Defininive answer on citrus?

[PBluejay2]

Over the years, I've heard everything from "anything citrus (oranges, lemons, grapefruit, etc.) is POISON to squirrels" (presumably because they are fermenters) to "it's great for them--has a lot of calcium." I give mine a little chunk of orange or tangerine every once in a while, and some seem to like it quite a bit. I suppose I should do my own google search here, but I'm feeling lazy. Anyone have any REALLY GOOD info on the subject?

[PBluejay2]

BTW--I can spell "definitive"--sometimes.

[muffinsquirrel]

Well, I've been feeding mine - flyers and tree squirrels both - oranges, tangerines, kumquats, etc., for nearly 10 years now, with no bad results. That's about as definative as I can come up with right now.....I'm too lazy to 'Google' too!

muffinsquirrel

[Jackie in Tampa]

:thumbsup like Muffin said...alot of my sqs love...some are not interested. But I have orange trees and the wilds eat them also....right off the tree!

[4skwerlz]

MS said it all. If they were poisonous all our squirrels would be dead.

[FallensMommie]

Fallen loves oranges...he's been getting a tiny bite of honeybells right now and low and behold I sat on a key lime this morning as he stole it from the kitchen and buried it in my sofa cushions :shakehead He'll eat grapefruit too...hubby was cutting some up and he ran over a stole a piece.

[PBluejay2]

Thank you for the responses. In my initial post I gave a range of things I've heard--the extremes. Maybe citrus doesn't kill them, but it might not be so good for them either, even if they do eat it.

[Ardilla]

Wow...I've never heard of citrus being bad for squirrels.:sanp3

[Sciurus1]

Here out West, the Foxers love oranges, being one of the first things they go for after being weaned. I do not see older adults often eating them, but the younger juveniles sure do, seemingly knowing they need it for their growing bones. Captive squirrels love oranges, and need them for the uptake of Calcium, since they are not getting as much from greens. Don't give them too much of course, for like anything, too much of a good thing ain't so good!