It is rewarding to feed our little feathered friends and they do come to depend on us. I have fed our birds for close to 40 years. I of course give them different kinds of seeds but along with the seeds I give them inexpensive donuts and my own mix that I call Tweet. This is easy to make and you can add things you have on hand. I start with Armour Lard. It comes in a bucket and I buy it at Walmart. It also comes in blocks. I use about 2 cups and to that I add about 2 cups of store brand peanut butter. I use the extra chunky. I use a 5 qt pot and melt the peanut butter and lard. After it is melted you can add any number of things. I save my egg shells crush them and add to the mix, any old cereal, old bread, any flour, some white sugar, they need lots of energy and no teeth to worry about. Do not use anything with salt like pretzels and please do not use bacon fat. When you have everything mixed in, thicken the mix with white flour. If you have whole grain flour on hand so much the better. Keep adding flour until it gets very thick so it will not run. It will get thicker as it cools.
Now, how to serve it to our little friends? Hear are some ways I use. Form it into to a square, use a square plastic container. Place in the frig or freezer to harden. When hard remove from plastic and put in a suet feeder. Or form it into small balls and place in a flat feeder. This idea they really love. Take a grape vine wreath and press the Tweet into the wreath. They love standing on the wreath and eating. Another way they love to eat Tweet is to press it into a pine cone. Do not use one of the scented cones, we do not know what is use to make them smell so good. I press the Tweet into the cone and use some wire to make a hanger. I serve Tweet in different ways so it is available to different kinds of birds. This is a real favorite for the woodpeckers but they all love it.
Here is a list of things I have added to my Tweet
Flour white or whole grain
Peanuts
Egg shells
White sugar
Cereal
Seeds
Donuts
Bread crumbs but make sure they are not salty
Mealworms You can get them at Walmart in the bird food section
I hope you give it a try and let me know how they like it. If you have questions, just ask.