Many of us
failure with the dietary habits of the squirrel.
During the spring, summer, and early fall, these
rodents stock up on nuts and other food stuffs
that they can keep during the wintertime so that
they will not go hungry during the coldest part
of the year.
With little dens built all around a given area,
you will find that squirrels have stored a large
amount of different kinds of nuts and berries
that are able to survive the winter cold. They
are looking for things that don’t last, because
they have to have food that may be stored for up
to eight or nine months before it’s actually
eaten. This is why they prefer things like nuts
which are able to handle long periods of time
without rotting.
Of course, while the summer and spring are still
going on, squirrels are looking for different
kinds of things to eat to maintain their normal
bodily functions until winter comes. This will
often mean that they will not eat such things as
nuts or berries, because they know during the
winter this will be the food that they will be
primarily consuming, so they are looking for a
different kind of variety.
Squirrels will open themselves up to a different
array of food, not even to items that are meant
for herbivores. In fact, it is during these warm
weather months that squirrels will become
omnivores of sorts, eating all kinds of
different foods. This may make you wonder if
squirrels will eat such things as mice, rats, or
birds?
The answer to that question is yes. Not so much
rats, but squirrels will eat mice and birds
during this time. To do so, they are forced to
kill these animals so that they can then eat
their meat as part of their diet. This seems
rather odd to believe that a squirrel would do
such a thing, but that is exactly what they do
during these warm weather months.
Because both birds and mice are a lot of times
smaller than the squirrel, they are easy to
subdue by these animals, allowing them to make a
snack out of them. Unlike many of the other
kinds of foods that you see squirrel store,
these are foods that the squirrel would eat
right away. Should it capture a mouse or a bird,
it will then eat that animal within a very short
period of time of the kill occurring.
We hate to think of this lovable creature as a
predator, but it needs to survive as well. These
smaller animals pose the great opportunity to
get some food that will provide them with
protein and add to their consumption to prepare
themselves for winter.
Squirrels are also known to eat such things as
crickets and other kinds of insects. In many
occasions where they start is by pulling the
legs of these insects out so that they are
defenseless against the squirrel and then
consume the bug.
Read more:
Squirrel
Control,
How
to Get Rid of Squirrels,
how
to get squirrels out of your attic,
Squirrel
Feces,
How
to Keep Squirrels Away from House,
How
to Kill Squirrels.
