Who else makes bird pudding in very cold weather?

I would if I could but would have every rat and mouse in the vicinity in my garden.
Our neighbours have cats and we are lucky they are used to DH quips.
They erected a very elaborate bird feeder just near the wall where the cats sit. Dh shouted across "Run out of cat food?", they laughed and moved it to the middle of the lawn only to be inundated by jackdaws. It has gone and all the little birds are back high in the trees.

J52, I shall try your hanging basket idea though I shall have to make sure the pigeons can’t use it to raid the feeder.

I have using lard, oats, dried fruit and a few nuts. I put it in a plastic food container and suspended it over an empty hanging basket, in the hedge near a window.
The birds use the hanging basket to perch on, so far there’s been blackbirds and robins.
I also put one in a shallow glass dish perched in one of the planters for the ground feeders.
Fortunately we’re semi rural so few rats around, they’re part of the food chain of larger mammals.

I love the birds and have done everything to help them birds boxes seed balls etc. Now we have more wood rats than birds in the garden so It puts me off feeding birds. We are two mins across the road from a country park so the rats are prevalent here.

We have always made bird puddings in the winter until last year when we noticed a rat in the garden and so sadly we have not made any this year.

I think I should make one of those and dig out the cage thing I bought. It's designed to keep unwanted diners away from food on the ground. I've been hoping the ground feeding birds will make do with the spillage from the hanging feeders but Foxy and his friend plus masses of pigeons gobble this up.