What do you do when your squirrel shreds its food?

[babedizzle]

There are certain foods that Rockie will eat but there are some that he shreds. I bought him some walnuts at the store and he shredded them and left them in a pile in his cage. He does the same thing with watermelon, but he chews and swallows bread soaked in formula, cheerios, grapes, apple and parsley. Could he be shredding certain foods because he doesn't like them?

[Mars]

How old is your baby?? My guess is if he is less than 7 weeks old everything is normal. BAbies get very little in them when they are first learning to eat solids. But if your baby is older I would suggest taking a very good look at his teeth. We have a whole thread on malocclusion. :)

[Mrs. Jack]

My experience is with my wilds, but it's close experience.. and I've never seen a wild destroy a food I offered because he didn't like it, their statement is more to turn up their nose and have nothing to do with the offending food. If I leave it out, they'll skirt around it giving it suspicious looks while coming to me for what they like better. sounds like your baby is experimenting. Depending on his age of course, as Mars said.

[Buddy'sMom]

As Mars said, with a youngster it is somewhat of a learning thing. (And what you do is learn to pick up teeny tiny peices of food :D ) I haven't been able to keep up to well with the recent "baby threads" but am thinking that Rockie is a youngster?

I found it very interesting when I watched Buddy closely when he did that. For things like carrot, sweet potato, even apple, that he was most prone to shredding, what he did was completely remove the outside portion (in shreds -- ALL OVER! :D ) and then actually eat the inner portion. Almost like his brain was pre-programmed to be removing whatever outer shell/husk he could and getting at the yummy "nut" or "seed" inside! Facinating. :) Even with a chunk of apple! [And telling him he could eat the WHOLE piece did no good at all, lol]

:grouphug

[babedizzle]

He's about 7-8 weeks old.

[Mars]

So he's right at the age where he is learning to eat solids. For peace of mind you can check his teeth for miss alignment but my guess is he is fine. :thumbsup

[Sarah]

Completely ridiculous idea:
If he's only breaking walnuts maybe it's instinct. Maybe his brain is processing that they're nuts which need shelling regardless that they're already shelled!
...as I said, ridiculous! :)

[Mrs. Jack]

Completely ridiculous idea:
If he's only breaking walnuts maybe it's instinct. Maybe his brain is processing that they're nuts which need shelling regardless that they're already shelled!
...as I said, ridiculous! :)

My Zag shells shelled almonds, so it's sure possible!!

[JessBeePaws]

I just laugh when my squirrel shreds stuff. Its SO cute. :D

[babedizzle]

It is really cute to watch him shred things, especially when he eats grapes because he holds them in his little hands and eats only the middle part where all of the juicy goodness is.

[squirrelfriend]

Totally normal behavior. All of my young ones have done this. The adults will also take the skins off of anything whether it be a grape, blueberry or an almond. Little Fart was great at making confetti out of yams.