Perky-Pet337 Squirrel-Be-Gone III Wild Bird Feeder

All the other reviewers had good points. Sometimes, the mechanism does not work or sticks and a squirrel will gnaw away a cup. This feeder does need some maintenance to keep it going. That said, it works very well at discouraging the squirrels. I have a bunch as I have 10 acres of woods behind me. This feeder works so well that they even stop trying. Only occasionally does a new or persistent one try it again. I have tried many feeders over the years. Some were destroyed by the squirrels in a matter of weeks. It may be flawed, but it works better than anything else I have tried. I'm still open to suggestions but I didn't see any in these reviews. With a little care, this feeder has lasted me two years. I feed about 150 pounds of seed a year.New Update: My current feeder is going to need replacement after two years of use. The reason? Coons! Two racoons learned how to unscrew the top even though it has a swivel (that was working fine) to discourage this behavior. To do this, the coons had to hang on to the top and spin the feeder. When it dropped to the ground, some of the cups broke. It would be nice if we could get new cups. I recently witnessed a new squirrel trying the feeder and he was foiled again. It only takes a couple of these experiences to teach the little rat that this doesn't work. They give up quickly. If the feeder is maintained, the squirrels can't even chew the cups. I really like this feeder.

I like these feeders, though they require some adjustments to be used long term. We go through about 100-150 pounds of see a month in a group of these feeders. In that environment they will last up to about 2 years. To make them last longer you need to do the following:1. Glue the bottom plastic onto the metal rod that goes down the middle. Without that the rod will unscrew and most everything falls to the ground.2. Glue each of the plastic feeder tubes that go in the holes to the outside tube. The birds will peck the bottoms of these to the point they get loose and either spin or fall out. Once that happens the see just drains out the hole.3. Occasionally, the top hook will disconnect from the piece that screws down the lid. It is a pressed in piece and I have found no way to attach it permanently. Rather, I run a chain from the hanger loop to the cage (loosely so the cage will still slide up and down) so that if it disconnects the whole feeder does not fall to the ground and break. If it pops loose, I put it back together and hit the screw portion with a hammer to re-press it into the top loop.Seems like a bunch of work, especially for an expensive feeder. But the do a decent job.

Rusted after 6months

DO NOT BUY THIS FEEDER. This used to be a quality product. NO MORE. We have had several of them over the years and they have held up incredibly well. The original product did baffle the squirrels for the most part; my only complaint would have been that the port holes for the birds to feed are plastic and the squirrels would manage to chew them around the baffles. If they had been metal, the feeder would have been 100% effective. Even so, I would stick duct tape on the chewed plastic and the feeder remained serviceable for years and years. No kidding. HOWEVER, something has changed in a MAJOR way with the production of this product. The top comes loose from the feeder no matter how tightly you screw it on, causing the feeder to drop and possibly break. It is more than even unscrewing itself - it just unattaches itself if it is bumped from the side at all. The springs that hold the metal cage up for the birds but allow it to drop on the heavier squirrels now catch on the leaf scroll work, possibly because the springs are twice as long as they used to be. But they become sprung and don't work anymore. It took the squirrels months and months to figure out how to chew the portals around the scrollwork before, but they had the ports chewed and ruined with days. I meant it. This feeder stayed in tact for only a few days. This is a big disappointment since I had already sent the first one back, thinking there must have been something wrong with that specific one. Nope. Several design flaws have taken a perfectly good, functional feeder and turned it to crap. Notice in the pictures how the spring is sprung out and how the port holes are all chewed. I already duct taped one because I really wanted this to work, but there are just too many problems to keep it. I'm very disappointed in squirrel country here on Oak Ridge in Maine.

Had this feeder for a number of years now. One eventual MAJOR problem is in the bottom plastic plate where the rod screws into a gold colored nut. The Nut is metal, but it's inserted in the plastic housing. Eventually through washing, screwing and unscrewing the upper lid ( usually too tightly) the nut gets stripped. and once that happens, the rod falls out and won't stay in the bottom plate and you're up a creek. I was able to salvage it with strong adhesive cement glue. So far, so good, but this is the second time I've had to do that. One thing to help prevent squirrels is to mount a baffle directly onto the shepherds hook type pole. It prevents them from jumping from the pole onto the feeder. The ONLY CRITTERS ABLE TO GET TO MY SUNFLOWER SEEDS ARE THE DEER. They stick their tongues into the holes and can empty 8 pounds of seeds overnight...lol

This is the second one we have purchased. It replaces one that the squirrels ultimately made unusable. So it’s not squirrel proof. Our first one lasted years though. The squirrels ate through the plastic openings where the seeds are presented to the birds. If they were metal, we’d still have our first one. I wish the manufacturer sold parts where we could just replace the inner plastic that holds the seeds. It was a shame to throw it all away. That said, it did last a long enough time and we liked it enough to buy another.

Been using it for a few months now, you need to have something very strong to hang it from as it it very big and heavy when filled. In the few months the springs that hold up the trap have fallen off and they've gone quite rusty already. So far the squirrels haven't foiled it, but the jackdaws have figured it out, if they keep flapping their wings they can feed from it. It is very messy as others have said, although the birds seem to be very fussy and sorting out what they do and don't want.

Squirel deterence is questionable since I once saw a squirrell fully stretched to nibble away at one of the openings with feet placements requiring some contortions. Admittedly, the local squirrels must have decided such comtortions were hadly worth the effort and visited noticeably less. Any seeds saved by such squirrel hindrance is negated by the incredible amount of wasted seeds that fall under the feeder - a feast for pigeons that now love my garden. In one case, a refill did not last more than a couple of days! !Methinks the design should be revisited to address this problem of waste

It lasted a week and the squirrels chewed through 2 ports and I lost two whole sections filled with feed. A replacement was sent but it turned up broken, so now I'm waiting for a refund. It's a shame, because the feeder is lovely....but it isn't fit for purpose, at least with my damned squirrels.

Very good value. Holds a lot of seed and saves endless re-filling. Squirrel guard is clever, and the top cover keeps off rain, and makes it difficult for squirrels to even attempt to eat the seed. Looks large when unpacked, but looks great in the garden as numerous birds can feed at the same time.

Squirrels gnawed through the plastic within a week. Now the seed just pours out of the chewed holes rendering it useless. Waste of money.