What is good healthy food for my squirrel friends?

Ask me something hard.

Buy an expensive, squirrel-proof bird feeder, install it, and fill with expensive sunflower seeds.

Put up a deck chair, ensconce yourself with a iced drink and watch. If you build it, they will come.

(You may be the only person I have ever heard of who consciously wants to feed the squirrels rather than peppering them with buckshot.)

We feed wild owls when they come around.

We feed wild owls when they come around….

Feed them squirrels?

Maybe I’ll get a sack of deer corn. Do you think they like deer corn?

You can get dried ears of corn at a bird supply shop and hang ‘em in a tree, watch the squirrels have a party.

One thing to be mindful of is that roof rats like to eat the same things as squirrels.

They eat anything birds eat, and most things that people eat… and pretty much everything else.

This sounds like an excellent strategy if your goal is to make your neighbours hate you, or if you like having your attic or wires chewed through. Good luck with that.

I go to the feed store and buy peanuts in the shell for them.

My husband wanted me to ask this question so he could set them up in a safe place to shoot them

I love squirrels and miss them, I think they exist in my current part of Australia but certainly not in the numbers I was used to.

I would feed them whatever they would eat in the wild. I don’t think, unless you live in the south, they would have access to a steady diet of peanuts so I would not feed them just that, throw in some walnuts too! And corn and sunflower seeds. I feed the wild cockatoos and that annoys a lot of people too because they can be destructive, but I like them so I do it anyhow.

A better question might be what don’t they eat.

My cat refuses to eat those filthy creatures when she kills them.

However Bob Ross was known to have pet squirrels and at the assisted living facility where I work we regularly feed the squirrels. Not usually intentionally but some people feel like anything that comes around is entertaining and cute.

Squirrels LOVE grapes! Any fresh fruits, nuts, and peanut butter is fine and healthy.
Grapes, apples, raisins, watermelon, cracked corn, walnuts especially and hard boiled eggs too!

The Peanut butter should be mixed with cornmeal to form dough balls that are not too sticky but hold together. You can stuff the mixture into a small log with one inch holes drilled in it and hang it from a tree, or stuff in hanging pine cones. Woodpeckers and Nuthatches love this too.

Squirrels love peanuts and corn. They also love your house attic, car engine compartment, barn, stored car interior, house wiring, etc.
Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.

Squirrels love corianer (cilantro) apparently. When I planted some in my garden the little blighters ate the lot overnight.

They love Monkey nuts (peanuts with shells on)

and hazelnuts