How do you keep wild birds out of outside dog dishes??

Question

My poor dog is always low on food since the bigger birds (pidgeons, doves) are always on the porch in his food and water bowls! I have a galvanized planter for dog food, and a galvanized 5 gal bucket for water, and those birds just eat all his food!! What can I do to keep them out of his food and off the porch? I really don't want them in my yard at all, so I will not put out a feeder. There are too many pidgeons around our area.

Answer 1

I understand you want your dog to have food available all of the time. That's why you use such a large container, right?
I had this problem with horses. Danged aggressive birds would run the horse off its food and let the birds eat.
So, I did this, I lived wayyy out in the country. So consider the situation before you do this.
I got my gun and waited for the birds...wait a minute!!! It's not what you are thinking!
When the birds started to pester the horses I pointed my gun well away from anything but a dirt ball and shot the gun off.
The birds cleared out of there like there was a free feather convention in the next state.
It only needed to be done twice. Once early in the day and once at the evening feeding.
There was the down side of that method. Some of the cool things that I liked about the birds was gone too. It took a couple of weeks before the hawks were floating over head again. I was really scared that I'd run off all of the nice birds.
So the next thing I did was train my dogs to run off the birds. Once they knew it was OK to bark and chase the birds it gave them a project to work on and made them happy to do it.
No animal was injured in the making of this saga.
The other thing you could do is string a product called bird barrier over the area where the dogs food is. High enough for the dog to get in and out. It is at the nursery, cheap, black, plastic net that is used to wrap fruit trees so that people can get some of the fruit.
Oh, yeah, leaving any type of feed out overnight is a good way to boost the local rodent population.
Let us know what works.

Answer 2

I would feed your dog inside. Leave only his water dish outside for him. (Also if you feed your dog inside it will not attract the rats and other outside critters that come around. Birds will be the least of your worries.)

Answer 3

Make sure there's not any food left in the dog's dish after he eats.
Put food & water out twice a day, let the dog eat & drink what he wants & take the rest inside till the next feeding.

Answer 4

The first thign you need to do is to bring the dishes inside and have the dogs follow them there.Then set the dishes down someplace warm and snuggly and again have the dogs follow. I'm certain the birds will leave you alone.

Answer 5

You could try putting the food out, letting the dog eat, and then taking the food away. also, if you have sprinklers in the backyard, you could turn them on everytime you see the birds.

Answer 6

Well u can read the back of your dog food bag and feed the recomended amount that your dog will consume in a few minutes.

Answer 7

comen problem whit no magic selusion i think,,,,,well 1 soon asyou stop bringing the food out they´r off in a few days,,,,,,,,,, just dont think about using poison, im a dog person 2 ;) all the best, bæ

Answer 8

It is so sad that people will not go out twice daily and actually FEED the dog. Food should not be left outside all the time.

Answer 9

I don't know.....My dogs live inside and are part of the family. Uh, no one would break into our house.......and they don't disturb us or the neighbors by barking at night.

Answer 10

arsenic...