What kind of suet do Cardinals like

What Cardinals eat in the wild will be the ingredients replicated in suet, with the rendered beef fat infused with substitutes prioritized for what is an insect-eating ground bird.

What kind of suet do Cardinals like are seed, mealworm/insect or fruit-filled suet cakes or fat balls. Cardinals favorite bird feed at feeders is sunflower seeds, thus sunflower seed-filled suet will be eaten most. Generic, cheap seed mixes are fine yet to offer mealworms in suet is great for attracting Cardinals.

Cardinals favorite things to eat in our backyards are seeds of all options, with seeds making up most part of a Cardinals daily diet, all year round.

Make it any kind of seed-filled suet for Cardinals as its sure to be eaten the most.

Sunflower seed-filled specific suet is perhaps going too precise when Cardinals will eat any old seed suet. With sunflower seeds still in its hull eaten out of suspended yet accessible bird feeders by Cardinals - you know then to use sunflower if Cardinals aren't biting.

How you'd attract wild birds to a suet feeder is when its hung up in the sun, which will be a highly visible lit up area over a lawn location.

Same applies to a ground eating Northern Cardinal, and because most ground feeding wild birds struggle to use hanging bird feeders - when they spend most of their time foraging on the ground - do make suet accessible to large Cardinals.

Rather than placing suet cakes in a suet cake bird feeder, think about providing suet in all its form, on top of a platform bird feeder or on a visible surface within your yard.

How you'd normally use suet cakes is to put them in a feeder, yet with a Cardinals limited ability on accessing a suspended suet cake feeder, just feed Cardinals outside of any kind suet device.

With the seed, mealworm or even fruit-filled suet cake or fat ball out of bird feeders, you can expose the vital ingredients to keen Cardinals by breaking the suet up into smaller pieces - then just watch as wild birds eat the suet faster than you've ever known.

Sunflower seed suet a favorite

Primarily focus on what kind of suet cakes or fat balls a Northern Cardinal will like most, is their favorite sunflower seed-filled suet.

Sunflower seeds in their hull are often taken by Cardinals at bird feeders, thus this is the bird feed that must be prioritized in your suet variety.

Cardinals will be happy to feed on sunflower-filled suet given the chance, yet will continue to eat sunflower seeds available in any kind of seed bird feeder - if in fact the seed bird feeder remains accessible - which they often aren't.

Commonly referred to as Sunflower Suet, this suet cake in particular will have ingredients made up of rendered beef fat of course - along with corn, oats and, or soy oil - to bind it all together.

What kind of sunflower seed will be part of the suet will mostly be Sunflower Hearts.

Sunflower seeds made available in suet cakes or fat balls will likely be without shells.

Sunflower seed suet you'd want to feed to Cardinals I'd admit aren't readily available as you'd think they are. Instead, sunflower seeds will be included in what will be called a Wild Seed & Suet Cake - or something to that effect.

Generic seed mix suet optional

Cardinals can be encouraged with little issues when you feed them on any accessible suet cakes or fat balls, made up with a simple wild bird seed mix.

With their sunflower seed favorites almost always included in the ingredients, Cardinals will take whatever seeds are available in the suet at the time.

Sunflower seeds made available in seed mixes can include Black Sunflower, or Sunflower Hearts... depending on the brand, type and where you bought it.

Don't worry about it though as you can guarantee Northern Cardinals will feed on any seed-filled suet, because its the seeds they wish to eat.

Seeds make up most of a Cardinals diet in the wild thus seed-filled suet will be the second best thing if no seeds in feeders are available; or indeed the seeds have run low with only seed suet cakes or fat balls left to eat.

Best suet cakes for Cardinals will primarily be seed based, followed by a mealworm and, or insect suet - plus fruit-filled suet cakes or fat balls.

Insect or mealworm suet

What with Cardinals being natural ground feeding birds, yet they are still eager to access bird feeder food, with grasshoppers to caterpillars they eat in the wild being replaced with dried mealworms.

Of course these dried mealworms - and sometimes real farmed insects - can be infused with mealworm suet cakes or fat balls.

Cardinals will really enjoy an obvious dried mealworm stuffed suet cake, with lightly stuffed - or should I say tight on ingredients - thus its vital to provide this kind of suet for Cardinals, if seed-filled suet isn't available at the time of purchase.

Cardinals won't mind being fed live or dried mealworms on top of a bird feeder either, which is something to consider to attract Cardinals to open top bird feeders.

Mealworm-filled suet doesn't just go down well with Cardinals, as other common insect-eating songbirds will be happy to feed on this kind of suet.

When seed and mealworm suet is included in a selection of suet cakes or fat balls together, then go for it.

One or the other is fine for wild birds, with Cardinals happy to be fed mealworms in an accessible bird feeder, as oppose to an always difficult to access device.

Offer suet to Cardinal in feeder

First of all what you are going to put in any suet feeder for Cardinals is a seed, mealworm or fruit-filled suet cakes or fat balls.

All three ingredients play a major part of a Cardinals diet in the wild, thus you'd be hard pressed getting them to feed on anything they won't normally eat away from feeders.

What Cardinals eat at bird feeders will be any suet infused with this common bird feed, yet its also important to remember suet in a feeder isn't the easiest bird feed to access for a large common backyard bird.

With that in mind, whatever kind of suet you decide to feed to Cardinals - must be mounted in a feeder or placed on a surface - as oppose to hanging the suet feeder on a pole or tree branch - which I guarantee is near impossible for Cardinals to reach.

Cardinals don't like suet feeders suspended up on a branch or bracket, yet can be attracted to a suet cake feeder, or a fat ball feeder placed on its side for Cardinals to peck at the suet in between the gaps.

Best way to feed Cardinals suet is out of an enclosed bird feeder with suet cakes or fat balls placed on the platform or bird table.

Better yet, with weather permitted it would be a good idea to crumble up some suet cakes to invite Cardinals to begin eating immediately. Suet in cake or fat ball form can take time to get started, while a slightly broken up suet is sure to be eaten quickly.

Cardinals won't waste time feeding on a broken up suet cake or suet ball, which happens to be a great way to get birds to eat the suet before it expires.

If you have no choice but to hang the suet feeder due to pets, pests or kids, then at least try to fashion a branch or twig as a perch Cardinals can utilize when attempting to use a suspended suet cage bird feeder.

To summarize

While a regular seed-filled suet cake or fat ball will do for Cardinals, do try to make it sunflower seed-filled suet as sunflowers are a Cardinals personal favorite.

With that, sunflower seeds can be part of a generic seed mix suet cake where Cardinals will be happy to eat all seeds within the rendered beef fat.

Sunflower seeds provided in suet will be Black Sunflower or Sunflower Hearts, both of which a Cardinals will eat. Sunflower seed suet is hardest to find in-store, with the plain seed suet being a favorable back up.

If seed suet of any kind isn't made available to you - then make it a mealworm - or what will be a proper insect-filled suet cake or fat ball.

Cardinals eat many insects in the wild thus mealworm-filled suet will go down well.

Often overlooked is Cardinals eating fruits in the wild which can be part of the suet if you wanted it to. Better yet, why not buy suet for Cardinals that utilizes all three prime ingredients - whereas only seed and mealworm suet I have seed together.

Now that you know what kind of suet Cardinals like most, remember its vitally important this suet is made easy to access for often left behind Cardinals in the backyard.

You'd want to stabilize a suet cake - or fat balls feeder - on a branch or on the bird feeder pole to allow Cardinals to perch on top, to feed within the suet feeder sat below them.

Better than that is to actually take the suet out of feeders to place some crumbled up suet cakes or fat balls - to put on a bird table or platform - or keep it tidy by placing broken up suet in a dish or bird feeder tray.

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