lawn weeds?

[mimipapa]

Our little nuts Ms. Kaye, Jase and Willie love dandelions and I was wondering if anyone knows if some other lawn green are ok or beneficial to their diet? Such as Large plantain, White clover or ground ivy (creeping charlie)214957214958214959

[sdreamcatcher]

I am not sure about plantain or the ivy, but white clover is fine for them as would be red clover (sweet clover with the yellow flowers is too iffy for me to recommend). Those are nice looking weeds :D. Also good are dandelion, common mallow, lamb's quarters, and amaranth. Make sure though of course that you do not use any chemicals on your lawn, especially weed killers. Mine also enjoy fresh grass from time to time, roots with dirt are great fun.

[Rhapsody]

I am not sure about plantain or the ivy, but white clover is fine for them as would be red clover (sweet clover with the yellow flowers is too iffy for me to recommend).I could never get any of my squirrels to eat the clover...... Good Luck. Plus, I forget which ones, maybe some one will remember, but one of
the clovers with a certain color flower on them is like CRACK to a squirrel..... so not to many of them. (the white flower ones are safe).

[mimipapa]

Thanks, They do love the dandelions. We never use chemicals on our lawn, after all the weeds are our lawn . Why would I want to kill it :)

[Anne]

Plantain is fine as a wild food. Try and see what the wild squirrels are eating, they will know what is good and what is not. Here in Floridan, we don't have many Dandelions, but a weed called Wild Aster,(not so good for squirrels or people) it has small yellow flower clusters instead of the true round yellow single head to a stem Dandelion.

[mimipapa]

I was wondering why is it that squirrels live so much longer in captivity? I guess you can attribute some of that to catastrophes such as getting hit by a vehicle or killed by other animals but there is such a big difference in longevity between captive and wild squirrels. I guess what i'm saying is, I wonder how much of that plays into their diets? I think a lot. I believe animals like humans will tend to eat what taste good and not always what is best for them. So I believe looking at what they eat in the wild is important but coupled with the diet and nutrition charts on this site. Acorns for instance, I believe they are not good for the squirrels as others believe.
The following is what I put on another post about Acorns.
We had pygmy goats that ate acorns and the leaves with the heavy tannin's, they are bad for goats and caused painful infections with blood in the urine. Jase one of our grey squirrels developed dark urine from eating acorns and was crying when he urinated. We immediately stopped feeding them to our little guys and within a week his urine returned to normal. Blood or just dark? you decide. It looked like blood to us.
Just because they like to eat something it doesn't mean its good for them. Maybe that's why they live longer in captivity.
As for us we will play it safe and feed them other nuts such as hickorys.

[farrelli]

I don't think it's the acorns, and I don't think that it's blood, just dark urine. Squirrels have shorter lives outdoors because nature is a horrible, horrible thing. Their little lives are beset with all kinds of predators, diseases, parasites, extreme heat and cold, the riggers of childbirth and nursing (repeatedly), competition (fighting) for territory and resources, injury, etc.

[mimipapa]

That makes sense.