Wildlife Gardening: Raccoon proof squirrel feeder?, 0 by e9racer

e9racer wrote:
Yes, I have recently built a racoon-proof squirrel feeder.

My design for a "metal cage with flip-top box feeder" utilized concepts of someone else's design for removable, tree-mounted lexan box assembly with a gravity feeder bottle.

I did not use the "lexan" design, because lexan can be more difficult to work with, considering the material's expense. As birds will visit a squirrel's feeder, a gravity feeder bottle is not acceptable as it is not bird-proof.

Placement of a flip-top squirrel feeder box in a metal cage keeps birds from eating the squirrels' sunflower seed and keeps racoons at a distance, too.

I used a small, off-the-shelf hamster cage, and structurally reinforced it so it can't collapse if animals or humans crawl on it. It's bolted to custom, fence rail-mountable brackets I made, and sits 20 feet from a pole-mounted bird feeder. The whole assembly is mounted so firmly on the rail, not even a human with a sledgehammer can knock it off.

The cage currently has one 3.5" x 3.5" side entrance for the squirrels (yes, birds wonder in, but can't get flip the top of the squirrel feeder box). I have a larger, top entrance to access/re-fill the squirrel feeder box.

As squirrels prefer 2 entrances, I have made an attachable entryway with its own small ledge, but not yet modified the cage to mount/ strap-down this assembly over a new hole to complete a 2nd entrance. One squirrel will not let a 2nd squirrel use a feeder simultaneously, so am dragging on the modification.

As the entire roof of the cage is removable, I used release-able plastic tie straps. If/when the coons show up again, I'll shift strapping to wire metal, but for right now, am happy with release-able plastic straps.

The squirrel feeder box has 2 spread footers attached to its bottom. The primary footer has a hole on each end , matching finishing nails mounted in the structural frame, to ensure no animals can shift the feeder box in the cage. The 2nd footer simply levels the box (to match the level of the primary footer).

I also added a foot bar on the front of the feeder box, to eliminate need for a squirrel to stand only on one foot while reaching into the box when it's half-empty.