What is a squirrel's natural diet and how does it get its food?

A squirrel will have a very varied diet, and that's because they are classed as "opportunistic" feeders, also known as scavengers. They will change up their diet dependent on the time of year, and also what's available, but in the wild they would consume things such as acorns and nuts, tree bark, seed crops, bird eggs, tender leaf buds, and even wild fruits. They will often store their food if they find a decent stash and don't want to eat it right away, and they'll have a good root through human trash cans, leftovers, cat and dog food, and bird feeders. If there are fruit and vegetable gardens, they'll happily have a good munch through that, and public parks present a great place for these furry scavengers to find food also. If they were in their natural habitat, they'd look for highly wooded or orchard areas, fruit and nut orchards included, and often trees such as elm, hickory, mature oak and also maple trees. Grain and seed crops are also a great place for food aplenty - perfect for stock-piling for the winter.



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You can find different squirrels around the world and they are stripped squirrels, black squirrels, flying squirrels, fox squirrels, grey squirrels, ground squirrels and red squirrels. The squirrels are among the mammals of Sciuridae family, and they are related to the woodchucks, prairie dogs or chipmunks. Squirrels can eat anything since they are not picky eaters. When you spent the time looking on what the squirrels eat, then it can be something clear. Squirrels eat insects, plants, tree, nuts, fungi, veggies, flowers and native fruits. There is no limitation on what the squirrels can eat. They can try out things they find around and they can like many new foods like cereals or sugary snacks. The squirrels keep their mind open about the foods and by expanding their plates; they pick up strange new eating habits as they share their habitat with humans. Besides the usual foods like veggies, berries, pecans and acorns, the squirrels can eat the remaining of food in the parks or any other places, things like burger scraps, old lunch meat and sandwiches. The squirrels can eat bird seeds, cat and dog foods.

The squirrels will eat the fruits and if you have a fruit tree or the fruit bushes or vines. You can find the squirrels when they are happily munching or hoarding these delicious fruits. Squirrels are able to climb fruit trees to snatch the fruits. Squirrels may harvest from many fruiting trees and this include citrus, mangoes, plums, figs, nectarines, peaches, avocadoes, kiwi, apples, grapes and pears. Squirrels can also eat bananas, cantaloupe and cherries. The reasons of eating the fruits from the squirrels is that it gives them the major sugar boosts while it provides enough energy to continue scrambling around and to forage to get even more goodies.

Squirrels will eat different types of vegetables and the gardeners are aware of this. When the squirrels get to a leafy green like arugula, spinach, kale, chard and lettuce, they will eat everything down. Squirrels can eat also delicious veggies like root vegetables, peas, corn, beans, squash, corn, radishes and tomatoes. They will also eat cabbage leeks, cauliflowers, celery, asparagus, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, Brussels sprouts, eggplant and okra.

Many people who are squirrel watchers will feed the cereals to the squirrels. Squirrels normally love the nuts and grains which are found in many cereals. The problems with the cereals is that they are loaded with the sugar and it gives squirrels the boost of energy in keeping busy and in finding food for eating and to stash away to use later. The problem with the sugary cereals is that it is not as what it is found in the nature but the squirrels do not care about what they eat or not.

Squirrels like cheese but they cannot find it easily in the wild but when human leaves them outdoor or when they toss them with other kitchen scraps, then squirrels will eat them. The squirrels will not be picky when it comes to cheese, they can eat mozzarella, provolone, Swiss and cheddar. Cheese helps the squirrels to store fats to use during winter period.

Squirrels are known to love nuts. If you live near a nut tree, then you should expect to have squirrels as visitors often. The squirrels will also eat birdseeds, insects, fungi, eggs, plant material, waste and scraps.


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