Cole's BH05 Blazing Hot Blend Bird Seed, 5-Pound

Before we tried this seed mix we had squirrels emptying our bird feeder every day. Since we started using it we haven’t seen a single squirrel at the feeder (which has a camera). It almost seems too good to be true, but the results have been amazing for us. I wish it was a little cheaper, since the birds love this mix and usually empty the feeder in two days. Better the birds than the squirrels though! Great product!

Perfect for billable bird camera feeder! Only birds - no squirrels on deck area!

Update: The birds love this food, and there's very little waste at all. The millet doesn't sprout, either!! I only have one squirrel that likes this stuff, and she's kind of insane. She eats everything, literally everything, so I could put peppered shoelaces in the feeder and she'd eat those. Anyway, I stopped giving the squirrels their own food at all since it was attracting rats, and my overall squirrel population in my yard has dropped. A squirrel or two still scavenge at the bottom of the feeder for stuff that has gotten wet and washed off the pepper, but other than that I rarely have problems.It is funny to see new squirrels try it though. I had one freaking out, digging holes and rubbing its face in the holes. Another squirrel's tail poofed out like a cat's. Yet another one fell off the feeder in shock.It's winter now and the birds are loving this food like crazy, the squirrels are mostly at bay and I'm very happy with this stuff! Way less expensive in the long run and much less mess and randomly sprouting seeds.Original review:The squirrels here in WA state definitely do not like this stuff. A couple have gotten into the bird feeder that has it and immediately stop and get off the feeder. Since then, they've actually been eating the squirrel 'kobs' I've put on a bungee for them (heh heh heh) and the feeder is full!The very first squirrel was pretty funny. He got up there, went to eat like normal and just STOPPED. He crawled up to the top of the feeder pole thing and perched there and just sat there. Just... sat there. For several minutes, he just sat and sat. He shook his paw once, and sat some more. I never see them perch up there and just sit like that. Eventually he hopped down and ran off with his tail twitching all funny. Usually I don't see anything like that unless there's a cat around, and there was no cat around (and I was watching after the fact on a recording, so he wasn't reacting to me). It was pretty amusing. Since the four squirrels in my yard are two dads and their sons, it only took two squirrels to try it to get the word out. I haven't seen any more squirrels try it since those two. And, as I have other food for them, it means they won't move out of the yard -- meaning, no new squirrels will move in (figuratively - they live elsewhere but have claimed my yard as their territory for feeding) so I may be able to go back to normal seed eventually, if these squirrels decide they're never trying that feeder again.I haven't been able to see yet if the birds are a fan of it, though. It's springtime here and the birds have plenty of other places to eat so I get fewer birds. Fewer still since the squirrels invaded a while ago. We'll see how it goes now that the squirrels aren't all over the feeder! Maybe my songbirds will come back to eat!

It’s a good blend and the birds like it but so do the squirrels. If you’re buying it to deter squirrels, don’t bother.

These seeds attract a wide variety of birds to our feeder. No squirrel bother it. We have a bird cam on the feeder, so we see lots of colorful birds munching away. They love this blend! No squirrels come to dine!

My goal with trying this birdseed was that the hot pepper treatment would deter the 3 squirrels that have discovered our video feeder. I desperately wanted this stuff to be a part (other stuff was tried along with it) of the solution. The squirrels were consuming a LOT of food; costing a lot of $ and keeping birds away. They'd often sit at the feeder on top of a pile of food and munch away for an hour at a time.Given that specific goal, I have to rate this seed as a "failure" for us. The squirrels appear to LOVE this food as much as they love the other non-hot seed mixes I've tried. They'll sit there and munch for an hour with this stuff in the feeder as well. So if you are thinking of using this to deter eastern grey squirrels, it very likely will not work.The birds do seem to like this food, and we did not see any adverse reactions to the hot pepper treatment. SO if you are not using this for that purpose, the birds do like it.

I realize this bird food is kind of expensive, but I needed something to keep the squirrels out of my camera bird feeder. The greedy little hogs would spend 20-45 minutes at a time in there, draining the battery, and draining my patience when I looked at the pictures and feed. This stuff absolutely keeps them out of it. Every once in awhile I think, "oh, they've learned" and fill the feeder with regular seed out of frugality and not wanting to make another Amazon order. I always wind up ordering this again. I felt compelled to write this review today, because I had exactly 45 seconds of a squirrel in the camera feeder today, and he promptly left. I have ordered this stuff 4 or 5 times now, and I will keep ordering it as long as I can afford it.As far as other birds not liking it, I currently have house finches, chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, and cardinals as regular, daily visitors, and have had numerous other birds throughout my time using it. I will continue buying this feed as long as it keeps the squirrels away from the camera!

I bought this hoping that it would deter anything but birds. Unfortunately, squirrels, mice, and rats seem to think it's pretty darn tasty. As far as birds go, we had a family of Eastern Bluebirds that were frequent visitors. Other than that it has not attracted many of the other birds I frequently see in my yard (such as Northern Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, House Finches, Carolina Wrens).Overall it just didn't deter non-birds nor does it seem to attract many birds.