It is understandable that many people are concerned about causing any harm to our wild birds and squirrels by using food products containing capsaicin. Capsaicin is what makes chili peppers hot to the taste. There are several persistent rumors being passed around that play into these concerns. These rumors mention damage to animals’ eyes and to their mouths and throats. The facts are not nearly as exciting as the rumors. While capsaicin is an irritant that causes a burning sensation, the effects are temporary and  it does not cause any permanent damage. Capsaicin is present in most hot sauces we all eat. It is also the active ingredient in pepper sprays like Mace which are intended to be sprayed directly in the face and eyes and are approved for that purpose because the effects are temporary.

We do get a few reports of squirrels eating Hot Meats but the success stories far out number them. Since the capsaicin’s effect is on the taste buds there will always be a few squirrels that will be able to tolerate the hot taste especially if they are very hungry.

Overall Cole’s Hot Meats is a great product that is very effective at stopping the squirrels from eating all of your bird seed and is, of course, very safe for the birds and the squirrels.

Richard Cole

Cole’s Wild Bird Products

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 at 8:51 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.