Re: tree fungus
Originally Posted by
Deanna1102
I do a lot of research when it comes to Grey Squirrels, and I remember reading that squirrels have a natural enzyme in their stomach that renders poisonous mushrooms harmless to their system.
According to Dr. John Rippon, an IMA member and world expert on fungal diseases, squirrels have an interesting adaptation that allows them to eat mushrooms containing deadly amanita-toxins without being affected. There are three important chemicals in the amanitas. Two will knock you right off, but are destroyed in cooking. The third one is the interesting one: it consists of the second amanitin, bound tightly to a glycoprotein molecule. When we digest the mushroom, the enzymes in our gut break the bond between the toxin and the glycoprotein, leaving the toxin free to enter our bloodstream, while the glycoprotein is excreted (a glycoprotein is a mucus molecule, in case you don't know). What the squirrels have done is line their gut with a toxin-compatible glycoprotein, so that as soon as it gets split from its original glycoprotein molecule, it gets rebound to the squirrel glycoprotein, and excreted along with it. Obviously, the squirrels don't cook their food to destroy the first two molecules, but presumably those get bound in exactly the same way. Thus, squirrels and a few other animals (guinea pigs also, I believe) can eat mushrooms that are highly toxic to other animals with no ill effects.
A word of caution....
Be very careful with what you choose to feed a captive squirrel based on what a wild can or will eat in the wild.
As many have learned through heartbreak and discovery with their captives/pets, with a wild squirrel's instincts they know what to eat and how to eat to support themselves and balance their nutritional requirements through a large verity out in the wild. We substitute to meet their daily requirements through what we have learned and come to know. That said, we only imitative with what we have learned, we don't know everything!
For example; A wild will reject a bad nut, acorn, etc and leave it lay on the ground. Our captives on the other hand will take and eat that bad nut if fed to them and it has often cost them their lives.
The same goes for Avocado skins. I have seen wilds eat the skins/peal with no ill effects, but it almost always causes the demise of a captive even with the smallest section of skin/peal. A wild can also sit at a bird feeder day after day eating nuts and seeds without any consequences, feed your captives like that and they get rewarded with metabolic bone disease. I would personally advise to be very particular with what a captive squirrel is fed coming from outside.
Step-N-Stone
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