All natural granola bars?

[xHiCCUPx]

While shopping for food for Hiccup I happened upon stand that had all natural granola bars. I'm curious as to whether Hiccup can have these or not. I bought one (its a trail mix flavor) but haven't fed him any yet because I wanted to check if it was ok. It's all natural and has no preservatives. The ingredients are peanuts, honey, raisins, sunflower kernels, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sesame and soy. I'm not going to give him the whole thing at once but I figured I could give him small pieces as treat. What do you guys think?

[SammysMom]

I wouldn't. Too much sugar and no nutrition.

[quagmire]

What about regular raw granola or oats?

[CritterMom]

It is an occasional thing. In nature, they eat a pretty low carb diet - chippies and mice go for grains but squirrels not so much. High carb/high glycemic foods will cause obesity and can be related to diabetes too, both of which squirrels can suffer from.

[xHiCCUPx]

Ok I probably shouldn't have said "granola" bar per say because there is no granola actually in it. The ingredients I listed in my first post are literally the only things in it. I said granola bar because it was with granola bars in the store and I wasn't sure what else to call it. I'm kinda confused as to why he can't have small peices as treats. As far as I know everything that's in it ok for them to have (aside from the sesame which is one of the reasons I posted here asking if it was ok)

[SammysMom]

Peanuts are not good food for indoor squirrels. They have a poor effect on the calcium in their bodies and can contribute to MBD. Honey s just sugar d is the 2nd ingredient listed so there is a lot of it.

[astra]

peanuts, honey, raisins, sunflower kernels, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sesame and soy. I'm not going to give him the whole thing at once but I figured I could give him small pieces as treat. What do you guys think?
peanuts - BAD cal-phos ratio, easy road to MBD, besides they are legumes (=carb/grain type of thing)
Honey - the type of honey used here ( and sold in most supermarkets) is the processed kind, stripped of ALL the good things that a raw 'wild' honey has.
This is just processed sugar - like table sugar. And it's the 2nd ingredient at that.
Even raw 'wild' honey is not a good thing for squirrels, b/c there is too much sugar in it. And they may have allergic reaction to it, too.

Raisins - dried fruit is concentrated fructose=sugar. Of course, dried fruit (w/o sulph. and added sugars) has many health benefits, BUT for squirrels the sugar content outweighs whatever nutrients they have.
Squirrels can get the same nutrients (vit, min. and other phytonutrients) from fresh veggies and occasional fresh fruit w/o the concentrated sugar.

So, so far - the 2nd and 3rd ingredients - TONS of sugar. Sugar overload for a little squirrel.

Sunflower seeds - BAD for squirrels in many ways, including bad cal-phos ratio

Pumpkin and sesame seeds should be an OCCASIONAL treat only, one seed at a time.

Soy - not good in many ways.

The only decent things here are almonds, but they are overpowered by all the bad things, and even almonds should be given as a treat only - one per day or so.

Moreover, most of the "all natural" bars are not so natural and are very processed.
Anyone will be so much better off just grabbing a handful of almonds and raisins than buying a bar that has so many fillers (soy, for instance), processed sugars (honey, for example) and low grade nuts and seeds.
Because no one puts high quality nuts and seeds into these bars - all these nuts and seeds are crumbs, unused, old and otherwise defective and of poor quality. But in a bar, masked behind all this sugar, they are presented as the great stuff.

[SammysMom]

:goodpost :goodpost :goodpost