Chestnuts--safe or not?

[lamb57]

A friend has offered me a bunch of chestnuts from his yard but I am not sure if they are safe for the squirrels? I feed my Bubby (my 2 yr old male gray) limited nuts of any kind but sure don't want to give him anything to harm him.

Thanks!
Kathy

[Jackie in Tampa]

not sure about domestic chestnuts...
BUT I WILL NEVER BUY IMPORTED ITALIAN CHESTNUTS AGAIN...
Sammy either had a bad one {moldy} or bad mulch...
never was diagnosed for certain, but something killed his brother and almost Sammy..
not sure if aspergeiliousis or some funky italian fungus{j/k} or whatever...
made two others very very sick.
Mycotoxins...
but it cost a sq his life and I am still making vet payments from last December...yeah...no chestnuts for Sq Central! Nope never again!
nor do I feed eggplant.

[lamb57]

Oh Jackie, that is awful!! So very sorry that happened.

The chestnuts he offered are off trees growing in his yard but after he offered them I mentioned it to my husband and he said he thought I had said once that the sqs shouldn't eat them. So maybe I had heard that before. At any rate to be safe I won't feed my boy any of them. I will ask the man who offered them if he sees the sqs eating them in his yard. Would be interesting to know if the wilds consume them.

Thanks!

[TinyPaws]

Chestnuts are fine..I forage for them each fall and all my squirrels love them..In fact, I have to be vigilant and keep watch of the trees because if I don't, the wild squirrels grab them up almost as quick as they fall...

They eat them raw...they are good raw for people to..just set them in a cool dry place for a day or two first...I've had them raw and they are sweet...after taking it from the shell, make sure you peel the skin off the nut...

[pappy1264]

I have fed them to my flyers, they love them!!

[Jackie in Tampa]

Let me rephrase my post!
If I had a tree or knew where there was a tree, I would feed fresh chestnuts...


I just wanted to put my experience info out there...
I had to...
so that if anyone sees them in the supermarket ...
they will know what happened and why take a chance...


but if I saw sqs eating them and picked them fresh, I dang sure would.
My mother lives in SC..while driving down the backroads I saw green spiney sea urchin looking things all over...and they were chestnuts...
Mom says after the first frost the spiney hull bursts and you can get at the nut itself much easier...

tinfoil Hello in OHIO...aren't buckeyes poisonous?
and don't they look like Chestnuts kinda?
do the sqs eat buckeyes?
are they poison only to humans...naw, I would think not...

IMported Italian Chestnuts are iff'y!
maybe that's better...
sorry for the rat race, but I had to share my info! I hate typing and never have more than a few minutes at a time...

[lamb57]

I spoke with the person who offered the chestnuts and he said the sqs in their yard ate them all the time.

They are fuzzy ball looking things at first and then that part comes off and the nut is underneath.

[Shaena]

My grey loves them, but I buy them fresh. I think you just cannot collect from the ground, because of mold.

[island rehabber]

This is an old thread, Shaena, but it's very timely that you've replied to it because it's chestnut season again in the grocery stores. The key, in my opinion, to safely offering chestnuts to our squirrels is cutting every single one in half to make sure they are not moldy, before offering them. It's easy to see whether any black/blue mold has started inside the chestnut, and if there's any doubt just throw it away. I feed chestnuts to my squirrels every fall/winter and have never ever had a problem....but I do cut each and every one.

Note: after cutting open a chestnut that ends up being moldy, don't forget to wash the knife you're using in hot water and soap before cutting any more chestnuts!