Bird Food

Do You Need a License to Sell Homemade Bird Seed or Suet Cakes?

Usually yes, if you sell a mix. In every state we read, a suet cake, seed wreath or blended bag is "commercial feed" under the state feed law, and the maker needs a state feed license before the first sale. A sack of one plain seed is often exempt, except in Texas, which regulates exactly that. The rule and the fee in six states, why a cake and a sack land on opposite sides, and what to do before a craft fair.

In most states you do need a license to sell homemade suet cakes or bird seed mixes, and the license comes from the state agriculture department's feed program, not the health department. State feed laws define commercial feed as almost anything sold for an animal to eat, and wild birds are animals. The exemption most people have half heard of is real but narrow: it covers one plain, unmixed seed, and the moment you add fat, a binder or a second seed, it no longer applies.

So two answers circulate. Crafters treat a seed wreath like a jar of jam, covered by cottage food rules or by nothing. Feed stores say every animal product needs a license. For bird food the line is neither homemade against factory nor big against small. It is mixed against unmixed, and each state draws it a little differently.

Why bird food is commercial feed#

Wisconsin's feed program is the plainest. Its October 2025 leaflet for home makers says "commercial feed" means any feed "that is sold or bartered, or offered for sale or barter", gives "bird seed" as an example beside pet treats and livestock feed, and says "To distribute commercial feed products in Wisconsin, a license is required."

The other states get there by definition. Virginia's covers "any materials or combination of materials" distributed as feed for animals; Texas covers any "simple, mixed, compounded, ground, unground" material used as feed for an animal. Neither limits feed to farm animals.

Barter counts, so trading cakes for eggs is not a way round it. In Virginia "distribute" includes "exchange, or barter". The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), the body through which state feed regulators coordinate, warns small pet food makers that distribution "may include" selling at farmers markets, fairs and fund-raising events, and that shipping product into a state in response to an internet purchase "constitutes 'distribution'" there.

The rule in six states#

We read each state's statute or its feed program's own documents. A license covers the business or facility; a registration covers each product.

Five of the six regulate a mix and go easy on a single plain seed. Texas is the exception that matters most for this question: its statute exempts "whole grain or whole seed not containing toxins" in general, then takes the exemption back for seed sold at retail for wildlife. A bag of plain black oil sunflower sold for backyard birds is regulated feed in Texas. Texas is also the state with a written aflatoxin rule for wildlife feed, set out in aflatoxin in bird seed; the Texas feeding guide covers the rest.

Why a suet cake and a sack of sunflower differ#

A single seed in a sack is a commodity; anything you make is a formula. Every recipe in our homemade suet recipes, every seed cylinder or bark butter and every wreath set with gelatin combines materials, which is the definition of commercial feed in all six states. So does a 50/50 bag of sunflower and safflower, even though nothing was cooked.

Wisconsin and Minnesota narrow the exemption further by tying it to the United States grain standards. Those standards cover barley, canola, corn, flaxseed, mixed grain, oats, rye, sorghum, soybeans, sunflower seed, triticale and wheat (7 CFR 810.101). On that wording, a sack of plain sunflower, corn or milo qualifies. A sack of plain safflower, nyjer, white millet or peanuts does not, because none of them is on the list. Oregon, Virginia and West Virginia say only "unmixed seeds" or "unmixed whole seed", with no list.

Minnesota adds a labeling condition: the exemption holds for seed that is "not labeled as a feed or for use as feed". A sack you print as wild bird food is the case it does not describe, so in Minnesota even plain sunflower sold under your own bird food label belongs in the call to the feed program. And Oregon's exemption is from product registration only; it does not mention the facility license, and the license form has a $15 "Bird Seed Only" tier.

Is there a small-seller exemption?#

Not for bird food, in the states we read. Minnesota is the one state here with a cottage exemption for animal treats, and it is tight. Section 25.391 covers "home-processed pet treats for dogs and cats" that are baked or dehydrated, made by an individual or a one- or two-person household business registered as a cottage food producer, sold with a sign reading "These products are homemade and not subject to state inspection." A suet cake at the same Minnesota market stall needs the $75 commercial feed license.

What small makers do get is lighter handling:

• Virginia: no kitchen inspection before you sell. Its booklet for home pet treat makers says the feed law "does not require on-site inspections of kitchens" before sale, but you still need the license, a registration for each product, "a laboratory analysis of the product(s)" and a compliant label. Each flavor is a separate registration.
• Virginia: sell loose instead. Products sold "loose and unpackaged" skip product registration, but the license, an annual tonnage report and an inspection fee of 7 cents a ton ($35 minimum) still apply, and so do the label and analysis rules.
• Oregon: a bird seed rate. The $15 "Bird Seed Only (<1 ton/year)" license is the only fee we found written for small bird seed sellers. The form does not say whether a suet cake counts as bird seed; if it does not, the license is $150.
• Texas and Minnesota: resale. Both say a person making only retail sales of feed bearing another licensed company's label needs no license. Pour it into your own bags under your own name and you become the guarantor, which in Minnesota needs a license in its own right.

What a small seller pays#

Take one case: three suet products, each sold in 1 lb packages, well under a ton a year. These are the state fees in the first year, from the fee schedules in the table above.

Add a guaranteed analysis from a lab, which Virginia names as a requirement, and printed labels. A plain-seed seller in Virginia pays none of this for the seed itself, and in Oregon pays no formula fees. A plain-seed seller in Texas pays the same as a suet maker.

Before your first sale#

1. Decide which side of the line each product is on. One plain seed, or a mix? Anything with fat, peanut butter, gelatin, flour or a second seed is a mix.
2. Call the state feed program, not the health department. In every state here the feed program sits in the agriculture department (in Texas, the Office of the Texas State Chemist). Ask whether your products need registration and which fee class bird food falls in.
3. Get the label right. Wisconsin's pet food checklist, the closest guide it publishes, asks for the product and brand name, a guaranteed analysis, an ingredient statement, the maker's name and mailing address, and net quantity in both metric and US units. Virginia and Texas both want copies of labels with the application.
4. License every state you ship to. Selling online "may be considered distributing your products in every state", in AAFCO's words, and each one runs its own license.
5. Keep tonnage records from day one. Wisconsin, Virginia, Texas and West Virginia all charge by the ton, and Texas wants a sworn report even when no feed went out.
6. Make it something you would feed your own birds. Virginia's inspectors may sample products "at any time" for safety and truth in labeling. Use rendered fat, leave out what is on what not to feed birds, store ingredients as in storing bird seed, and do not sell plain suet for summer use: past about 80°F it needs a no-melt recipe, as what temperature suet melts explains.

Canada#

Canada's Feeds Act regulates feed for "livestock", meaning animals designated by regulation. The Feeds Regulations, 2024 list animals "domestically raised or kept", from cattle and poultry to pigeons, quail and bees. Wild songbirds are not on the list, so on its wording the federal feed regime does not reach a suet cake for backyard chickadees. We did not read provincial or municipal rules; the Canada feeding guide covers the rest.

What this page cannot tell you#

We read six states, not fifty. The pattern held in five of them, and Texas shows a state can turn it upside down, so check yours. Fees are from the documents dated in the table and change. Oregon's $15 bird seed license is on the current application form; an older copy of its rule, OAR 603-058-0240, lists $10, so confirm the figure when you apply. We did not read federal FDA rules for animal food, sales tax or local business licensing, any of which can apply on top. The feed program in your state is the authority, and it answers the phone.