Teryaki, what are you feeding the doves? Sunflower? Maybe give white millet a shot...it's cheaper and squirrels will usually ignore it, but doves love it. I have about 50 that come every day for a mix of white millet and whole corn that I toss on my gravel driveway.

Black oil sunflower, yeah.

Hmm, I'll have to go look for white millet and give it a try, thanks. :)

It was probably a raccoon that swiped your feeder - they're a lot stronger than squirrels. Millet is great dove feed, and the sparrows and juncos love it too. I scatter mine around the yard once a week and they all enjoy it. I give my squirrels and chipmunks their own feeder off in the woods with black oil sunflower in it and they don't bother the other feeders.

I don't think so, the feeder was out of the racoons' reach. That fat squirrel could've brought down the feeder if he bounced on it a few times. I've seen full-grown dogs smaller (and less confident!) than this squirrel!

I got a bag of mostly millet mix this morning (couldn't find straight millet), and yeah, the doves are going for that more than the sunflower seed. Haven't seen the cardinals yet this morning, though.

Teriyaki, NOTHING is out of a determined raccoon's reach :) They can get up into places you wouldn't believe.

Offer your cardinals safflower - the doves like it, the cardinals like it, even chickadees and titmice like it - but the squirrels (usually) turn up their noses at it.

Yeah, I've seen that firsthand, but I'm going by

strength of small branch + weight of feeder + weight of racoon = *snap*

Besides, that feeder's been there two winters already, and the racoons never bothered with it before. The Brando squirrel is a newcomer.

Well, at least I've already got safflower. Will the cardinals and nuthatches go for millet or safflower?

Cardinals love safflower, not sure about nuthatches. They will eat suet, BOSS and probably the safflower. I don't think that either one really likes millet, but the doves certainly do, as do juncos.

I have a platform feeder on a 6 or 7 foot pole with a gallon hopper for black oil sunflower. I also have a 24 inch tin disk on the pole that effectively excludes squirrels and other varmints.

Can anyone help me solve the problem of small birds eating the dove feed please.

I have a platform feeder that is about 12 x 12", with a seed dispenser/hopper in the middle. Now that the platform is bigger, doves eat from it every day - as many as 4 on the feeder at one time.

When I had a smaller feeder, the doves only eat on the ground.

Cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, squirrls etc all eat from the feeder.

what do you think is the best type of food too use for doves?

I think Doves like a mix of things millet, cracked corn and I've seen them hanging around under the finch thistle feeder too. Never read anywhere that they like feeder but I've seen it happen in 3 locations I've lived, which is are in 3 states. They prefer ground feeding but occasionally I've had them get on my hanging flat feeder.

I use a mix of millet, cracked corn and sunflower chips for the mourning doves. I use to scatter it on the patio and under the BOSS hanging feeder. The doves love the little seeds and corn. Since I started using this mix I get a lot more doves. Recently I found a company that calls themselves Hurley Byrd feeder company and they build these great big feeders and my husband installed one on a large post. It also has a tray that is made to go under the feeder. This works well since the doves now get on the tray and the feeder. They can be watched a lot better when they sit on the tray and they stay longer. Maybe you can look at theirs and build one yourself. I also noticed I get a lot more of everything on the tray and in this big feeder. Does anyone else use a real large feeders with seed catch trays?

I think the best and most economical thing would be to go to farm store and purchase a 40 pound bag of chicken scratch mix. It will cost you about $9 (or less in summer time).