Nutrition Discrepancy.

[<3MeSomeSquirrels]

I might be misunderstanding, but I was confused looking at the pretty nutrition sheet y'all made (it's posted by Squirrel's cage), and the Calcium-Phosphate ratio chart.

On the former, mushrooms are listed as fine. On the latter, it's listed as a food to feed rarely, if ever.

I bought mushrooms once and fed her a little, which she enjoyed. I felt all noble about introducing a new vegetable to her and her liking it, until I saw it as a negative food option on the other list. Then I was so afraid to feed her anymore that I ate the box myself and never bought them for her again.

How do you wade through all the various advice on nutrition and squirrel-raising? And did I just misunderstand what I was seeing?

[Gardentoes11]

Mushrooms, at least the white button ones that are readily available at the grocery store, are good for squirrels. They are high in vitamin D, which is important in the absorption of calcium, & you're already aware of how critical calcium is! I wish my boys would eat them -- none of them like shrooms outside of the occasional nibble.

As far as how to wade through all of the conflicting info out there, I just don't feed high concentrations of stuff that seems controversial. For instance, I've read that collards are bad (I forget why), but they're also high in calcium, and my boys like them, so they get a small amount sometimes, but not a lot & not often. I've got a bunny who is happy to munch the leftovers!

I think the key is variety. There's nothing on any of the lists I've seen that will kill a squirrel with one bite, so if my babies get a little of a lot of different things & rotate it, that should provide a balance in their overall diet. I try to follow the pyramid, but the boys have opinions about it too, so as long as we're avoiding an overload of the bad stuff like nuts & dried corn, & they are eating their blocks faithfully, I don't stress.

[CritterMom]

There are lots of foods that are good in one area and bad in another and yes, mushrooms are one of them. They have Vitamin D, which is important, especially for flyers and other nocturnals since they don't get that from direct sunshine. But they are EXTREMELY high in phosphorus, so when fed you are going to be straying wildly from your preferred 2 to 1 ratio (ca to ph).

The solution is to feed occasionally, NOT daily. I will buy a single mushroom at the grocery store (I bet the checkers wonder...) and feed small pieces as a treat over several days, then no more mushrooms for a while. The HHB blocks have all the D they need, BTW, all on their own.