Peanuts: Substandard Squirrel Food?
Hello all,
I have found quite a bit of information about squirrel nutrition over the past few years and would like to share the information that I uncovered with the rest of TSB. Where as there are no RDA's documented for squirrels in particular, the information I have found is from reputable, published sources.
"Peanuts, which are not native to North America, are not natural squirrel food. Peanuts aren't even nuts--they're beans! They are lacking in certain nutrients, and their flimsy shells don't make them good for hoarding. As an alternative, give out hazelnuts, also known as filberts, still in the shell. They are acorn-sized, have a sturdy shell that holds up well with hoarding (and in your pocket), and squirrels love them! Commercial hazelnuts are closely related to the ones that grow wild in the woods of the eastern U.S., so it's a type of food that squirrels have evolved with."
"There is an article in the FORUM section of National Geographic Magazine, March 1996 claiming that raw peanuts are dangerous and possibly fatal if fed to squirrels.
Since then I have received the following article from a newsletter put out by the State of Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife:
No Raw Peanuts, Please!
Don't feed raw peanuts to squirrels and other animals because it can seriously hurt them. That advice comes from fellow backyarder and Eastern Washington University history professor James K. Kieswetter, Ph.D., of Medical Lake, who found out the hard way.
"I had been feeding raw peanuts to my backyard squirrels when I noticed they were beginning to look pretty ratty," Kieswetter says.
A friend who works in the human nutrition field told him that raw peanuts and other legumes contain a trypsin inhibitor or substance that inhibits or prevents the pancreas from producing trypsin, an enzyme essential for the absorption of protein by the intestine. With the help of a veterinarian friend. Kieswetter reviewed animal nutrition literature and discovered similar problems.
While the exact relationship between the trypsin inhibitor and malnutrition in rodents is not fully understood, the detrimental effects have been documented since 1917. Squirrels fed a steady diet of raw peanuts, soybeans. other legumes, and sweet potatoes could easily develop severe malnutrition.
WDFW Urban Wildlife Biologist Patricia Thompson also reports that there are mycotoxins in raw peanuts that can cause liver, kidney, and brain diseases which unfortunately are seen in many birds.
If you want to feed peanuts, Kieswetter found, the solution is to roast them. According to the Washington State Cooperative Extension Service, roasting hulled raw peanuts for 20 to 30 minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring them frequently, will destroy the trypsin inhibitor and render them suitable for feed. If that sounds like a lot of work, buy roasted peanuts but be sure they aren't salted. (Salted nuts of any kind should never be fed to wild animals.)
Kieswetter has become an information crusader about the dangers of raw peanuts, alerting several local backyard feed suppliers about the problem. He recently noticed an article in National Geographic advocating the feeding of raw peanuts to squirrels and wrote the magazine to set the record straight; his letter was printed in the March 1996 edition.
Hope this information is helpful to all when feeding your little ones'.
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if one feeds peanuts make sure they are roasted 
Originally Posted by island rehabber
