Saucy Pet

Posts Tagged ‘suet feeders’

Keeping squirrels out of a bird feeder is a tough challenge. Today there are many types of squirrel proof feeders on the market, but you will find many of them work by physically blocking the squirrel from the bird food.  Pepper bird suet feeders take a different approach that works surprisingly well.

For many birds the toughest time of year is winter. Many of the normal food sources are not easy to come by. The bushes have no berries, the insects have gone in hiding for the winter, and the snow and ice often covers what little food is naturally available. To help our birds through the winter months, we look for those types of food that will benefit them the most, and a common selection is suet.

Bird suet is a great source of calories that birds need so much to make it through the summer months. The suet is cooked by rendering fat from sheep or cows, and for variety is sometimes mixed with some other bird favorites like cracked peanuts that creates a combination that has lots of energy and is easy to eat in the cold of winter. Since it’s common for naturally rendered suet to spoil at temperatures above 70 degrees its usually sold as a wintertime food. These days there are suet products that have been formulated to hold up better in the summertime, so you can use it year round if you like, but it’s not all natural suet.  You simply put it in a suet birdfeeder and the birds love it.

Like many types of bird food that we put out, the local thieves like squirrels love it just as much as the birds, so we have to find ways to discourage them. There are a number of different squirrel proof feeders that have a some type of mechanical parts like moving doors or spinning tubes that are meant to physically block the squirrels.

Nature has provided its own ingenious solution. Over the course of thousands of years, peppers have evolved to have capsaicin, which is the chemical that gives pepper their “heat”. But it has almost no impact on birds, so they eat it at will. But mammals (like squirrels) are pretty sensitive to the heat of peppers.

Armed with this knowledge, we can try adding pepper to our suet to offend the local pests like squirrels and rodents. With hot pepper suet the birds are unaffected, but the feeder pests can’t tolerate it. You can get rid of the squirrels without expensive motorized feeders, just a little bit of nature.

Many gardeners love the idea of trying to attract birds to their home at the first sign of spring.  We all love to have the sights and sounds of an active bird feeder, or the frenetic activity that often surrounds a bird bath.

But in the winter time many of the local birds don’t migrate away, and so we like to make some effort to be sure they have enough food and drink to get by in the winter time.Birds have it tough in the winter time because there is not as much of their natural food around, and what is around is often obscured by ice or snow cover.

One of the easiest things we can do is to put out a suet bird feeder. Suet is used because it has a lot of calories, since it’s made from rendered fat products, and to enhance its attractiveness to birds it is sold with other bird food products like corn seed or peanuts.Usually you’ll find these sold in prepared cakes that is similar in volume and size to a large sandwich.It’s easy to set the suet out in an open area available to your local birds, but the traditional way to put out suet is to use a simple cage feeder that can be hung and will help keep squirrels away.  These can be a simple cage, or often they are combined with a hopper feeder to create a total feeding solutions.

Suet cakes and balls can last for some time, but if it’s natural suet then when the temperature exceeds about 70 degrees it may go rancid quickly, so don’t treat them as year round feeders.  And there are other types of suet balls that may be better suited to your needs that keep better or repel pests.

Also make sure that the local birds have access to water that is not going to freeze quickly.Typically birdbaths will have a flat open design that gives the birds confidence that they won’t fall into the water.But the problem with that type of shape is that it is also perfect for cooling and freezing quickly. 

The solution to this is straightforward enough, as there are a lot of bird baths with heating elements built into the bottom of the bath, but if you’ve already invested in a bird bath then it’s simple enough to buy a small heating element to put in the bottom of most baths.  There are many types of birdbath de icer, with sizes and shapes to fit most any bird bath.If using a heater with a plastic bird bath take care to size the heater small enough that it won’t melt the bird bath when heating the water.

squirrel proof feeders

Birds are very relaxing to look at and listen to. Hearing them chirping away right in your very own backyard somehow gives you a sense of satisfaction and serenity. While a lot of homeowners do not really think it is practical, providing birds with the proper bird houses and bird feeders is very important, yet there are different types of bird feeders for different types of birds. One of the most popular is suet feeders.

A suet feeder can attract more wild birds to your backyard, especially when they are strategically placed. Woodpeckers, Tit Mice, Nuthatches, Chickadees and almost all types of birds love suet, yet there are different types of suet bird feeders. You can have something as simple as a wire cage or an old onion sack. Or better yet, try looking for simple logs and then drill holes into them.

If you love to attract different species of birds to your very own backyard, then try the log suet feeders. These are basically very simply logs with holes drilled into them. Although anybody can make log feeders, you can buy them ready made too. Just fill them with suet pieces or even your own recipes. If you are worried about squirrels, the use the squirrel proof bird feeders, like the sandwich feeders. These types of feeders use two pieces of wood, secured and bolted together with screws on both ends. Simply place your suet cake in between the wood for a worry-free and squirrel-free bird feeder. Since woodpeckers have quite long tongues, they can easily reach the treat. Chickadees and Nuthatches can also cling to the wood and feed easily.

Suet feeders can be cleaned using oxygen bleach. It is safe and it will effectively clean and sanitize the gunk off of the feeder. If you want to be able to watch the activities of birds right in your backyard, then provide them with the necessary feeders and lots of wild bird seed, in suet or not.