Can Squirrels Eat Cinnamon? 🐿

[SquirrellyQ]

Hello,

I’m wondering if it’s okay to buy fresh cinnamon sticks for my 7-8wk old baby squirrel?

I have a cinnamon-roll scented hand soap I used the other day while my partner was playing with him (the squirrel) and he immediately stopped and ran over to me to sniff my fingers. I wasn’t entirely convinced. So I got the dispenser and he ran right to it once I opened it and was trying to get ahold of it. Just wondering if it’s safe to give cinnamon, and if so, how much is safe to give him? Thank you! 🙂

[Mel1959]

I don’t think I would feed cinnamon to a squirrel. I’m not sure what the purpose would be anyway. Is there a nutritional value to cinnamon that would benefit a squirrel? I would worry that it might upset his belly.

I was always under the impression that cinnamon was one of the scents that squirrels didn’t like.

[SquirrellyQ]

I don’t think I would feed cinnamon to a squirrel. I’m not sure what the purpose would be anyway. Is there a nutritional value to cinnamon that would benefit a squirrel? I would worry that it might upset his belly.

I was always under the impression that cinnamon was one of the scents that squirrels didn’t like.

I was reading on here and someone said it prevents diabetes in rats after studies but no one could give a definitive answer of yes or no. It helps lower blood glucose levels. It would also be something new to chew—But I know rats and squirrels are different in many ways, so I don’t want to give him something new unless I’m certain he’ll be okay! And I’m also quite shocked he LOVES the smell of cinnamon—we even got a video of him running to the scent but I’m not sure how to upload one!

[Rock Monkey]

I am just thinking of videos of people doing the cinnamon challenge. It looks rather quite unpleasant.

I know you are talking about a stick vs powder but if a lot was eaten who knows how that might effect the squirrel. I suppose you could some powder on a cooked sweet potato then mix it up and see if that increases interest.

[Diggie's Friend]

Pycnogenol lowered blood sugar levels and improves heart function in diet related diabetes 2 in rats.

https://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2014/6/wide-ranging-longevity-benefits-of-pycnogenol


Lab studies now show that blood sugar reductions in Pycnogenol-supplemented animals are accompanied by improvements in the impaired nerve conduction velocity seen in diabetic neuropathy.24

Pycnogenol can directly oppose the excessive oxidative stress produced by diabetes, which is responsible for so much of that disease’s age-accelerating damage. ]Multiple animal studies demonstrate that Pycnogenol restores to normal the elevated markers of oxidation seen in tissues and organs of diabetic animals, while also restoring normal levels of protective intracellular antioxidant systems.25-27 This has now been shown to lead directly to reductions in inflammatory molecules, including thromboxane, a protein that triggers platelets to clump together with the potential for a dangerous clot to form.28

Finally, Pycnogenol has been shown to inhibit alpha-glucosidase, a key intestinal enzyme that breaks down simple starch into sugars.29 Blocking alpha-glucosidase is an effective way of slowing absorption of glucose into the bloodstream.30

[SquirrellyQ]

I am just thinking of videos of people doing the cinnamon challenge. It looks rather quite unpleasant.

I know you are talking about a stick vs powder but if a lot was eaten who knows how that might effect the squirrel. I suppose you could some powder on a cooked sweet potato then mix it up and see if that increases interest.

I did just that and he went nuts! (I actually tried it on a lettuce as well to motivate him to eat his veggies and it worked 😊)

[Beecheykeen]

I'm not sure about straight up cinnamon sticks, but my squirrel does enjoy cinnamon pastries (a very rare dessert and not too much of course) such as a cinnamon muffin. Now I'm no professional, but it doesn't seem toxic to them. Like I said, a once in a while treat with cinnamon seems to please my little Icarus the Beechey ground squirrel :tilt