PSA: I switched from a cheap tube feeder to a hopper style and the squirrel problem is gone

I had a basic plastic tube feeder from the hardware store for about six months. The squirrels would hang off it, shake it, and dump all the seed in a day. Last month, I spent $45 on a weight-activated hopper feeder with a metal cage. Now when a squirrel tries to get on it, the perch closes and locks the seed ports. I haven't had to refill it mid-week since. Has anyone else found a feeder that actually keeps the squirrels out for good?

3 comments

3 Comments

white.sarah1mo ago

I mean, I gave up on feeders entirely after the squirrels kept winning. Just scattered some seed on the ground for the doves and called it a day. Maybe it's just me but the whole arms race got too expensive.

morgan.robert1mo ago

My neighbor spent eighty dollars on a squirrel proof feeder last spring. The thing had a weight sensitive perch that closed the seed ports, real fancy engineering. A juvenile raccoon ripped the whole mechanism off the pole in one night, left it bent in the grass like modern art.

rowanwells11d ago

Yeah, reminds me of my friend who bought one of those fancy ones with the cage around it. She watched a squirrel hang upside down from a tree branch, stretch all the way out, and just rake seeds through the bars for like twenty minutes. It was basically a vending machine for them. Sounds a lot like what happened to your neighbor, @morgan.robert, where the wildlife just treats our expensive stuff like a puzzle. I guess they've got all day to figure it out.