Hot Meats: A Squirrel Turn-off

Photograph of Douglas Squirrel by Dan Mitchell

You can send squirrels right back to their own feeder by offering Hot Meats in the ones you’d like to reserve for birds. They’re sunflower chips soaked in chili pepper oil — nutritious for birds, but a turnoff to squirrels.

There’s a specialized seed that does not appeal to squirrels, and possibly other rodents as well.  Hot Meats are sunflower chips soaked in chili pepper oil—nutritious for birds, but a turnoff to squirrels.  We’ve played around with Hot Meats a while, and have a few suggestions for using them in your backyard:

Try This:  Offer Hot Meats in your tube, hopper or fly-through feeder for several weeks, or until all the squirrels in your area have sampled it and decided they don’t like them.  Then, you can go back to your original seed.  You may have to reintroduce Hot Meats in the feeder periodically.

Patience Required: It takes time for birds to accept any seed change to an existing feeder.  You may notice fewer birds after the change to Hot Meats, but over a period of 2 to 3 weeks, more and more birds will return to the feeder.

If the Squirrels Return: Squirrels are incredibly smart, adaptable animals!  They may return to sample your birdseed periodically, so it’s possible they’ll discover it when you change back to your regular sunflower seed.  No worries!  Just repeat the above process, and these intelligent animals will eventually get the message and stick with their own feeder!