Chicks being fed suet?!!

[Jane]

Hello everyone

I am new to this forum and I wanted to know if anyone could tell me whether chicks (great tit and blue tit) can survive on a diet of suet? I notice that the parents fill their beaks with suet and then go off to the nest. They go back and forth all day! I used to feed the birds meal worms but it was costing me a small fortune. The parents used to come into the house demanding more & more meal worms. Sometimes my house was filled with birds!! I was spending about £18 a week on meal worms, which over a 3-4 months(they seemed to breed forever), added up to a lot of money. This year I could not afford to do this and the parents are now feeding their chicks suet. I feel so bad that these poor little chicks are having to eat suet but I am a pensioner now and just cannot afford the meal worms any more. I have fed the birds for many years and had tremendous enjoyment from them and I have really increased the bird population in my area. When I fed the meal worms they had so many chicks that the trees in my garden were covered in chicks once they had fledged.

I see that the robins, nuthatches and dunnocks are not using the suet but looking for insects. I am worried that if I take away the suet, the chicks might starve.

I had a lovely pair of wrens living in my garden but the neighbours cats killed them both, as well as a baby blackbird - all in one morning. It was so upsetting to find them on my path. I have a lot of trouble with cats as they try to catch the goldfish in my garden pond, as well as killing the birds.

Gosh I think I am beginning to ramble here! I really just wanted to know if the chicks are going to survive on suet. Also, is there a cheaper alternative to meal worms?

Many thanks for reading this.

Jane

[PiratesAhoy!]

Suet isn't the best for chicks, but they can live on it. I've never seen tits feeding suet to their chicks though - they usually eat the suet themselves and get caterpillars or insect larvae for the chicks. Most unusual.

Perhaps there's a shortage of small insects and creepies. Is there anything you can do in the garden to promote creepy-crawlies? That would help the tits out.

Anyway, don't worry about the chicks - I think the parents know what they're doing. The chicks should be ok.

[70007]

Your story of the cat carnage sounds so sad Jane. I wish something could be done about cats.

I put out suet in the winter, and as it is just fat it sees the birds through the cold nights, but it starts to melt in the summer so I dont bother so much.

I cant afford mealworms, so my birds just get cheap porridge oats and dried currants on the table, plus seeds and nuts in feeders. I would normally put out sultanas because they are often cheaper, but when the adults are feeding chicks I consider the smaller size of currants to be more sensible. Everything from robins to magpies take the currants.

I'm assuming that baby chicks' digestive systems can cope with quite a lot of variation in their diet. If I am feeling really generous, I chop up dried apricots into very small pieces and add that to the oats. That seems to vanish in double quick time.