After I threw out our last bird feeder because it attracted a rat, we missed our visit from a couple of cardinals that chose to grace us with their presence a few times a day. I did some research on feeding birds without feeding rats and came up with a couple of solutions.

First, I learned there are a couple of bird seeds that rats don’t like. Not many, but one of them, Safflower seeds, is a favorite of cardinals. The other is nyjer seeds, which is a favorite of finches and other small songbirds.

I ordered the seeds as well as a squirrel resistant bird feeder and a stand for it. My wife and I like squirrels and didn’t want to lock them out, but it needed to be done.

We then decided to buy a separate squirrel feeder that holds peanuts. Even though rats will eat peanuts in the shell, it’s not their favorite and I read that if you kept it above four feet it would help keep them at bay. Since rats can climb, I’m not sure why four feet would matter unless they can’t smell that high.

It took a while for the squirrels to notice the feeder. I put a trail of peanuts hoping one would be smart enough to follow it. Once one did find the feeder, he or she emptied it almost instantly.

In the last week, I have gone through two and a half bags of peanuts and a half a bag of pecans in the shell. If this squirrel is burying the peanuts, there must be quite a large mound around here somewhere, but I haven’t seen it.

While this was going on, my wife heard from her sister that birds love their bird bath, so she ordered one for our house.

So far, we have been entertained by the squirrel and pleased by the return of the cardinals, as well as a few other birds that I have not yet identified. As far as the bird bath, let’s just say we have a bunch of dirty birds living near us.