Squirrel problems

[Robins]

Hi,

I am having a really bad problem with squirrels raiding my bird feeders and I'm worried that if I get a special designed feeder for them, the other squirrels will still raid the feeders! does anyone have any advice?
:confused:
From Sarah Fagan aka-Robins

[optrex]

Hi Sarah, welcome to the fourm.

I think there are 2 trains of thought when it comes to squirrels - security and defence on your birdfeeders or offer the squirrels an easy alternative.

The cheapest initially would be to offer them an alternate, easy to get to food source and see what they do, before you start spending lots on"squiz" proofing.

Othres may have differing views or experiences so stay tuned :)

[Lu_B]

Hi Sarah

I've gone for the belt and bracers approach! I've put a squirrel dome on my feeders and given the pesky little things a food source of their own.

[Barbara Jane]

I have daily visits of red quirrels, who, despite the fact that they are very very pretty still do a great deal of damage, raiding nests etc., but the bird table they can't touch. I sat the RSPB table on top of a large plastic drain pipe. I can see stractches where they have tried to climb up, but no luck! Maybe the fact that there are always plenty of hazel nuts on the ground from last year's crop, keep them from trying more devious methods of getting up .However two grey doves (coming from goodness where) sit on the roof of the table and hover in on the tray, scattering at the same time with their wings, most of the seeds to the ground. So you can't always win can you? It's fun watching though!

Barbara Jane

[sammy j]

I had a squirrel feeder built like the one sold in CJ's catalogue. It's worked a treat and the squirrels are so cute now that they're all proud of their own food supply! They very rarely go near the bird table anymore unless there's a paticularly nice treat there, like the leftover apple and blackcurrant pie last week!