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Thread: Time for acorns?

  1. #1
    Lindy Guest

    Default Time for acorns?

    This is my first release, I think it will happen in a few weeks. The boys are mostly eating rodent block, vegetables, and some nuts, they are only accepting formula once a day if that. We have the nesting box ready to go, and I am preparing mentally for the day I'm no longer "Mommy". My question is this - the squirrels in our area eat mostly acorns I believe. We are surrounded by a ton of Live Oaks. Should I start giving my little guys acorns? And how so? Bit and pieces and then give whole ones - or start with them whole? Will they know what to do with them? Just finding myself getting nervous about them making it on their own and want to give them the best possible chance! Thanks for any suggestions!

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lindy View Post
    This is my first release, I think it will happen in a few weeks. The boys are mostly eating rodent block, vegetables, and some nuts, they are only accepting formula once a day if that. We have the nesting box ready to go, and I am preparing mentally for the day I'm no longer "Mommy". My question is this - the squirrels in our area eat mostly acorns I believe. We are surrounded by a ton of Live Oaks. Should I start giving my little guys acorns? And how so? Bit and pieces and then give whole ones - or start with them whole? Will they know what to do with them? Just finding myself getting nervous about them making it on their own and want to give them the best possible chance! Thanks for any suggestions!

    No, I would NOT give them acorns per this thread, http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/s...kill-squirrels

    My understanding or misunderstanding is that frozen acorns and acorns that have fallen on the ground can be deadly. There may or may not be a caveat where acorns picked freshly from the tree are okay, but I defer to other members on that aspect.

    I understand that the wilds probably sit in the trees eating acorns frequently. My personal sense, is that once released, it won't take long for the non-wilds to catch on. However, I am not an expert or a rehabber (just someone who reads a lot) so experts can override me on this.

    There may or may not be some good alternative wild foods listed on this pdf here, http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/s...-Pet-Squirrels

  3. #3
    Lindy Guest

    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    Thank you for that information, I'll hold off and see what others have to say also. I'm just not sure what they are going to eat once on their own as the broccoli, squash, and protein blocks don't grow abundantly here. 😄
    Just don't want to have spent all the time, energy, worry, and love to let them go and have them starve to death. One worried mama here!
    Thanks!

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    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    I know folks here are against feeding acorns...or rather advise against it...I believe the real concern is with frozen or old acorns.....I have fed my squirrels acorns for years...even frozen. Thank goodness nothing ever happened now I do not feed frozen...and I only feed acorns I find fresh on the ground or picked...my trees are huge tho and I really can't pick many.....I walk my woods every day and I pick up the new acorns on the trail as you said they will be doing it soon....I give them the whole acorn I do not use any acorn (even if it's fresh) that has a crack or split...or hole in it. Of course you need to decide what to do yourself...but I just wanted to give you my experience also. I pray I never live to regret it....but it is their natural food ...and this is the time they harvest it themselves
    Make the world a better place...one animal at a time



    The Peace of Wild Things
    BY WENDELL BERRY
    When despair for the world grows in me
    and I wake in the night at the least sound
    in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
    I go and lie down where the wood drake
    rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
    I come into the peace of wild things
    who do not tax their lives with forethought
    of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
    And I feel above me the day-blind stars
    waiting with their light. For a time
    I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    Quote Originally Posted by Shewhosweptforest View Post
    I know folks here are against feeding acorns...or rather advise against it...I believe the real concern is with frozen or old acorns.....I have fed my squirrels acorns for years...even frozen. Thank goodness nothing ever happened now I do not feed frozen...and I only feed acorns I find fresh on the ground or picked...my trees are huge tho and I really can't pick many.....I walk my woods every day and I pick up the new acorns on the trail as you said they will be doing it soon....I give them the whole acorn I do not use any acorn (even if it's fresh) that has a crack or split...or hole in it. Of course you need to decide what to do yourself...but I just wanted to give you my experience also. I pray I never live to regret it....but it is their natural food ...and this is the time they harvest it themselves


    I'm with sweeper here. I personally am a great believer in studying the natural history of squirrels and how they function in their particular area/environment. Acorns are for squirrels. It's like, "It is Written". If God made a squirrel chow the way Purina makes dog chow, it would be acorns. There is a widespread panic about acorns because of one former TSB member who may have lost a large number of squirrels, suddenly, after feeding them acorns. I've been gathering and feeding my releasable guys acorns for over 10 years and never had a problem, even with frozen ones. I will not be freezing them anymore, just to be on the safe side, but I'm still feeding them. My advice would be, since the live oaks are in your yard, you snip branches with the acorns still intact and put those in the cage. Don't feed any that are on the ground unless you JUST saw them fall.
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  6. #6
    Lindy Guest

    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    Thanks Sweeper and Island! Your advice is a relief since I know they will eventually end up eating the acorns anyway - I didn't want to release them with them only having eaten the protein blocks and vegetables since they don't grow around here. I want to set them up for success so I don't want to release them with them not knowing what to eat. Like Sweeper indicated - our Oaks are huge and the limbs are very high off the ground. I will go out tomorrow to see if our ladder will reach any of the lower ones - and I'll watch for falling ones. I hear them at night so I know they're still falling.
    Just trying to figure the best ways to get ready for the release as this is my first one and I'm very nervous. I love these guys and want them to live free and be happy!

  7. #7
    Lindy Guest

    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    Sweeper - I've been looking at the acorns around the house in case we can't reach any of the lower branches. Please describe what a fresh acorn looks like. I've seen several that are still green with yellowish tops - are those the fresh ones?
    Thanks for your help!

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    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lindy View Post
    Thanks Sweeper and Island! Your advice is a relief since I know they will eventually end up eating the acorns anyway - I didn't want to release them with them only having eaten the protein blocks and vegetables since they don't grow around here. I want to set them up for success so I don't want to release them with them not knowing what to eat. Like Sweeper indicated - our Oaks are huge and the limbs are very high off the ground. I will go out tomorrow to see if our ladder will reach any of the lower ones - and I'll watch for falling ones. I hear them at night so I know they're still falling.
    Just trying to figure the best ways to get ready for the release as this is my first one and I'm very nervous. I love these guys and want them to live free and be happy!
    Just a suggestion.
    If you feed acorns, give a few for them to choose from.
    I've heard that squirrels can detect the bad from the good
    through smell.
    They will typically eat everything we give them because they
    feel they are safe if we hand it to them. So make sure you give
    them a variety to choose from.
    Last edited by Nancy in New York; 10-25-2015 at 09:12 PM.

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    Lindy my new or fresh acorns are shiny, and clean....dirt and sand aren't stuck to them...they typically are sitting on top of everything.....older acorns are dull and dirty usually....also I look for even coloring, they do vary....from top to bottom, dark to light, but it's uniform ...no dark spots or lighter spots...does that make sense...also new acorns have weight to them...the really old are light. If you walk your yard...just clear an area and check it every day...I usually feed what I pick up that day...and get new acorns the next day...I have fed them a day or two later...but I usually pick up only what I'll use that day. Nancy had a good idea of giving them a few at a time...that way they won't feel obligated to eat any particular one
    Make the world a better place...one animal at a time



    The Peace of Wild Things
    BY WENDELL BERRY
    When despair for the world grows in me
    and I wake in the night at the least sound
    in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
    I go and lie down where the wood drake
    rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
    I come into the peace of wild things
    who do not tax their lives with forethought
    of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
    And I feel above me the day-blind stars
    waiting with their light. For a time
    I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    You can also spread out a sheet/blanket/tarp underneath your trees and collect the freshly fallen acorns.

  11. 2 TSBers pass along the fuzzy thanks to Spanky:

    HRT4SQRLS (10-25-2015), island rehabber (10-26-2015)

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    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    Lindy, I also feed acorns. I have 3 pet flyers and 3 grey squirrels in the release cage now that will be released on Thanksgiving day. Since the incident that was referred to where 6 squirrels died I am more cautious now but I won't deprive my squirrels of something that is their native food. My flyers would rather have an acorn than a nut. My mom had a new driveway poured this month. The acorns fall on her roof and roll to the drive way. I pick them up daily from the driveway. I do STILL freeze them. It's a decision that everyone has to make for themselves.

    Because of my new found respect for the dangers of aflatoxins associated with acorns, I split the acorns to inspect them before giving to my flyers. With a sharp knife I cut them. I did this experiment tonight for you. These 4 acorns were picked up today so they fell today. These are laurel oaks as our live oak acorns are still green.
    The second pic is 4 freshly fallen random acorns from today. The first pic is the same 4 acorns split with a knife. As you can clearly see, the second acorn is VERY bad. I HOPE that my flyers would not eat an acorn like that but I won't risk it so that's why I cut them.
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    I have 3 releases that are friendly in my yard right now. They get a plate of food on top of the release cage everyday. I have noticed that they aren't eating much of my offerings right now because ... you guessed it, they're eating acorns. SO, the bottom line is that you won't always be able to control what they eat but while they are in your care you can offer native food IF you use an abundance of caution. Again, it is a personal decision that everyone has to make for themselves.

  13. Serious fuzzy thank you's to HRT4SQRLS from:

    island rehabber (10-26-2015)

  14. #12
    Lindy Guest

    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    HRT, Spanky, Nancy & Sweeper - Thank you SO much for your acorn help and advice! I'm feeling much more confident about getting them ready for their release! You've taken such a weight off my shoulders with your guidance! This is my first year with squirrels - our Pit Bull brought me our first one when he was about 3 weeks old. Eyes shut with hardly any hair. We raised him for about a month when I found him passed away one morning when I went in to get him out for breakfast and playtime. We had named him Ollie and were going to keep him as a pet. Our 2 dogs thought he was a puppy and he thought they were giant squirrels. He used to sleep in my daughter's lap while she did her homework, and he stayed with me on the couch for TV time in the evenings. He even went to court with me a few mornings, once when he was very little he slept inside my bra during a hearing. (He was cold and I was worried.). When he passed away I was devastated! I cried for weeks! About 2 months later a friend called me the morning after a big storm when her son found 3 babies in their yard. I took them in, and unfortunately lost the little girl to pneumonia before I found The Squirrel Board and all of you wonderful people. I never intended to keep these guys, I went in knowing I was going to release them. I would never know how to do this on my own - you guys have been a God send to me! Please be prepared for many more questions as release date gets closer - like I said - I'm a worried mama, even if only a temporary one! ❤️🐾

  15. #13
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    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    I am glad that some of the more experienced members gave a more complete picture of how to provide acorns to squirrels in the safest ways. I was hoping that this would be the case. The purpose of my above response was to protect against the inaccurate (yet widely accepted) notion that all acorns are safe. It is very tempting to feed the wrong things to squirrels when tv shows, movies, etc. suggest time and again that squirrels can be fed, things they shouldn't be fed.

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    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    I always thought the green ones were the ones you want to feed? I do not feed acorns anymore. I know it is a personal choice, but for me, it is one I just cannot risk. I remember when I would try to give one of the acorns to one of my wilds and they not take it. I thought it odd, but it gave me pause to think, maybe they knew something I did not.
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  17. #15
    Gardentoes11 Guest

    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    This thread has been very helpful to me, too. There is a variety of oak trees around my area, & I'd been giving my Jasper acorns until I read that they could be deadly. But he loves them so much that I kept giving them to him for awhile until the guilt of, "Will this be the one that kills him?" overwhelmed me. Then I discovered that hazelnuts look almost exactly like acorns! I ordered some off eBay, & my boy loves them just as much! He gets 1 or 2 per day, although he'd like to get a LOT more! I am happy to learn more about the history of the acorn ban, since I wasn't on TSB yet when that tragedy happened, & to learn that some of you experts whose opinions I've come to greatly respect still feed acorns. Your advice on how to gather the fresh ones & about splitting them is appreciated. I'm happy to do that to bring my boy pleasure! I do have a question, though: acorns should still be given like nuts, right, on a very limited basis bc of MBD? Meaning that I should treat acorns like nuts rather than like veggies, right?

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    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    OMG...read this...this is a small section I copied....I bet we could do this for the nuts we feed our squirrels:
    Treatments mentioned in the industrial research journals are hydrogen peroxide, strong alkali such as lime-water, metabisulfite (a common reducing agent) and high heat. I have tried heat and vitamin C, which is also a reducing agent.

    Just heating a food to the boiling point does not kill the molds. Boiling for many minutes at a higher temperature or baking does kill them (but not ergot, another mold) and also destroys aflatoxin they produced and left in the food. For foods you can’t heat that high, for example nuts that are already roasted, or vinegar, vitamin C comes to the rescue. I suppose it acts a lot like the bisulfite; chemically destroying the mold toxin molecules.
    Eradicating Aflatoxin

    Simply sprinkling vitamin C over roasted nuts is not effective because the molds have penetrated the surface. Rinse the nuts in water first (a lot of mold is removed in this simple way). Cover the nuts with water, add about ¼ tsp. vitamin C powder (for a pint of nuts) and mix. Let stand for 5 minutes. The water penetrates the nuts, taking the vitamin C with it and detoxifies them. Pour off the water and dry the nuts in the oven at low heat. (Don’t burn them or you will make benzopyrenes.)

    Here is the link for the whole article. Take a few minutes to read it, very informative!! http://www.livingnetwork.co.za/drcla...od-aflotoxins/
    President--Meemor Anonymous,
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    MISS YOU NUT, LOVE YOU FOREVER.
    BEAN, NOW IN HEAVEN BUT FOREVER IN MY HEART,
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    BUDDY...YOU WERE MY BEST FRIEND AND I WILL MISS YOU FOREVER.
    PEANUT...YOU CHANGED ME FOREVER..AND TOOK MY HEART WHEN YOU LEFT.
    I WILL MISS YOU FOREVER AND A DAY.

  19. #17
    Akashia Guest

    Default Re: Time for acorns?

    My big oak's acorns stay green. Does that mater?

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