Bet that title got your attention, didn’t it?

Like many others, we (my husband and I) have been on a quest to find a (humane) squirrel-proof bird feeder. At last, we found one that didn’t cost a small fortune.

But first, a story.

Back when my husband-to-be and I were dating, I took him home to meet my family. One of the side-trips involved meeting my grandparents. Most of the visit was your standard meet-the-relatives visit, but my now husband was given one significant glimpse of the kind of family he would eventually marry into.

My grandfather showed off his electrified bird feeder.

My grandma loves watching the birds outside her kitchen window. My grandfather, tired of feeding the squirrels, put his electrical engineering skills to work. He ran small wires all over and around your standard wooden bird feeder. Those wires were just far enough apart that a bird would only land on one at a time. No so for squirrels. More than likely, those large, gray squirrels would land on at least two of the wires at one time and (did you figure this out yet?) when they touched at least two, they completed the circuit and were zapped.

Not zapped as in stick-your-tongue-on-a-9-volt-battery zapped, but zapped as in stick-your-finger-in-the-electric-socket zapped. That’s right. My grandfather’s bird feeder plugs into the wall.

Now he doesn’t always leave it plugged in. Squirrels are pretty smart and they quickly learned to avoid this particular bird feeder. But now and again, a squirrel new to the neighborhood gives it a try.

One such squirrel happened by the day my husband first visited. My grandfather invited him to plug in the bird feeder. I can still remember the poor squirrel leaping off its roof – a good foot into the air – and my husband laughing. It is an incredibly effective squirrel-proof bird feeder. But despite my title, no squirrels have ever been truly harmed. Just a little shocked.

Ever since then, we’ve been looking for an effective way to keep the squirrels off and/or out of the birdseed – something just shy of electrifying our own bird feeder. The best thing we’ve found was seed coated in jalapeno pepper spray, but its hard to find. (But if you do find it, wash your hands very carefully after you fill the feeder). The next best thing was this wire mesh feeder – it really slowed them down.

At last, just this spring, we found this feeder.

It works wonderfully. The perches are connected to a spring. If anything heavier than a bird tries to climb on them, the perch moves downward and the little decorative leaves cover the holes cutting off the squirrel’s access to the bird seed. Our squirrels have learned quickly and, after only a few days, have given up, turning to the fallen seeds instead.

But my husband still speaks wistfully of that ‘electrified bird feeder’…

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Tags: birdfeeder, electrified, squirrel, squirrel proof birdfeeder