Problem Solving

Is It Illegal to Feed Squirrels?

Not under any US state or Canadian provincial law we read. It is illegal under some city and town bylaws, and the strictest, in and around Toronto, reach your backyard and your bird feeder. Des Moines, often quoted as a ban, dropped squirrels in 2021.

No, not under any US state or Canadian provincial law we read. Feeding squirrels is illegal where a city or town bylaw says so. The strictest bylaws, in and around Toronto, reach into your backyard and treat a feeder squirrels can raid as feeding wildlife.

We read fourteen rules: four state or provincial, nine local and one national. Eleven we read in the text itself; Anacortes comes from the mayor's announcement, Mississauga from the city's own summary and Vaughan from news coverage. Whether you may trap and move the squirrel instead is on is it legal to trap a squirrel and move it, and how to keep one off a feeder is on how to stop squirrels raiding feeders.

The rules we read#

For your own yard, read the "Your backyard" column first.

Seven of the fourteen ban squirrel feeding in a backyard. Only Illinois names squirrel feeders as allowed. Toronto, Mississauga, Essa and Côte Saint-Luc exempt bird feeders only if squirrels cannot use them.

Why the answers online disagree#

Search the question and you will be told that feeding squirrels is illegal in California, illegal under Ontario provincial law, or legal everywhere unless you live in a park. The first two are wrong, and the third misses the cities where it matters most.

"It's illegal in California." The state rule people mean is 14 CCR 251.3: "No person shall knowingly feed big game mammals, as defined in Section 350." Section 350 lists deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, black bear and Nelson bighorn sheep. Squirrels are not on it. A California city can still ban squirrel feeding by its own code, as some ban feeding pigeons.

"It's illegal under Ontario law." The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act has no feeding ban in it. Section 113(1), paragraph 10, lets the Minister make regulations "prohibiting or regulating the feeding of wildlife," which is a power, not a rule. Toronto's 2022 staff report confirms how things stood: before the city's own bylaw, feeding wildlife was "only explicitly prohibited in City parks." The Ontario bans are municipal, town by town.

"Des Moines bans it." It did. In November 2021 the city amended its ordinance to "prohibit the feeding of deer and waterfowl only." Squirrels are still listed under "wild animal" in the definitions, but the prohibition no longer reaches them. Pages written before 2021 still quote the old version.

State and provincial law#

Where state law touches squirrel feeding at all, it gets there through deer. Two states we read show the range.

Illinois makes it "illegal to make available food, salt, mineral blocks or other products for ingestion by wild deer or other wildlife in areas where wild deer are present." Squirrels are "other wildlife." The first exemption is the only state wording we found that names squirrel feeding as legal: "elevated bird/squirrel feeders providing seed, grain, fruit, worms, or suet for birds or squirrels located within 100 feet of a dwelling devoted to human occupancy." A squirrel feeder on the porch post is fine. A pile of corn on the ground at the back of a lot that deer cross is not. The same rule is applied to ducks on the duck feeding page.

Michigan rewrote its deer feeding statute in July 2026. "Notwithstanding the order, an individual may engage in wildlife and bird feeding" if the feed is within 300 feet of a residence and all of it there, old and new, comes to no more than 2 gallons. Squirrel corn counts toward the same 2 gallons as the birdseed. The other deer bans, state by state, are on does a deer feeding ban apply to my bird feeder.

US towns: parks versus yards#

Most US town rules that catch squirrels were written for something else: deer, geese, coyotes, rats. Squirrels come in through a definition of "wildlife" broad enough to hold them. The question that decides your case is where the rule applies.

Englewood, New Jersey shows the common pattern. Ordinance 25-50 (second reading November 25, 2025) bans feeding wildlife "in any public park or on any other property owned or operated by the City of Englewood." Wildlife "means any undomesticated animal," so the squirrels by the park bench are covered. Your yard is not. The fine is up to $100. Many New Jersey towns have the same park rule; see the duck page for why.

Fanwood, New Jersey goes further. Its Board of Health ordinance (adopted August 5, 2015) bans feeding "in or on any private property or public property" any wildlife, defined as "all animals that are neither human or domesticated." "Feed" includes leaving bird seed or grain out "in a manner that would constitute an attractant to any wild animal." Songbird feeding is allowed only if it does not become "an attractant for rodents or other wildlife animals" and the feeders are "at least five (5) feet above the ground." Fines run $100 to $500, and each day is a separate offense, capped at $2,000.

Anacortes, Washington adopted its ban on April 23, 2026. Mayor Ryan Walters's announcement says "wild animal" includes "all deer, squirrels, racoons, seagulls, and pigeons," and that "bird feeders are still allowed; salt licks are not." A first violation is a class 4 civil infraction, $25 plus court costs; a second is $50.

Toronto and the songbird test#

Since April 1, 2023, section 349-10.1 of Toronto's Municipal Code has said: "No person shall feed or attempt to feed wildlife, or permit the feeding of wildlife on their property." Wildlife is "an animal that belongs to a species that is wild by nature," apart from domestic animals and feral or stray cats. Every squirrel in the city is in.

The bird feeder exemption is narrow in two ways. It covers songbirds only, defined as "a bird belonging to the oscine division in ornithology," so it does not cover a squirrel, and read literally it does not cover a mourning dove or a woodpecker either, since neither is an oscine. And it applies only if all four conditions hold:

• the food is in a bird feeding device "sufficiently above grade so as to not attract or be accessible to wildlife";
• the feeder is on private property, with the owner's or occupant's permission;
• spilled food "is removed in a timely manner such that it does not attract other wildlife"; and
• the feeder is "kept in sanitary condition and in good working order."

Read the first condition against your own feeder. A tube feeder a squirrel empties every afternoon is, by its own record, accessible to wildlife. The exemption then falls away, and you are back under the general ban. Peanuts on the deck rail or corn on a platform feeder for the squirrels were never exempt at all. Toronto's general penalty section sets a maximum fine of $100,000 on conviction; the March 2023 city announcement gave no ticket amount, and neither does the code.

Mississauga, Vaughan, Essa and Côte Saint-Luc#

Toronto's neighbors say the squirrel part more bluntly.

Mississauga: "You are not allowed to feed wild animals or leave out food to attract wild animals on public or private property," under Part 4, Section 10 of its Animal Care and Control By-law, maximum penalty $100,000. Songbird feeders must be above grade and clean, spill picked up "as soon as possible," and: "Wildlife such as squirrels should not be able to get to the birdseed."

Vaughan is where the rule has been used. In August 2021 a Vaughan couple was fined $615 for feeding squirrels in their backyard, and the city said those who break the animal control bylaw "face fines for intentionally feeding wildlife." The same city statement told residents to "reconsider bird feeders" that are not squirrel-proof.

Essa, Ontario (By-law 2026-19) defines wildlife to include "rodents" and bans leaving food out "in such a manner as to attract, or be accessible by wildlife on private or public property." Songbird seed is exempt only in a feeder "sufficiently above grade so as not to attract or be accessible by wildlife," with spill removed "forthwith." The set fine is $250.

Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec amended its nuisance by-law in August 2025 to name squirrels in its definition of wild animals and to allow, on residential property, "a maximum of two (2) bird feeders that are squirrel-proof and resistant to other wild animals." Leaving spilled seed on the ground "without immediately picking it up" is a separate offense. Other Canadian rules, including British Columbia's, are on are bird feeders illegal in Canada.

England and Wales#

Feeding squirrels in an English or Welsh garden breaks no law we found. The offence is letting a grey squirrel go. Article 3(2) of the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019 makes it an offence to release "or allow to escape into the wild" any animal of a species in Part 1 of Schedule 2, and "Squirrel, Grey, Sciurus carolinensis" is on that list.

So a grey squirrel caught in a live trap in England cannot lawfully be driven off and let go, even in your own garden. The North American version of that question is on the squirrel relocation page.

What a feeder has to do to pass#

The rules above use three tests for a bird feeder, and they are not equally easy to meet:

• A fixed height. Fanwood says 5 feet. A gray squirrel can jump about 5 feet straight up from the ground (see the 5-7-9 rule), so a feeder at exactly 5 feet passes the code and may still feed squirrels. Height alone is the weakest of the three clearances; see how high to hang a bird feeder.
• "Not accessible to wildlife." Toronto, Mississauga and Essa judge the result, not the hardware. If squirrels eat from it, it fails. That takes a pole in the open with a correctly sized baffle, or a squirrel-proof feeder that actually works (how to choose one is in our buying guide).
• No food on the ground. Spill counts as feeding under Toronto, Essa, Côte Saint-Luc and Fanwood wording. A seed tray, or switching to hulled seed and no-mess blends, removes most of it; see seed mess and dead grass.

Seed choice helps too. Safflower is less attractive to squirrels than sunflower, and hot pepper seed deters them without harming birds at sold strengths. Spill that feeds squirrels also feeds chipmunks and rats, which are usually what the neighbor's complaint is really about.

Where this page stops applying#

• Other towns. Search your town's code for "feeding of wildlife," "wild animal" and "squirrel," then check how "wildlife" is defined. How to find a code is in neighbors and ordinances.
• Three rows are not from the rule text. Vaughan comes from news coverage collected by the city (the city site refused us), Anacortes from the mayor's announcement and Mississauga from the city's summary page. Englewood's adoption record has the vote fields blank in the copy we read.
• Penalties for Illinois, Michigan, Toronto set fines and Côte Saint-Luc are not in the sections we read.
• Parks. National, state and city parks have their own rules, and most ban feeding any wildlife. We read Englewood's only.
• Bears and deer. Where bears live, squirrel food is bear food; see bear feeder laws.
• Scotland and Northern Ireland: we read nothing for either.

This is a reading of statutes, regulations and bylaws, not legal advice.