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Turns Out Cheese Is All You Need To Attract Birds To Your Yard
By CHRISTY RAE AMMONS
Attract more birds to your yard by adding your leftover hard cheeses to their feeder to give them a boost of healthy protein, fat, calcium, and essential vitamins and minerals.
Hard cheeses give your wild birds extra energy to survive the colder months. Avoid giving them soft and flavored cheeses, as these are not as healthy for them.
Birds aren’t able to process the lactose in dairy products like mammals can. Since soft cheeses have more lactose than fermented hard cheeses, they’re harder for them to digest.
The best types of cheese for your birds include gouda, mild cheddar, parmesan, Swiss, Colby jack, and Monterey jack. Avoid mozzarella, cream cheese, bleu cheese, and brie.
In the feeder, you’ll also want to avoid adding cheese that has flavors, those that are very processed (like American cheese), salty ricotta cheese, and moldy cheese.
Crumble or grate the cheese over the food or stir it in. Make sure the food isn’t left out long enough to spoil in warmer weather by only providing what the birds can eat quickly.