Keilamarie, Now that's a suet feeder!! Short of building one myself (it's not patent pending is it? :), you did give me a good idea. I think you're right about the back feet. I was watching one of the little bastards on the suet this morning (I forgot to put out peanuts) and he was clinging on with his back feet and holding the suet basket with both front paws while he chewed away at the corners of the suet. Seeing your contraption made me realize that if I cover the sides of the suet basket with something (strips of wood perhaps), they won't be able to get a mouthful since it appears that they actually chew around the corner bars. I actually have a suet basket hanging from the trunk of my maple in the front yard just outside one of the upper windows. After scaring the squirrel away, I went and threw some cayenne pepper on the suet cake. My neighbours can't see the basket since it's on the house side of the tree, so I'm sure if anyone saw me it will be dinner table discussion tonight. "Honey, the new neighbour was sprinkling red powder on the tree again!!?? And he was talking to himself...he looked mad."

I hung a bird suet inside a metal cage that fits perfectly around with the suet itself from a garden hook pole. It was only approx 4 ft off the ground and I suspect a damn raccoon just yanked it down and broke the cage attached thin metal wire with a hook. I dont think he will get that cage open whereever he disapperared with it. That cage door is a tight fit door on it. It has pissed me off, the cage and suet not expensive- its just that he got away with it all. I have thought about doing same again only lacing the suet and especially the cage with rat poisoning, I prob wont because I dont want other animals to come along perhaps after he drops it again somewhere and they try it and it hurts or kills them too. My squirrels in tree right next to this suet pole and I put sunflower seed for them at base of tree...raccoon does not seem to bother that. May try to rub some red pepper seasoning into suet and somehow make a sauce with it and line outside of cage....that or sit up late night and try to shoot the sob. Wonder where I can buy that in above post Habenero spray at ??....any ideas?

Lucky for me starlings are only an occasional problem in my yard. Hordes fly in, stay a week or so and vanish. When they come I use a recycled recycled plastic upside-down feeder like this: (from Suet Bird Feeders) I am loving the recycled plastic over wood, it's so easy to clean and you can even use bleach against mold. Don't think I haven't done a load of bird feeders in my dishwasher. BUT it's not perfectly starling proof - one starling will always figure it out. As an alternative I have a ground table feeder for starlings like this one: from Ground Table Bird Feeders. I use super cheap chicken feed cracked corn (was about $6 for a 50lb bag) and a super cheap millet/milo seed blend ($6 a 25lb bah) that I buy at a local feed store. The ground feeder is a lot easier for the starlings to use, plus they seem to prefer the corn food, so it at least keeps them busy and out of my other bird feeders to a great extent. They don't go through my pricey seed as fast. I've found offering starlings and grackle sort of birds alternative food works pretty well since they are going to be there no matter what I do. Jays also like the ground table.

I've found some brands of pre-made suet blocks to be significantly more popular than others; Morning Song year round suet is liked far more than Blain's Farm & Fleet. They seem to be popular with woodpeckers of various types, Downy, Red-Headed, and Hairy I've seen. BOSS is very popular in my tube feeders, but do want to try the shelled variety to eliminate the shell waste. Corn seemed to be liked by Cardinals and Blue Jays, but also attracted lots and lots of Grackles, ugh. Thistle is liked by the smaller birds, especially finches, but I think they go for the bigger seeds more if they are available. Lots of various sparrows and similar smaller birds, Mourning Doves (counted 27 at one time, all at once), no Eurasian doves here but I have seen them in the fields a few mles away. Some Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks, just saw a male Dark Eyed Junco this morning. 55 miles west of Chicago is the location. vince