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Thread: Won't eat vegetables

  1. #1
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    Question Won't eat vegetables

    My male fox squirrel is 12 1/2 weeks old. He's not weaned. Since he was 6 weeks old I have been offering him numerous vegetables but he's not interested. He might take a bite or two when I put something new in his bowl but after that he doesn't want anything to do with it. That includes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms, squash, green leaf lettuce, green cabbage, red cabbage, cilantro, cucumber, avocado and

    He was on Fox Valley 20/50 3 times a day until a week and a half ago. I cut that back to twice a day hoping that he would eat his vegetables but he won't.

    He gets 2 Henry's blocks per day and used to eat them but now he's not crazy about them so I've ordered picky blocks which should be here in a day or two.

    I don't give him nuts or fruits because he won't eat his vegetables. In the past when he would eat some vegetables, I would give him a half of a pecan or walnut or a whole almond. As well as a grape or a blueberry or another piece of fruit.

    Help! Is it bad that he's not eating his vegetables as long as he's drinking his formula and eating his blocks?

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Won't eat vegetables

    Quote Originally Posted by GeorgiesMom View Post
    In the past when he would eat some vegetables, I would give him a half of a pecan or walnut or a whole almond. As well as a grape or a blueberry or another piece of fruit.

    He will eat his veggies if he does not have options. Continue the formula and blocks. He will not starve himself, but having given him nuts before was eating his veggies consistently means you have chosen the harder path and will now require "tough love".

    Have your tried avocado? Sugar snap peas?

    None of my 12 week old squirrels know what a nut is... too young to start on nuts IMO.

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  4. #3
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    Default Re: Won't eat vegetables

    Quote Originally Posted by Spanky View Post

    He will eat his veggies if he does not have options. Continue the formula and blocks. He will not starve himself, but having given him nuts before was eating his veggies consistently means you have chosen the harder path and will now require "tough love".

    Have your tried avocado? Sugar snap peas?

    None of my 12 week old squirrels know what a nut is... too young to start on nuts IMO.
    He did not get a nut or fruit everyday. I was very careful with those and only gave them if he ate his vegetables. And yes I tried sugar snap peas and avocado. He likes everything at first but doesn't want to touch anything the second time it's offered. He hasn't had nuts or fruit for 3 weeks.

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    Default Re: Won't eat vegetables

    Introducing solids is a progression starting with the block. Once they are eating block well, that is the time to introduce veggies. After they are eating veggies well, fruit can be introduced. Only if they are eating a healthy diet consistently is when nuts may be introduced. Nuts and seeds really do not add anything to their diet, they do more bad than any good to a captive squirrel. Nuts and seeds to a squirrel are like cotton candy to a human toddler.

    I intended only to share experience that the process of establishing a healthy diet may have been short circuited some by rewarding him with nuts when he was just starting to eat his veggies, before it had become a habit....

    Being a singleton is also a challenge... with groups of squirrels if one has something then all the others in the group want it... does not matter what it might be.

    The formula is the single best thing he can have nutritionally, so I would not cut back on that as long as he is willing to eat the formula. The blocks should continue as well.

    Have you checked his teeth? He may be a little young for this, but sometimes their upper teeth grow back along the roof of their mouth making it difficult and even impossible to chew things.

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    Default Re: Won't eat vegetables

    Quote Originally Posted by Spanky View Post
    Introducing solids is a progression starting with the block. Once they are eating block well, that is the time to introduce veggies. After they are eating veggies well, fruit can be introduced. Only if they are eating a healthy diet consistently is when nuts may be introduced. Nuts and seeds really do not add anything to their diet, they do more bad than any good to a captive squirrel. Nuts and seeds to a squirrel are like cotton candy to a human toddler.

    I intended only to share experience that the process of establishing a healthy diet may have been short circuited some by rewarding him with nuts when he was just starting to eat his veggies, before it had become a habit....

    Being a singleton is also a challenge... with groups of squirrels if one has something then all the others in the group want it... does not matter what it might be.

    The formula is the single best thing he can have nutritionally, so I would not cut back on that as long as he is willing to eat the formula. The blocks should continue as well.

    Have you checked his teeth? He may be a little young for this, but sometimes their upper teeth grow back along the roof of their mouth making it difficult and even impossible to chew things.
    I appreciate your help. I've raised many squirrels but it's been 30 years and things have changed a lot. His teeth look good and he chews oak, maple and app!e branches into itty pieces. I only cut back his formula because another member suggested that. I will re-add the third feeding.

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    Default Re: Won't eat vegetables

    I know he may not continue to eat these greens, but try kale, arugula, radicchio, watercress, bok choy, chicory, endive, escarole, dandelion greens, mushrooms (all types as they taste different), green beans, snow peas.

    Tough love is hard, but at least he’s taking his formula!

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    Default Re: Won't eat vegetables

    Quote Originally Posted by Mel1959 View Post
    I know he may not continue to eat these greens, but try kale, arugula, radicchio, watercress, bok choy, chicory, endive, escarole, dandelion greens, mushrooms (all types as they taste different), green beans, snow peas.

    Tough love is hard, but at least he’s taking his formula!
    The only ones our local atores carry from your list are mushrooms, kale, greenbeans.( Im in a rural area). The others are too fancy for folks around here lol.

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    Default Re: Won't eat vegetables

    Digestibility is key to supporting the availability of the nutrients in plant sourced whole foods; boiling vegetables to some degree predigests plant sourced foods. Boiling also makes the bitter greens less bitter and reduces their gassiness too. For greens blanch (boil 90 sec).

    Steaming snow peas and sugar snap peas or boiling them short term for 5 minutes.
    Boiled carrots are also a good choice.

    This little device supports preparing small plant food amounts daily. https://www.amazon.com/VAHDAM-Infuse...ace-9766277718

    Organic Butternut and acorn squash baked are more appealing; both contains folate just as the greens do, and more protein,
    with higher levels of beta carotene and about even Calcium to Phosphorus ratios.

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    Default Re: Won't eat vegetables

    Quote Originally Posted by Diggie's Friend View Post
    Digestibility is key to supporting the availability of the nutrients in plant sourced whole foods; boiling vegetables to some degree predigests plant sourced foods. Boiling also makes the bitter greens less bitter and reduces their gassiness too. For greens blanch (boil 90 sec).

    Steaming snow peas and sugar snap peas or boiling them short term for 5 minutes.
    Boiled carrots are also a good choice.

    This little device supports preparing small plant food amounts daily. https://www.amazon.com/VAHDAM-Infuse...ace-9766277718

    Organic Butternut and acorn squash baked are more appealing; both contains folate just as the greens do, and more protein,
    with higher levels of beta carotene and about even Calcium to Phosphorus ratios.
    Thank you...I will try your suggestions and get a tea strainer!

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    Default Re: Won't eat vegetables

    Upon the release of a female fox squirrel we raised, one of the first things we saw her do was to pull up tufts of lawn grasses and flip them over to chew on the soil that surrounded the roots. It was many years later that I learned that this instinctual behavior of tree squirrels of ingesting soil (geophagy), is a common behavior in many mammals, by which they obtain calcium and other minerals, along with, 'soil based organisms' (SB0) aka: "microbiota", which for tree squirrels are vital to support the degrading of, 'oxalates' in stem and leaf parts of plants, which otherwise significantly limit the availability of calcium they contain, and some even have been found to lower calcium in other foods consumed in the same meal.

    (Reference: "Digestibility" pg. 40, "The Natural History of Tree Squirrels" by John Gurnell)

    By providing a source of (SBO) in support of captive diets, that doesn't include damaging parasites and/or bad bacteria as soil otherwise may, lends support to the breaking down of cellulose walls of the stems and leaf part of plants in the intestinal tract.

    Pet Flora by Vitality Science, is an unflavored, 'soil based bacteria', with no flavors or fillers.

    A source some here have added to the rodent block and greens, organic food grade Chia oil from, "Foods Alive", has also improved the acceptance of block diets also. Other sources of chia oil which are carrier oils should not be included in food for pets.
    https://www.amazon.com/Vitality-Scie.../dp/B005PJN2HO
    Last edited by TubeDriver; 09-22-2020 at 02:12 PM.

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  17. #11
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    Default Re: Won't eat vegetables

    Quote Originally Posted by Diggie's Friend View Post
    Upon the release of a female fox squirrel we raised, one of the first things we saw her do was to pull up tufts of lawn grasses and flip them over to chew on the soil that surrounded the roots. It was many years later that I learned that this instinctual behavior of tree squirrels of ingesting soil (geophagy), is a common behavior in many mammals, by which they obtain calcium and other minerals, along with, 'soil based organisms' (SB0) aka: "microbiota", which for tree squirrels are vital to support the degrading of, 'oxalates' in stem and leaf parts of plants, which otherwise significantly limit the availability of calcium they contain, and some even have been found to lower calcium in other foods consumed in the same meal.

    (Reference: "Digestibility" pg. 40, "The Natural History of Tree Squirrels" by John Gurnell)

    By providing a source of (SBO) in support of captive diets, that doesn't include damaging parasites and/or bad bacteria as soil otherwise may, lends support to the breaking down of cellulose walls of the stems and leaf part of plants in the intestinal tract.

    Pet Flora by Vitality Science, is an unflavored, 'soil based bacteria', with no flavors or fillers.

    A source some here have added to the rodent block and greens, organic food grade Chia oil from, "Foods Alive", has also improved the acceptance of block diets also. Other sources of chia oil which are carrier oils should not be included in food for pets.
    https://www.amazon.com/Vitality-Scie.../dp/B005PJN2HO
    Very interesting stuff. Thank you for sharing. Complexity is everywhere waiting to be discovered.

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