Cole's Hot Meats Bird Food, 5-Pound

The birds love this food and it really keeps squirrels, rats, etc. from eating it. It's a little pricey though, but worth it to have all of the birds in my yard minus party animals robbing the feeders.

This mix does discourage squirrels!

As soon as I opened the bag, I began to violently sneeze. Soon followed by coughing, runny nose and itchy eyes. The squirrels are going to HATE this stuff. Next time I'll wear a mask and gloves when handling. But I'll be shocked if the squirrels keep coming back after one or 2 experiences with this mix.

Birds absolutely love it, but it sends the squirrels leaping away (very hilarious if you have a bird cam set up to watch). Note, use gloves when handling this, the spice will affect you as well! I've never seen a feeder get cleaned out by the birds so quickly. I do think they love not having to fuss with sunflower shells, and its also less mess below the feeder.

Problem with squirrels in our feeder, prompted a deeper dive into the hottest seeds we could find. The regular hot, did nothing. We feed the squirrels in separate feeders, away from the birds. No squirrels were harmed in eating the hot seed - but, perhaps a little heartburn. They don't eat this seed for long. 🔥

No need to mix your own ratio of seed to habanero pepper. The Birds seem to enjoy it and I don't have squirrels hanging off my feeder. Having the sunflower meats seems to leave less mess under the feeder too. Less Shells.

Purchased this item to deter rats and squirrels from our feeders. So far, I have not seen anything other than birds on the feeder. We are seeing fewer birds, and I'm not sure yet whether that is due to the feed or if it is just luck of the draw. The prior "hot" seed we were using also tended to germinate on the ground. So far, this one has not done that. Still probably too early for me to give a full and fair review. The main reason i gave it 4/5 stars is the cost. It is at least twice as expensive as the product we used before.

Unfortunately my squirrels actually sit in the feeder eating most of the seed and leave crumbs for the birds. I didn't mix the hot seed with anything else and squirrels still loved it. It gets 2 stars because some birds will eat this seed too and my 30 lbs. of seed won't be completely wasted.

This is terrible bird food. The birds usually flock to my backyard whenever I put seed in the feeder. The birds come to look then fly away with this new seed . I am out a significant amount of money and no birds to enjoy. Very disappointed with this seed.

Didn't work at all on keeping squirrels away