Squirrels will eat anything, apparently

[trebor44]

Lots of fun stuff regarding tree rats on the internet and you tube. I like to catch them in my 'Hav-a-hart', spend some 'quality time' with them and then turn them loose. Prefer 'open air' targets. There is one that 'bolts' down the fence and avoids our yard. Bit of an ingrate, sneaks into the trap to snack on the peanuts. I do have a solution but will wait until I need the exercise to open the trap.

[Scrounge]

BOY HOWDY !!!!

Crazed Demonic Attack squirrel.

LMAO !!!!!!!

The squirrels around here, in the big city like to crew through the wiring for my solar panels. Twice in the last 4yrs.

Don't know any other then that about squirrel dietary preferences. But had a horse when I was a kid that ate hot dogs. BEEF hot dogs.

My dad and a bunch of his friends were partying in the back yard one day, found out Duchess (1/4 horse, iirc) liked beer. They gave her about half a keg before they realized she had a lot more capacity than they did.

[725]

Tree rats ate through the top of the gas tank on my generator. Almost caused a house fire when I stated the generator during a night storm. Smelled the gas fumes eventually, but not after running it for awhile. I was lucky.

[higgins]

My son used to work in the department at Nissan that handled damage claims submitted by dealers on cars that had not yet been sold. They were getting an undue amount of wiring claims from a particlar dealer in Florida. Thinking a scam was working someone was sent to investigate. They found that that dealer's storage lot backed up to the woods so squirrels and various other rodents were coming onto the lot and chewing the wiring; the dealer had kept a big box of chewed wiring so the claims were substantiated.

[starbits]

The only thing harder than catching a squirrel is letting go of him after you caught him.

[big bore 99]

My German sheperd gets one now and then off my bird feeders. Gives them a good shake and it's lights out. He would probably eat them if I let him.

[Neverhome]

My German sheperd gets one now and then off my bird feeders. Gives them a good shake and it's lights out. He would probably eat them if I let him.

We had an English mastiff that would eat all my killed squirrels. He must have eaten 100s in his 13 years. Btw 13 is incredibly old for a mastiff. Connection???

[kevin c]

Haha, we've gone from what squirrels will eat to what dogs will eat! No worries on the drift, it's just funny is all.

[Scrounge]

Haha, we've gone from what squirrels will eat to what dogs will eat! No worries on the drift, it's just funny is all.

there is one thing we can absolutely count on in life. Threads will drift.

[blackthorn]

Sitting here looking at the scar on the web between my thumb and first finger. 65 years ago (at age 17) I hunted squirrels (amongst other wildlife) with a .22 for the hides. I shot a squirrel out of a willow clump (to preserve the hide, all shots were head shots) it dropped like a stone. I picked it up and, on inspection, could not see a bullet hole. Looking closer, I found a spot where the hair had been cut right down to skin but without drawing blood. Now, about that time the squirrel regained consciousness and promptly bit through my heavy leather mitten and the heavy home-knitted wool inner mitten. I broke the squirrel's neck and then had to literally pry its jaws apart to get it off my hand. Lots of blood inside my mittens. Mother was not impressed, but at the end of the day, wound healed up well with no residual except this 65 year old scar.

[Winger Ed.]

Lots of fun stuff regarding tree rats on the internet and you tube.

Go to youtube and search 'squirrel launchers'.
That's some funny stuff there!

[Scrounge]

Sitting here looking at the scar on the web between my thumb and first finger. 65 years ago (at age 17) I hunted squirrels (amongst other wildlife) with a .22 for the hides. I shot a squirrel out of a willow clump (to preserve the hide, all shots were head shots) it dropped like a stone. I picked it up and, on inspection, could not see a bullet hole. Looking closer, I found a spot where the hair had been cut right down to skin but without drawing blood. Now, about that time the squirrel regained consciousness and promptly bit through my heavy leather mitten and the heavy home-knitted wool inner mitten. I broke the squirrel's neck and then had to literally pry its jaws apart to get it off my hand. Lots of blood inside my mittens. Mother was not impressed, but at the end of the day, wound healed up well with no residual except this 65 year old scar.

I may have had an advantage (or perhaps a disadvantage) over some of you. For a time when I was growing up, my dad had a cage full of chipmunks. I remembered them as 9-line chipmunks, but didn't find any on a searh. They do have something called a 13-line chipmunk or ground squirrel that looks a lot like the ones we had. Not as big as the red squirrels I've seen back east, but big enough. Don't know what happened to them, some time later when I was there the same cage was full of parakeets. Anyway, we saw them gnawing on all the exposed wood in the cage. Some serious teeth there!

[SSGOldfart]

The only thing harder than catching a squirrel is letting go of him after you caught him.

Man that's the truth.

[mjwcaster]

Had squirrels in my folks attic this spring.
Got a call at work from my daughter, one had gotten in the house, so I headed home, cornered it in the office and finally finished off ‘fluffy’.
Cute little baby squirrel, not enough meat to bother cleaning.

Also found the quickest solution to get rid of squirrels-
Get a raccoon.
Yep, a raccoon moved into the attic that night and the squirrels left.

Not a recommended solution, but no more squirrels.

The raccoon is gone now too, but that’s another story.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Winger Ed.]

A buddy came home from a 2 week road trip once time.
Pulling into his driveway, he noticed a hole in the roof.
He asked the wife about it, and she didn't know how it got there, but said she didn't hear the raccoon in the attic any more.

[kevin c]

...I just know the squirrels love the deck and have been eying my wife's potted tomatoes, beans and squash growing there. I guess one got impatient.

Update: my wife looked at the gnawed on bullet with some amusement and bemusement. Today, though, she found half her beans gone and the biggest, ripest heirloom tomato gleefully sampled by the squirrels, and now she's on the warpath.

[kevin c]

...Speaking of mineral deficiencies, a couple years ago I found a really nice 7 point shed antler. Brought it home and had it out back on the picnic table. The dang squirrels chewed off the tip of every point!

They do seem to like bones. Dunno if it's for their teeth or for the minerals, but here's some scholarly types on the subject:

http://www.bu.edu/articles/2016/squirrel-bone-gnawing/

[1hole]

Kevin, that is the saddest story of a kindly man vs. a rampant animal I've ever read; it put tears in my eyes and made my ribs hurt.