I'm confused...again. When I look at some lists of "safe" trees/leaves for squirrels, OAK LEAVES and bottlebrush are listed as NOT OKAY.
I bring Muggsy a fresh oak branch once a week...I let it sit in the sun for a bit, then I "groom" it for weird stuff, but he has free range of what he chooses to do with it. He loves the nodules along the stems...and an occasional leaf.
Am I poisoning him?
Oh, and I was thisclose to bringing him a bottlebrush cone the other day.
Also, we have cypress trees in abundance around my yard. I know not to use cypress that is aromatic (like in shavings)...but are cypress branches and needles okay for squirrels?! The wilds in my yard annoyingly eat the cypress seed balls, and then fling the shells onto our cars...leaving BRIGHT ORANGE spatters everywhere! So...could I bring to Muggsy a limb from one of the cypresses? I wouldn't, obviously, let him munch on a seed ball thingie.
Another couple of trees in my yard are a mimosa and a palmetto palm. Not a cycad (I know those are poisonous, and we have those, too...but I steer clear because they cause me to break out in a rash). Palmettos are the ones that have the berries a couple of times a year that birds love. The "scales" of the trunk look like they'd be fun for a squirrel to shred...but I never see anything on here about that.
So, in short...what do you think about mimosa, cypress, and palmetto? All fresh and de-loused!