Home Zookeeper

I normally don’t watch Rachel Ray but today I watched her show. She is only 30 minutes into the show and has already mentioned her dog twice.

So, I Googled Rachel Ray dog and found a link to one of her Everyday with Rachel Ray articles that includes a pet food recipe for Isaboo’s Butternut Squash Mac and Cheddar. Isaboo is the name of her pitbull mix dog.

At the end of the show I noticed her dog is also part of her company’s logo. She really loves that dog and even though it’s a breed that some people would shy away from, she said that her dog is gentle and loving.

Anyway, I hadn’t realized that she was such a dog lover or had pet recipes on her website. I will have to dig around to see if she has anything for cats since right now we don’t have a dog.

Bird watching is a favorite hobby of mine. I’m a novice at it but have always wanted to learn more about bird watching. There’s no better place to start than the backyard. We have a bird feeder and have found that the birds around here really love sunflower seeds. In fact, they will sort through the seed to find the sunflower seeds and leave the rest. I love to make homemade treats for our pets, so why not whip up a little something for the birds?

During the fall, there are several baking items that are good treats for birds as Dana at Backyard Birding lists. There are some great suggestions. Another option is to make a treat just for the birds. Here’s a recipe that I received from the local Audubon Society:

Bird Pudding

1 pound lard
8 ounce peanut butter
1 cup sugar
4-5 cups corn meal
Nuts, raisins, etc.

Mix and make into balls about the size of meatballs. Flatten the balls out and either refrigerate or freeze.

You can pretty much add anything to it. Nuts and raisins are just suggestions. I will, of course, be adding sunflower seeds and will take Dana’s advice and add pumpkin seeds. You can buy seed cakes for birds at the local store, but I find it very rewarding to make something myself. If it’s anything like home cooking, then homemade bird pudding is bound to be better than anything bought in the store.

More bird cake recipes are coming up in the future as well as cat and puppy treats just in time for the holidays.