Wagner's 62046 Backyard Wildlife Blend, 8-Pound Bag

Nice quality feed & good price. Has a nice smell, seems fresh.

My rooster still mauled me, even though my chickens nearly did when I sprinkled this on the ground. Holy cow! Birds love to join the group; it isn't heavy and is easy to carry. The ingredients are a lot different than my normal scratch, and some of the corn is stubbornly hard. The moisture level is on the dry side but it does smell like cornbread - which is fan-tas-tic! However, it is like birthday cake for them and the size is manageable.

I feed this to the squirrels on my lunch breaks. They seem to love it. In fact, they love it, the chipmunks especially love it and fill their little cheeks and the birds do as well. There are about 20-30 birds that scoops in and eat the feed. Sometimes im able to keep the squirrels from fighting be keeping it separated but most times, they all share it. Now that its winter, I dont see the chipmunks but the squirrels and birds still come out. I also like the velcro sealed bag the feed comes in. I wish they had a bigger bag option but I usually just order 2 of the 8lb bags. I will throw some raw peanuts or cashews into the pile and they really like that.

I’m really happy with the quality. It’s a huge amount of food for the squirrels. However, I found the squirrels and birds only took the peanuts. They left corns and other stuffs. So sad.

I began putting a bowl out on my fire escape balcony shortly after buying our house in 2000. Initially, the intent was to feed the birds so that my cats would have something to look at. Of course, squirrels came, but that was fine, too. My observations have been that peanuts work best to attract squirrels, chipmunks, bluejays, and other larger birds. Squirrels and jays love peanuts and will battle over a place at the bowl. Woodpeckers, cardinals, and other birds are attracted by peanuts, as well. The only problem with peanuts is that the birds will grab a peanut and fly away to eat it elsewhere, perhaps where there aren't cats staring at them through the window. Squirrels will grab peanuts and run away, probably to bury them somewhere. This is rectified, at least in part, by breaking some of the peanuts apart. However, I don't like to feed the same thing all the time because I like to see what else might be attracted to the bowl. This particular Wagner's product doesn't attract smaller birds, like chickadees, so I would ordinarily add some smaller seed-type foods to the bowl to attract them. This product includes, in order of volume, whole corn, black oil sunflower seeds, striped sunflower seeds, peanut pieces, and whole peanuts. The whole peanuts are on the small side, so squirrels will generally eat them at the bowl rather than spirit them away, and jays will sometimes do the same. I have noticed, not only with this mix but with others as well, that neither the squirrels nor the jays are overly fond of the corn. I don't think the jays eat the corn at all, and the squirrels will sometimes throw the corn out of the bowl as they search for something they like better. They will later come back, after the bowl is empty, to eat the corn, but it's clear that it's not their favorite. Unfortunately, it is the most prominent ingredient in this - and most - backyard wildlife foods. While feeding Wagner's product, I have seen plenty of gray and red squirrels, chipmunks, bluejays, gray jays, and a few cardinals and woodpeckers. Pigeons come too, but pigeons are timid, so the cats often scare them away by slamming the window. Unlike the squirrels and the jays, the pigeons don't seem to realize that the cats can't get them through the window. Pigeons make too much of a mess, anyhow, so I am fine with that. In these photos, only Wagner's product is present; in regular practice, I would mix it with other products to attract a larger variety of critters.