Vomiting squirrels - I think it is green pepper

[CritterMom]

We have had a bunch of squirrels getting ill of late - no reason, nothing off list to eat, no access to toxins, etc. We blamed the two littles that died a few weeks ago on avocado skin...but they ate green peppers, too. So did squirrelgurl's babies today. So I spent some time going back through emergency threads and it is listed in the food ingested before these vomiting bouts in every case I found...

So I did some googling. Under "green pepper toxicity" I found a lot of sites saying basically that they are fine because "people eat peppers and pepper see4ds all the time and they are fine." Not terribly scientific. So I hunted under "green pepper allergies" and found some very interesting info about that - symptoms abdominal cramping, vomiting and diarrhea. Hmm.

So I dug a little deeper and found something that chilled me - I didn't realize that green peppers are part of the nightshade family. They are - just like eggplant. Ask Jackie in Tampa about eggplant someday.

I suspect that most of whatever is causing the problem may be in the seeds and heart of the pepper which most humans don't eat but our squirrels jump to grab. I have fed RED pepper seeds to P before. I won't again.

I believe we are seeing a reaction to green bell pepper - be it an allergy or straight up toxicity. The thing with allergies is that you can eat it a million times with no problems and have it affect you on the million and first time...

Has anyone had this happen to their squirrel, and had they eaten green peppers before it did?

[gs1]

Has anyone had this happen to their squirrel, and had they eaten green peppers before it did?

is that last word 'died' ?

this is a horrific situation ... i have no idea ... green peppers are so common .... i think even the flyer people feed them ....

i have nothing to add to this discussion.

[Fireweed]

Sooooo interesting. I've fed red pepper to Meems a couple of times but just didn't feel right about it, so I never gave it to him again.
What if green pepper is especially toxic in some cases because it is not a ripe pepper and/or different variety? It could very well be all colours of peppers, though, and/or a combination of squirrel/pepper. Thinking out loud here...

I don't want to say avocado pits and peel are always safe because it's a known fact that persin affects some animals and even some people. A study in 2010 on the genotoxicity of avocado fruit (peel, pit, and fruit were studied separately) found that it all damaged human white blood cells in vitro. Sure, not the best study for several reasons but it's nothing to ignore, either. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=20859823[uid]] So I don't want to think of avocados as 100% safe all the time no matter if green peppers are the culprit in these deaths or not... Just throwing that out there for various reasons...

Having said that, the stuff you found on green pepper is definitely worth investigating more. The fact that all those squirrels ingested green pepper, well, that just can't be ignored, especially combined with the info you've found.

Another interesting thing about bell peppers is they always make the top 10 list for foods which contain the most pesticide residue. If you've ever tried to grow bell peppers organically, you'll know why. The bugs love em! There's been reports of up to 50 different pesticides being found on bell peppers... Maybe it's a matter of buying organic peppers...
Another thing to consider is the combination of bell pepper toxicity and/or allergy with pesticide residue ingestion...

[CritterMom]

is that last word 'died' ?

this is a horrific situation ... i have no idea ... green peppers are so common .... i think even the flyer people feed them ....

i have nothing to add to this discussion.

No, I mean has anyone had unexplained vomiting from their squirrel after it ate green pepper?

It just tweaked my brain...I remember helping on an emergency thread several years ago - a maddening one because the squirrel folk had no internet access and it was being translated to them from someone online here. They lost one of their squirrels. It, too, had eaten green pepper. We assumed it was a moldy acorn. So like I said, I started hunting and green pepper seems to be a common ingredient. I mean there are lots of reasons a squirrel could vomit but it seems that every time there is not a smoking gun involved, I found green pepper. Which doesn't mean that every time you feed it there will be a problem, but if this is a possibility I think it needs to be examined.

[Milo's Mom]

Very interesting CrM. I always thought it was interesting that many people here said they feed peppers (red, green, yellow, etc.) yet none of my guys have ever been remotely interested in it. 15 squirrels plus Ellie and not a single one of them ever showed the slightest interest. Not even in the seeds or heart. I finally gave up and stopped offering.

[gs1]

thanks for clearing up that word for me cm ....

as for the green peppers i'm totally in agreement .... it's too much coincidence ...and then when FW mentioned pesticides that's even more alarming considering there's no real safe levels and no knowing which pesticides are used and from where the peppers come from - any place from mexico to china.

[Charley Chuckles]

OMG CC has been eating green pepper seeds all his life, I wonder why now, maybe the fertilizer was bad, like if they came from Mexico......I didn't know they were in the night shade family, I won't give them to him again....thank you for letting us know, and so sorry about the ones who got sick on them

[CritterMom]

You know, Abby, if it is an allergy, it can pop up at any time - or not. A few years ago I had a bad upper resporatory infection and like so many times in the past, they gave me amoxycillen. THIS time it made me break out into giant purple hives - I mean they looked like calves liver!! After a lifetime of of taking it with no problems! I cannot take it any more - the next reaction could be anaphylaxis...

I don't know that this is true, but I saw a pretty convincing link in the threads I read (because everyone wants to read about squirrel vomit on a Sunday ).

[stosh2010]

I guess I'll be looking for a new TREAT for my Crew...
Rama, Cruiser and Luna --ALL-- love the pepper "cap" that holds the seeds.
They won't stop until every seed is eaten.
____________I'll be rethinking -the PEPPER-as a food source.

[island rehabber]

VERY interesting, Crit.
I have never had a squirrel vomit except my very first boy after he came back to me all broken and sick; he vomited water after I gave it to him. I have also never fed green pepper to my rehab squirrels because neither the BF nor I can tolerate it in anything. We do have red pepper once in awhile but my squirrels have never shown interest in it. I would be willing to bet that the green pepper -- which is really just UNripe bell pepper -- can be toxic.

[Charley Chuckles]

I love raw or cooked GP and eat it all the time, it is in everything I cook so I have always given the seeds to CC but I better not again, just not worth it

[Charley Chuckles]

Go look squirlgurl vomiting thread, hers also had green pepper

[CritterMom]

Go look squirlgurl vomiting thread, hers also had green pepper

I know. That is what got me started today...

[Nancy in New York]

I just found this on the internet. WOW good thinking CritterMom!
Vegetables our pets should avoid, including some of the members of the nightshade family, include:
•beets
•collard
•eggplants
•green peppers
•parsley
•potatoes
•onions (toxic to dogs and cats)
•chives (toxic to dogs and cats)
•garlic (toxic to dogs and cats)
•tomatoes
•spinach
•Swiss chard

I believe that by pets they mean cats and dogs.......however, I will not be giving anything on this list to the squirrels.

[squirrelsrule&bunniestoo]

I've tried feeding green peppers and like Milo's mom's squirrels, none of mine have ever eaten it.

[Kelly Brady]

Wow this is freaky guys,

Way back when I had Paco and Peanut inside, Peanut loved green pepper seeds. At that time, naturally I gave it to Paco. That is the time frame when Paco started the vomiting for no reason. Bless her heart she threw up so much and Leigh and all of us were trying like heck to figure out what caused it. Never knew. Could have easily been pepper. She did recover but she vomited so much and I pushed fluid like a crazy person.

We don't like green pepper in our house either but for the sake of variety, I have offered it to all of my squirrels, they decline. No one has even nibbled on green pepper since. Richard will have nothing to do with green red or any color pepper or thier seeds.

Crittermom that is an amazing find on your part and something to take note of.

[sage4dylan]

yikes, one of the few veggies (or fruit , whichevever it is) that Flip really likes is tomato's. He doesnt like bell pepper. I love them tho and years ago I did have one make me sick.... never understood why cause i eat them all the time but maybe it was one of the reasons listed above for me too (unripe or pesticides)

[Fireweed]

I was also just thinking back to when I first released Meems. He got diarrhea while in the release cage and I thought it was because of something he ate in the dirt/trees. Looking back, I remember there being a red pepper in his cage, too (and I just checked photos and sure enough there's a red pepper piece with seeds in there!). It was only the first or second (and last) time I gave it to him but HELLO! I don't recall thinking anything of the red pepper at the time because everyone fed peppers to their squirrels, but I haven't given him pepper since, so maybe I was smarter at the time than I think.
But check this, that was the one and only time I've ever observed Meems having diarrhea. !!!

Crittermom:

[Kelly Brady]

Just looked up Paco vomiting thread back in 2010.
Peanut and Paco were going out in to the release cage during the day together. I did not list the food eaten that day but Peanut always ate green pepper so I know for a fact green pepper was in that cage the day Paco vomited. Yikes.

[Nemehoto]

Interesting. I never have fed the green pepper cap or seeds to my squirrels but I do give them a thin slice (about 1/2 inch wide) for variety of the bell part of the pepper. It may have been what made Biff feel bad for a few days. I will stop feeding it. (I like it myself) But I am very picky about what I feed my critters, US grown, and even better locally grown. USDA is very stringent on pesticide levels in US grown foods... not so much imported ones. Whats on the bill of lading is not necessarily whats in the package. Other countries have limited regulations on pesticides and some even use DDT and derivatives. Some countries such as Korea and Mexico are allowed to use human feces to fertilize fields. So please be careful about where your food comes from, bacteria can be as much the culprit as pesticides for causing illness in the squirrels.