Recommend a Squirrel-Proof bird feeder...

[BarnOwl]

@BrainGlutton

Easy. Feed the squirrels to the birds.

I did exactly that years ago, when we were overrun with squirrels.

I’d been throwing seeds on the ground for ground feeding birds - junkos, doves, even cardinals, and so on. Squirrels came, too, and in swarms to feed on the seed.

I got a pellet rifle and started picking them off and tossing the cadavers in the brush, up on the bank. Our neighborhood hawk took notice and began counting on me to supply him a squirrel a day. He’d sit high in his tree and wait for the kill, then swoop down for his free dinner.

It got to the point where I could leave the dead squirrel where it lay and that hawk would come down, wrap his talons around the animal and laboriously fly off with it to some secluded place and eat in solitude.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

@BarnOwl

I got a pellet rifle and started picking them off and tossing the cadavers in the brush, up on the bank. Our neighborhood hawk took notice and began counting on me to supply him a squirrel a day. He’d sit high in his tree and wait for the kill, then swoop down for his free dinner.

:eek: And I was worried that you’d think the Yankee Flipper was too hard on the squirrels…

[DrDeth]

Here’s what I suggest- they make this squirrel feeder that has two ears of dried corn on a rotating thingee. It’s hilarious to watch the squirrels get the corn, and they seem to enjoy it. Thus occupied, they seem to leave the bird feeder alone.

[ftg]

Not all squirrels are equally adept. There are dumb ones but there are also millions of smart ones.

I agree with Zebra. There is no such thing as a store bought squirrel proof feeder. Lots of negative reviews of the trap-style ones.

My current feeder: From the store it is a tube style feeder with a fencing wire type cage around it. The “genius” who designed it made the diameter of the cage just long enough so that squirrels could reach through and grab the seed from the feeer holes. Absolute genius there.

Tells you a lot about the mind of the people who design these.

So I added another wider cage around that. Hardware cloth at the top and bottom to keep them from getting in that way.

[BarnOwl]

@Labdad

I have one of these and it works great. Squirrels can’t get into it at all. It’s seen two years’ continuous duty, and the squirrels have pretty much given up.

Thanks, Labdad! I think I’ll buy that one.

And ftg…

Please tell me this isn’t the one you had to tweak. If it isn’t, please go to that
page, click on Bird Feeders then Tube Feeders, and scroll down to the one named Create-a-Haven?.

Is that the one you bought? The cage looks fairly porous.

[romansperson]

We have this one. It is weight-dependent - if something too heavy sits on the perch, the metal guard comes down and closes off the seed tray. It does work, and has always worked. The squirrels tried like hell to get into it at first (which was hilarious to watch), and couldn’t. Now, if one of them hung on to the counterbalance in the back, another squirrel could then raid the seed tray in front, but ours at least have not figured out the teamwork thing, so our seed has been safe from squirrels for many years now.

[Mama_Zappa]

@IvoryTowerDenizen

http://www.yankeeflipper.com/droll/specs.cfm
The Yankee Flipper. My BIL has one in his yard. If the squirrel jumps on the platform the platform spins around and Rocky goes for a little, err, “ride” (no harm, though!).

The birds, however, are safe.

I’ve heard these are quite fun to watch Pricey tho.

We don’t have one of them; we do have the sort where the perch is on a weighted lever that closes off the seed area if something as heavy as a squirrel tries to get to it. The squirrels do help clean up the spillage on the ground, which I don’t mind.

The thistle feeders are great fun - they attract goldfinches (which I’d never seen before until someone at the feed store sold me the thistle feeder) - so they attract a different mix of birds. I have both in my backyard.

Also a suet cake feeder - the squirrels empted it within 48 hours until I found out about the hot pepper suet that Laughing Lagomorph mentioned. Of course, now that the squirrels have been scared away from the suet, a lot of birds have found it… so it now gets emptied within 48 hours :smack:

[MoodIndigo1]

@StuffLikeThatThere

My friend’s husband heavily greased the pole on his regular bird feeder, and then sat at the window and laughed till he cried as the squirrels attempted the climb.

It’s not a perfect solution, but it did add some humor to his life.

Oh, and no actual squirrels were harmed during the experiment, except maybe their little brains were taxed with wonderment.

Do I know you? Are you my unknown friend? My husband tried this, and the funnist bit was watching the squirrel rub his butt against a nearby tree, trying to get the grease off. The beastie literally looked amazed when he saw himself not getting anywhere as he attempted to climb.

The other solution my husband found was to buy himself a serious slingshot. He didn’t want to kill the squirrels, just scare them. Problem is, he hadn’t bought any kind of shot, so he used the bowl of nuts I keep on the coffee table as ammo! Those squirrels thought they had died and gone to heaven.