Re: Need Help With Acorns
Originally Posted by
robert574
This will probably seem like an odd question, but last year we just didn't have many acorns here for the squirrels. I noticed they were everywhere near my doctors office so I gathered them up and carried pails full of them and washed, sorted and tossed them out here.
Did I mention that I raised a squirrel and released it in the trees out back? Ok, that's my motivation.
So back to the acorns. Clearly some acorns are good and some are bad. Of the ones I picked up most were orange inside and my squirrel ate them.
This year we had a lot of rain and a lot of acorns, some round some oblong. When I look inside the acorns a lot of them are not orange or yellow inside but are kind of mealy brown looking. I have seen some with the hole from the weevil and the worm inside (the lizards like those) but a large amount are not orange. So whats up with that? Do the squirrels only eat the orange or yellow ones or will they also eat the mealy looking ones?
I'm sure Hrt won't mind so rather then repeat I'm just going to copy and post the explanation as explained in another forum here.
Originally Posted by
HRT4SQRLS
Yes, acorns are risky. Acorns are moist inside and can grow mold. Some of these molds produce aflatoxins. These aflatoxins are deadly. I would NEVER just collect acorns and give them to caged squirrels. It is much too risky. I do selectively collect fresh acorns. I take knife and cut each acorn to visually inspect them. If the meat of the acorn is perfect, they will get that acorn. Needless to say they don’t get many acorns.
Some rehabbers won’t even do that due to the risk. You would be surprised at the number of fresh, perfectly appearing acorns are totally brown/spoiled on the inside. It is easily 25% of those that I cut.
Of course, you never want them stashing acorns in their cage. It is a recipe for disaster.
Step-N-Stone
State Licensed
Wildlife Master Rehabilitator