I have seen these "squirrel proof" suet feeders with the cage around it and they have always baffled me (pun intended, lol)… the openings appear really large, definitely look big enough for a squirrel to fit his head into, or at least his arms/hands. Have you ever sat and watched a squirrel attempt to get into it and what were your observations??
Here in Texas our squirrels are really big. I've seen many that are as large as a small cat. They cannot even get their heads thru the squares. They will go around in a circle on the outside, and they will dangle from wherever, and chew the wires. They usually give up fairly easy, and climb back up to the branch, or just jump down to the ground. I have 8 total of these suet feeders. Usually beginning right after the fall harvest, when birds start coming back to the feeders, all thru winter into the spring, I have all 8 of them in service. Once we warm up in the summer like now, I have just 4 of them in service at the moment, about to go down to 3 after my home made suet runs out. They work really well with seed cakes also, which I have used.
Now, having said all that, I have watched videos on Youtube made with these feeders where small red squirrels and chipmunks, usually in the northern areas of the USA, just jump right thru them with ease. But, we dont have any like that here in Dallas, Texas that I've ever seen, and I grew up here.
This is NOT my video, but you can see how the larger squirrels like we have act:
https://youtu.be/WJGp-dTYmwk
I've seen people make a lot of comments about how woodpeckers cant feed because the larger ones cant fit thru the holes, but woodpeckers do have larger beaks. I havent seen any yet that were turned away without being able to feed. I was actually surprised at how well they learn to use these feeders, but there are probably a lot of them out there in neighborhoods. They are very common in the stores here, and Amazon, Ebay. The smaller woodpeckers like the downy, they just go inside and eat. The larger ones like the red bellied, can stick their heads inside and grab huge chunks. Some hang upside down and peck and let it fall on their stomachs, and then scoop it up. It seems when theres food involved, they learn really fast.
These arent for everyone though. Everybody has their own preferences of how they feed, I understand that. I just refuse to feed squirrels the good stuff. I keep a 14 inch terra cotta saucer on the ground, and I fill it with that cheapo bird seed you can buy 50 pounds for $8, and I throw some raisins, and sometimes a hand full of peanuts. I call it my diversion platter. Usually after the annoyance animals realize they cant get the good stuff, they go down there and find something. I've noticed that birds dont seem to stick around very long anyhow. Theres usually a Fedex or UPS truck that comes flying thru the neighborhood and scares them out for a few. Then they come back, and try all over again
