How do I keep the birds and not the rats from using my bird feeder?

Kill the nasty rats with D-Con !!How do I keep the birds and not the rats from using my bird feeder?
We have birdfeeders and don't have a rat issue. Now the squirrels try to steal the bird food; but, my husband madde something and humg up there so that the little squirrel thieves were out of business. Don't know what it was ...some kind of metal thing.How do I keep the birds and not the rats from using my bird feeder?
I had a neighbor who put a sheet of plastic around a pole. The pole had the feeder at the top and the plastic sheet, which was stiff and wrapped around the pole like a collar or a lampshade closed around the pole but flaired out around the border was lower down. It reminded me of those collars they put on dogs to keep them from licking their wounds after surgery. The result is the rats (who can climb poles and the squirrels he had a problem with) could not get beyond the plastic sheet or collar if that is the best way to describe it. It was slick and while stiff was also still flexible enough the the unwanted parties just fell off.
Hanging the feeder will not solve your problem. The birds will spill some seeds to the ground and the rats will come to eat them. The only real soulution is to stop feeding the birds. As long as you continue to put food out, rats will be attracted to it, and rats are the more agressive creature. The rats will win if the food is there.
If the feeder is the pole type, slide a piece of PVC pipe about 3 foot long over the bottom of the pole. It is slippery enough they can't climb it. I do the same thing for squirrels
TRY HANGING THE BIRD FEEDER SOMEWHERE THE RATS CANT GET TO
Do you feed rats??
Do you mean that you want to keep the birds from using the feeder, or the rats? I am confused.





But if you want to keep rats out of it, get one of those long, skinny metal hooks that you screw into the side of your house or your deck (I put mine on the side of the house because it's a smoother, less grippable surface) and put the bird feeder on there. And sweep up the discarded shells, etc. daily to keep the rats from being so attracted to it. Other than that, there's not much you can do if you have an infestation unless you want to resort to rat traps and poison.
find a rubber snake large one and sit it on the bird feeder and move it around every now and then..birds hate snakes.