Cashews: safe for wild squirrels?

[Jess17]

Hey,

I feed wild squirrels at a nearby park a few hundred yards or so from my home, two of the squirrels there recently stumbled upon where I live and one of them now has been here half a dozen times for treats.

I usually buy walnuts and almonds to feed them, as a local market has good prices in bulk. They also get various other nuts and seeds when I buy them for myself and/or them, such as pecans, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, roast peanuts, raisins, banana chips, etc.

I read that cashews are bad for squirrels because it depletes their calcium, same with pine nuts, which causes various problems as they age. But I also have seen that some people who have squirrels as pets feed them cashews.

Question: Are cashews safe for wild squirrels or should they be completely avoided?

A few photos of the one main squirrel:

The park (The squirrel in the water. Putting nuts in cold water is how I help them to get residual water in the hot weather and they sometimes also drink the water.)

http://i.imgur.com/n8Y6NoK.jpg

My home (He also comes into my home.My computer table is near the door, I sit with my back turned to it and I hear the squirrel walk in. He sits right beside me.)

http://i.imgur.com/0KrdbSG.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/kJD3IwD.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/uYwrpE6.jpg

[HRT4SQRLS]

Hi Jess
:Welcome to TheSquirrelBoard

Great pics and beautiful squirrels. :grin2

Here's the deal with nuts. What you heard is correct. Cashews aren't particularly healthy. They have a very high phosphorus content. Actually, of all the nuts, they have one of the higher phosphorus contents of all the nuts. So no, I don't feed cashews to my boys. A rare cashew treat would be perfectly fine for a captive squirrel if the rest of the diet is healthy.

You're feeding wild outside squirrels so that is completely different. Your offerings are just a small portion of the food they eat. They eat all sorts of wild foods so it is unlikely that the cashews you provide will affect their overall calcium : phosphorus intake. While this is CRITICAL for captive squirrels it's not nearly as important for outsiders. With that said, I certainly wouldn't offer so many cashews that they begin to depend on this source of food. Yes, cashews could adversely affect their health if they eat too many over time.

Almonds are a much better choice. Actually they are a lot better. I wouldn't be too concerned about this though because I doubt that you're feeding enough to upset the balance of nature. :tilt
Thanks for loving the squirrels. That's awesome that they have sought you out and walk right in. I love that. :grin2

[Diggie's Friend]

I would not feed this seed to wilds as is is not a natural food found in their wild habitats. Pecans, and the better value English Walnut both are good choices to supplement the diet of tree squirrels in the winter, and in locations that foods is not as readily available. We add calcum powder to the English walnuts we feed as to not create a calcium to phosphorus imbalance in their diet.

Beyond the issue of the Calcium to Phosphorus ratio of nuts, which this source is considerably high in, this seed also possesses a high ratio of insoluble Oxalates, (oxalic acid) to Calcium. When the amount of oxalates in any food is over twice as high in content than calcium, it will add no calcium to the meal; but instead it reduces the calcium in the meal by binding to the calcium in other foods that have been ingested along with it. And although true wild tree squirrels generally possess a healthy colony of good intestinal that they get from soil sources in their habitats that support the degrading of these compounds in their intestines, when it comes to sources that possess a very high ratio of oxalates to calcium, like cashews, feeding these sources with any regularity can even impact the health of wilds negatively.

It is for this very reason that the National and State Park services have signs posted to not feed squirrels , for in the past the public wouldl throw out to the cute beggers what the visitors were eating, most often snack foods like peanuts, cashews, potato chips, sunflower seeds, bread, and the like. For it is these same sources that have been found create severed mineral imbalances in the diets of wild squirrels when fed with any regularity.

Cashew, roasted - (Calcium: 45 mg)

(Phosphorus: 490 mg) (P:Ca) ratio: (10.8 : 1)

(Total Soluble Oxalates: 442.1 mg) (OxCa) ratio: (9.82 : 1)

(See my diet anti nutrient thread in Nutrition forum for references and more data in support of these facts.)

[Jess17]

Thank you both, HRT4SQRLS & Diggie's Friend. :grouphug

[Jess17]

Hey,

Yesterday, the squirrels 🐿 got: hazelnuts, walnuts, sugared cashews (see brown/black squirrel at end of YouTube with some cashews), and organic coconut/almond/cashew clusters that were mainly coconut pieces. The squirrel who visits me at home wasn’t there but a few others I have been feeding for a while were. :blowkiss


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4veSIN99sIE

(Up to 1080p HD)