Dog Hair In My Feeder

The obvious question here is “Why in the world is there dog hair in your bird feeder?”

  

The answer is that we have a Yellow Lab—possibly the sheddingest (I know that’s not really a legal word, but it certainly is the most descriptive) dog breed known to man.  I’ve had many dogs over the years, but never before have I had one that could generate enough hair in a day’s time to create a whole new dog! 

Each morning as I would take him out to the patio for his daily brushing and combing I would ponder what a shame it was that there was no good use for the bags full of dog hair our lovable pooch was creating for us each day.  Of course my husband, avid fisherman that he is, has offered to make fishing flies from the cast off hair, but I fear even he could not keep up with our four-legged hair factory. 

Last spring I suddenly noticed that the hair I had failed to pick up one morning when I was in a hurry, had suddenly disappeared by noon.  I didn’t think there had been any wind on that particular morning and couldn’t imagine what “dog hair fairy” had whisked it away.

I decided to run my own little experiment, so I left the next morning’s combings lying in plain sight on the patio, then went inside and waited by the window to see what would happen.  Sure enough, as soon as I had vacated the area I spotted some of our backyard birds helping themselves to the hair.  It was, after all, nesting season!

Now, I didn’t really want to leave piles of dog hair lying around on my patio every day since I couldn’t rely on the birds to immediately clean it up, so I began trying to think of ways to offer this nesting material to them in a less unsightly fashion.  As I was casting about for a suitable container my gaze landed on an empty cage-type suet feeder—the perfect solution. All I had to do was stuff the hair into the feeder each morning and let the birds do the rest!

By far the most frequent visitors to this feeder were the Eurasian Tree Sparrows, but there were also Chickadees, House Finches, and many others attracted to this free birdie version of Home Depot.

  

I now find that I don’t mind the shedding nearly so much—everyone wins!  The dog loves being brushed, the birds empty my hair feeder on a daily basis and I get to watch the birds pulling this hairy bonanza from the feeder until they look like little old men with hairy beards and mustaches happily flying off with their new-found nesting materials. 

Of course this hair disposal system will slow down and eventually stop as the birds finish nesting toward mid-summer, but for now it makes the daily task of brushing and combing a little more enjoyable, and I feel a little better because I’ve found another way to recycle.

Submitted by Gay Schroer, World Bird Sanctuary Volunteer/Photographer