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justAddNuts
07-24-2020, 01:01 PM
So I gave my squirrel a whole peach to nibble on thinking he would eat the peel a little and move on to something else. I just noticed he ate the entire seed out of the middle of the peach. Then someone suggested that peach seeds are poisonous and a search tells me they do contain cyanide in small amounts.

Is there enough cyanide in a single peach seed to kill my squirrel and if so how do I get him to puke it up before he absorbs it?

justAddNuts
07-24-2020, 01:19 PM
I just found the entire peach pit. Apparently he removed it, dropped it and kept on nibbling.

Lesson learned.

My research on this so far has turned up evidence that one entire peach pit could be very harmful to a squirrel just because they're so tiny.

Chirps
07-25-2020, 12:50 AM
From observing my wilds peach pits are eaten with great relish. The idiots don't even wait for the peaches to ripen. :tap They eat the little baby peaches, every year when they're smaller and smaller, and I find random pits here and there with the center chewed out like an acorn meat. It's possible they cache them first. Maybe the cyanide dissipates over time or something and makes them safe to eat. Or there's not enough cyanide to matter or squirrels tolerate it better than other animals or . . . :dono

It is a thing I have wondered about for years now, since we haven't had a peach from that poor tree since . . .

Makes me want to do a test. I don't remember ever offering my Love a peach, but I want to see what my tame-ish wild will do if I give her one. Maybe if they get to taste a ripe one they'll give the ones on the tree a chance to get to taste the same.

Nah, I don't think so. :grin2