Black walnuts in shell!

[Squirrelbud]

Hello,

I am slowly turning into a squirrel nerd (almost!) and bought a bag full of black walnuts. I have been sharing those walnuts with local squirrels but they always seem to hoard them rather than eat right away. When I hand them the whole ones, they roll the nut, try to crack it open for 5 minutes and then give up. I am wondering if they are having difficulty opening them? There are no local walnut trees around so could it be possible that they have not learned how to gnaw a hole? When I give them cracked ones, they are very happy to eat them.

Thank you!

[lovesquirrels1]

Hello,

I am slowly turning into a squirrel nerd (almost!) and bought a bag full of black walnuts. I have been sharing those walnuts with local squirrels but they always seem to hoard them rather than eat right away. When I hand them the whole ones, they roll the nut, try to crack it open for 5 minutes and then give up. I am wondering if they are having difficulty opening them? There are no local walnut trees around so could it be possible that they have not learned how to gnaw a hole? When I give them cracked ones, they are very happy to eat them.

Thank you!

I tried to feed a northern flying squirrel an in shell walnut and it gave up, too. I think maybe they are not so easy to open.

[CritterMom]

They are almost impossible to crack without a vise. But having a shell that is almost impervious to anything short of a nuke makes for some good stashing in the fall - it is likely to last a long time buried, while a cracked nut is useless for that but awfully tasty.

[Chirps]

I've used walnuts in shell on occasion as a diversion to keep my greediest squirrel busy so I could do other things without being pestered every other minute. These are a rare and special treat, so when she gets one she takes it up a tree and works diligently to crack it, but it does take intensive gnawing. Hmm, haven't done that in months. Haven't even thought about it since she learned to jump on me and climb around to the almond pocket to help herself. I'll have to give her one again just for the entertainment value of watching her try to get a grip on it to carry it off.