlunicorn!