Pet Forum

I love squirrels, but I hate how they steal the bird seed out of our bird feeders! I even go so far as giving the squirrels their own source of food, a cob of corn, a good 100 feet away from our bird feeders, but they don't care. The dang squirrels can be as fat as a pig without a bit of hunger in them, but they are going to find a way to sneak into our bird houses and bird feeders to steal that bird food right out of them! It drives me nuts sometimes. We have about 20 bird feeders in our back yard, and I used to have to fix a couple of them every day because the squirrels had torn them up. I've even seen a squirrel leap a good 10 feet through the air to land on a feeder and destroy it.

I finally decided that I needed to find a way to stop the squirrels from taking the bird feed out of the bird feeders. I actually tried a few different methods, as different ones work best under certain circumstances. Here are some of the tips that I followed to stop the bird food thieves. I hope some of them will help you.

1- If your bird house is on a pole, vaseline the poles to keep the squirrels away. They can try to climb it all they want, but they will never reach the top.

2- Build a barrier that makes it impossible for them to get a grip and move around. A circle of slick metal, that has a radius longer than their body length should work. It would go on the string well above the feeder. Should keep some rain off & provide shade too.

3- Try hanging the bird feeders from a wire between two trees (although this makes refilling quite tricky). Always suspend from a metal chain or wire and hook, otherwise the squirrels will chew through the cord to make the feeder drop.

4- A good squirrel guard is a baffle. Made from either heavy plastic or metal, it forms an umbrella over the top of both suspended and pole-mounted feeders. The squirrels simply slide off them. Baffles can also be placed about four feet above the ground below pole-mounted feeders.


If you want to see what I am talking about with these crazy bird food stealing squirrels, check this video out. See how the little thief is hanging upside down from the bird house to steal the seeds!

I don't know if this a surefire method or if I've just been lucky, but so far I haven't had a single squirrel bother my bird feeder. I bought one of those shepherd's hooks that you stake out in the yard. It's metal, so I don't think the squirrels can climb it. I've got a large bird feeder hanging from it, and the squirrels have never bothered it.