How to keep squirrels off suet feeders

Effort is required to keep squirrels off a single suet feeder, so a little genius thinking is required to beat off the consistent little rascals.

How to keep squirrels off suet feeders involves hanging the suet feeder off a bracket or bird feeding station. Only then can your deter rodents by setting up a squirrel baffle half way up the pole, as its made impossible to get above. Similarly, you could use a squirrel guard for hanging suet suet on a branch.

While the idea is to keep squirrels off a single suet feeder, the cage kind that holds suet cakes - if need be take my advice onboard for other bird feeders in use now or later.

To protect a single suet feeder can begin with the idea of using a squirrel guard that acts as a buffer between the squirrel and food dangling above it.

The squirrel guard becomes the hook for hanging, while you then hang the suet feeder below this disc shaped squirrel guard device. Bonus of this option is the squirrel guard becomes a sort of rain guard to help keep suet dry.

What else is an option for you and probably the best idea for keeping squirrels off the feeder - is by investing in a bird feeding station on a pole.

This pole is needed so a squirrel baffle can be mounted to it, as to stop squirrels climbing up all the way to reach the hanging bird feeder.

If its only a single bracket or two needed for your suet feeders, then consider a shepherd's hook, but still a squirrel baffle must be mounted to the pole.

Take a more in-depth look as these ideas and more for genuine ways to stop persistent squirrels in quest to access your suet feeders.

Situate suet under squirrel guard

To keep squirrels specifically off suet feeders does follow the usual ways of deterring squirrels in the backyard.

With a single suet feeder it can be made harder when you don't have the bird feeding equipment to use, which goes towards helping you keep squirrels off.

What you would need is what is called a squirrel guard, similar to a squirrel baffle only it is designed a little differently.

Difference being this squirrel guard can also act as a rain guard from the weather.

To situate a squirrel guard to keep squirrels off the suet feeder, you must first hang the suet cage feeder, off its chain that's usually fixed to it - to then hang the feeder beneath the squirrel guard.

This applies to hanging suet feeders only, but its a very effective way of preventing squirrels accessing the suet, at very little cost on your part.

Hang Suet Feeder above squirrel baffle

If you find yourself with a bunch of bird feeders hanging off what would be a bird feeding station, then you can protect the suet feeder, along with everything else.

All you need to do this time is prevent squirrels climbing up the bird feeding station pole, or a square wooden post if that is what you have in use.

To do that you would simply install a squirrel baffle that can be mounted to almost any type of bird feeder pole.

How a squirrel baffle works is it prevents squirrels getting on the other side, as its made near impossible to pass as the baffle fans out so wide, the thing will snap - thus throwing off squirrels that do manage to get above it.

Key to installing a squirrel baffle successfully is higher up on the metal pole or wooden post it can go the better - with the idea of preventing squirrels jumping over it to access the suet feeders mounted or hanging about the baffle.

Squirrel baffles are the go to device when you have multiple bird feeders that need protection from squirrels, so to install the one baffle can protect all feeders that are situated above it, not just the suet feeder.

Feeding station compatible

If you decide to go down the hanging squirrel guard or mounted squirrel baffle route, know that all options are compatible with a bird feeding station.

To use a squirrel baffle on the narrow metal pole of a bird feeding station would involve tightening the baffle on the post, so it can't drop if squirrels attempt to climb onto it.

More so, but a little more hassle is the need to fix what would be a regular squirrel baffle that fixes to rounded poles, only the wooden post mounted feeding station is commonly built with a square post, so can be more difficult.

But don't despair as there's an easy solution to that thanks to a squirrel baffle available to buy that is made to be mounted to square wooden posts.

To fix this square mounted baffle would require screwing it on tightly, as oppose to simply tightening the bolt on the bird feeding station baffle option.

What is the best squirrel baffle are the ones that can be mounted to almost any pole of a feeding station, with no special gizmo needed to make it stick.

Isolated shepherd's hook pole

To protect your single suet feeder cage from daily intruders can be doubt with thanks to a single use shepherds hook.

Similar to a bird feeding station only this metal pole uses one or two bird feeder brackets only, thus can cater to those with fewer bird feeders.

Simply impale the shepherds hook into the ground, or more specifically the lawn and its as good as set up.

However, that is not all, squirrels can climb a metal pole like this one with ease, so we must revert to a squirrel baffle once again.

The baffle must be mounted to the pole as far up as it could go, but at the same time preventing squirrels reaching over to get at the suet dangling on either side.

Wall mounted shepherds hooks are available but squirrels can indeed climb brick walls, so this is the most sound proof way of keeping squirrels off suet feeders, and any other type of feeder you might have hanging up.

Revert to squirrel proof suet feeder

When all else fails and you have no where else to go in terms of keeping squirrels off the suet, you may need to step up your game with a brand new suet feeder.

More specifically, a suet Squirrel Buster would do the job for up to thirty bucks, but far a cheaper option can include a regular suet feeder, shrouded in a metal cage.

How it works is when a squirrel climbs onto the Squirrel Buster feeder that must be hung, the feed ports close up under the weight of the squirrel - while only allowing backyard birds to access the suet cakes.

Cheaper option is a normal suet feeder surrounded in a metal cage.

If you don't know what a squirrel proof suet feeder is, its basically a cage suet feeder incased in an additional cage - only this outer cage keeps the suet or other bird food out of reach of squirrels.

Extra expense is needed then if the squirrel baffle or guard doesn't quite work out, or is not suitable for your particular needs.

To summarize

How to keep squirrels off suet feeders is following the rule of keeping rodents off any particular kind of bird feeder.

Only a single use suet feeder would need additional help as oppose to protecting multiple feeders on the bird feeding station.

Begin the process of protecting your suet feeder by hanging it up exclusively on a bird feeding station pole. That way it allows you to mount a squirrel baffle on the pole to stop squirrels climbing up to access the bird feed.

If you only have the single suet feeder and prefer to hang it up on a single bracket or a tree branch, then there's a solution too that to.

This time hang up a squirrel guard on the bracket or tree branch, then hang the suet feeder below this on the squirrel guards own hook for hanging individual bird feeders.

To use a pole with some height is a great solution when you attach a baffle, but to fix a squirrel baffle up to four feet high is a must.

When all else fails you can think about buying a suet Squirrel Buster or a regular suet feeder that is centred in the middle of a squirrel proof cage.

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