Advice need and intro New retired horticulturist. Back in squirrel land!

[tomjasz]

My name is Tom Jaszewski. I'm a retired director of horticulture, last with The Mirage Hotel. I was born and raised in a small Minnesota city with an urban forest littered with squirrels. Unlike many neighbors squirrels were one of the things we missed most about living her. SO, we have a heavily planted small urban lot with feeders and probably a dozen visiting squirrels, I say 6-8 are claiming some right to turf. A few nervous nellies fro outlying turf scramble in an out nervously with a mouthful. They have now a lot of cover from the surrounding city and can feed peacefully.

I cam to learn about how I can better feed and manage the wild population. We have 2 kits born early spring that seem to never get enough food and have a hard time competing. I saw a mom on the feeder today that looked like she may be lactating.

SO two questions. Best Feed? We feed black oil sunflower seeds but getting expensive. How can we help the youngsters get fed?

All the best!

Tom

[Mel1959]

Thank you for being concerned about the wilds getting enough food. .

I put a bowl of healthy veggies out occasionally for my wilds. It usually consists of snap peas, squash, partially cooked sweet potatoe cubes, avocado, coconut, yellow squash, zucchini squash, small pieces of corn on the cob, some type of greens, apple or blueberry or banana. They don't usually eat all of it, but definitely a good portion of it. I also give them Henry's Healthy Blocks for wild squirrels, especially the young ones and the lactating moms. They need all the extra nutrition they can get. I order them online from Henrys Pets.

Sunflower seeds are not very nutritious for squirrels. Raw peanuts aren't either, but they are probably better than sunflower seeds. Almonds and hazelnuts are some of the better nuts for squirrels.

I know you are concerned about the expense. It is expensive to feed these guys, but I think you would get more nutritional bang for your buck with almost anything over sunflower seeds. IMO.

[tomjasz]

Well sadly on a SS income those foods aren't possible. What is a whole alternative? I see the blacks have nuts and grains. Wheat berries? Corn? Typically people seem to feed birds and the squirrels get the leftovers. That an observation. I'd like to do better for them but still afford my own food and medications. I don't man that to be sarcastic. We'd like to do right by them but need to be a bit more creative than buying the blocks. This crowd would gobble $12 a day! Just not possible. I'll go hunting threads. If there's something you can point me to, that would be helpful.

[tomjasz]

I've been collecting black walnuts off a lawn where the renters just rake and through them away. I assume thats decent food?

[HRT4SQRLS]

Hi Tom, to The Squirrel Board.
Wow, your job sounds fascinating. I had no idea that those fancy hotels had horticulturist but it makes sense. That's something I would have loved to do. I'm retiring in less than a year and I'm looking forward to having more time to work in the yard. Of course, it won't be a Mirage landscape but I hope it looks better than it does now.

You found the right place because we all love squirrels here. You're among friends. I think the key to feeding the wilds is moderation. Don't feed them so much that they stop foraging and begin to expect you to feed them. You should be the
'treat' man. When we rehab squirrels, the diet is critical because they depend on us to provide a balanced diet. Unfortunately, an unhealthy diet in captivity will result in their death. In nature, diet isn't nearly as critical because they instinctively 'know ' what to eat. They eat all sorts of odd things. They will eat bark, leaves, lichens, acorns, seeds, mushrooms, insects and even dirt. Yes, I've seen them eat dirt with a lot of organic material in it.

I'm sure they appreciate the black oil sunflower seeds. The reason they aren't great (in abundance) for squirrels is because they cause calcium to be leeched from the bones. If you would like to offset this imbalance you could add a 1/2 teaspoon of calcium carbonate to the bag of seeds and shake it around. It would put a light coating of calcium on the seeds. It's pretty cheap and would last a long time. https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Calcium-C...rbonate+powder
This simple 'fix' would make the sunflower seeds fine. Actually, I don't get overly concerned about this problem with outside 'wild' squirrels. Let's face it squirrels have been raiding bird feeders forever, right!

The black walnuts that you're importing are great. I'm sure the wilds love them. You probably have a perfectly manicured yard but you could plant squirrel friendly foods if you wanted to. Years ago, I planted sweet potatoes in my flower beds. I didn't necessarily plant them for the squirrels but they had a time digging them up. When I retire I'd like to plant a garden with 'squirrel foods'. There are seasonal foods that you could provide. They eat things like pumpkin.... seeds and flesh. I would guess that you could get pumpkins pretty cheap on Nov 1.

When I retire (soon) I too will be concerned about the cost of 'squirrel' food.

What type of squirrels do your have in Minnesota?