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Our award-winning wild bird food is safer for Britain's birds as uncleaned bird seed mixes can contain dust, debris and waste husk which are harmful to birds. We are proud suppliers of SuperClean so you are guaranteed bird food that makes a safe difference to your garden visitors.

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Our bird feeders come in all shapes and sizes including squirrel proof feeders for wildlife gardens; we stock easy to clean Droll Yankee (Lifetime Guarantee), Bill Oddie's bird feeders and more. A high-quality bird feeder will typically last longer. Many of ours can be adapted with accessories to improve feeding results and save bird seed from getting wet, for example. If you have squirrels in your garden, consider a squirrel proof bird feeder as you’ll save money in the long run.

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Home > Haith's Wildlife Blog > Squirrel proof bird feeders

Squirrel proof bird feeders

Tuesday, 10th March 2015

“Is there such a beast as a squirrel proof bird feeder?” Read this blog to find out...

Bird feeder manufacturers are very careful when it comes to making claims about squirrel proof bird feeders, and I understand why that’s the case as I don’t really know what squirrel proof means, do you? Are you looking for a squirrel resistant bird feeder? "What's the difference?" you might ask. Well...

...an analogy might help answer this question: If I purchase a “waterproof” watch I expect the inner workings to remain dry when the outer case gets wet. Waterproof, however, doesn’t mean that water evaporates on contact with the watch – in other words, I expect the outer casing of the watch to get wet, but this isn’t really much of an issue to me because water, unlike a grey squirrel, in this situation, is quite harmless. A water-resistant watch on the other hand just seems to be able to deal with the occasional splash of water, it wouldn’t survive a good dunking!

Confused?

Perhaps you see what I mean when I say that I don’t really know what squirrel proof means?

So what “might” a squirrel proof bird feeder do? A squirrel proof bird feeder would have to be a feeder that squirrels couldn’t gnaw and harm and that is highly unlikely to ever exist. Even the very best waterproof watches get wet, don’t they?

On the other hand, I know exactly what a squirrel resistant bird feeder is: this feeder should keep grey squirrels at bay and off the bird food. They should do no harm to the squirrel and they shouldn’t be over-engineered as that puts the birds off feeding and that, as they say, would be an own goal.

I don’t mind my squirrel resistant bird feeders getting battered and gnawed by grey squirrels as they can’t get to the bird food that’s inside them, and that’s all the resistance a good bird feeder needs to see off even the most persistent of squirrels.