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October 16th, 2009 by KittyKitty

Making a bird feeder squirrel proof is a difficult thing to do.  There are many squirrel proof feeders available these days, but most of them work by limiting the physical access squirrels have to the feeder.  Pepper bird suet feeders take a different approach that works surprisingly well.

For many birds the toughest time of year is winter. The sources of food easily found in the summer are scarce in the winter. Many bushes have ceased berry production, the insects that feed so many birds are gone for now, and what little food is left is often covered with snow or ice. To help our birds survive the winter, we look for quality food sources to give them, and suet is often the choice.

Bird suet is a high energy food, and with it’s high calorie count it’s a great food for those cold winter 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. Because the natural form of suet will start to spoil or go rancid at warmer temperatures it’s often considered a winter 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 feeder and the birds love it.

The problem with suet is that many pests like squirrels find it just as attractive as the birds to, and the challenge is keeping them out of the feeder. 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. It turns out that over the years, peppers have developed their heat by creating capsaicin, the chemical responsible for the “hotness” of peppers and other capsicums. But the odd thing is that the birds aren’t bothered by it so they will consume it without hesitation. But many mammal, and squirrels in particular, don’t tolerate the heat at all.

This would lead us to try adding pepper to our suet to repel the ever present squirrels and rodents away from the suet feeder. With pepper suet the birds are unaffected, but the feeder pests can’t tolerate it. No baffles, no cages, no trap doors, and no squirrels.