Are Green Acorns Poisonous To Squirrels?

11/8/2014

I have people write me all the time and ask if it's OK to feed green acorns to their rescue squirrels. I have to admit that for years I've regurgitated the same old common belief that is bandied about on the Internet that, " You should not feed green acorns to a squirrels because they are poisonous until they are well aged."

If this belief is true, then I should have a bunch of dead squirrels in my backyard. In addition to seeking what is considered good nutrition for squirrels, I am also an avid observer of squirrel behavior.

This past summer, I took on the monumental task of tearing down an old garage that was supposed to have come down 12 years ago when I built my new garage. The project took most of the Summer. In August I decided to build a garden shed on the site of the old garage. So, this Fall, I have been racing the clock and calendar to get it under roof.

Early in October I was mixing and pouring cement for the floor of the shed. During the month of October is when squirrels start to gorge themselves with food to gain a layer of insulating fat in preparation for the coming winter. Unfortunately, my shed is located between two huge Oak trees that are loaded with acorns. The squirrels were not happy with me because my presence and efforts were disrupting their efforts to gather the acorns they were cutting. Their efforts got so vigorous that I had to erect a tent over my cement work to keep it from being studded with green cut acorns.

One interesting thing I observed as I endured the raining down of acorns on my tent was the fact that a large number of these green acorns were half eaten! It was then that a light bulb came on in my head, and I said to myself, "Wait a minute! I thought all these years that green acorns were supposed to be poisonous to squirrels!?" How come these squirrels are eating large numbers of them?

As I pondered this question, I started watching and observing the behavior of the squirrels in my backyard. Something had changed. All the squirrels that had led a quiet, symbiotic relationship with each other through the Summer, were suddenly squabbling and chasing each other and exhibiting very territorial behavior, a very hyperactive behavior. Then, I started putting two and two together.

Acorns are loaded with tannin, a substance that is like Meth Amphetamine to squirrels, and is where the term "Squirrly" came from. If squirrels are gorging on green acorns in their effort to gain weight, the tannin is going to give them a lot of extra energy, which in a sense is good because it will help them get the job of scatter hoarding all those acorns completed. The drawback is that they get short tempered with each other because the tannin also brings out the worst in their behavior with each other, which is normally very family oriented and communal.

So, the truth about green acorns being poisonous to squirrels is false. But, I would not recommend feeding green acorns to your captive squirrels unless you are in to getting your lips ripped off at the slightest provocation!

33 Comments

Sharon Smith

12/9/2014 03:53:08 am

Hi William,
(this is from the lady to proud to wear her readers and ordered " but square recipe")
I was so very glad to see your post on green acorns. I never considered that they may be poisonous since all the squrirels here in Arkansas eat them constantly. BUT.. you did explain why my sweet angel turned into a spastic demon once a week. Waldo is 18 weeks old and has always been so gentle to take food out of my hand, or while hiding it in my hair or coat cap. Then out of the blue he would growl and jump at any one who got near his cage or secret stash (green acorns) he even bit my husband's hand. So now that they are all removed from my house (hoping I found all his stashes) my sweet boy is back to his old self. My question is how long till they are aged enough to eat? I hate to throw 3 gallons away.
Thanks so much for all you do,
Sharon

Sigrid Warren, Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator link

10/3/2015 07:22:45 am

This is the most idiotic conclusion I have ever read. Problem is, because you published this nonsense a lot of illegal pet squirrels no longer get to eat acorns. Has it occurred to you that the squabbles are over collection sites and dominance and not over your claim that it is the tannin? Where is your scientific proof to this claim? I can't even label this junk science because it isn't anything but a dumb conclusion you decided to publish on the internet.

Food aggression during high-stress times such as the urgent need to collect as much winter food as possible is normal behavior. If you give kids a bowl of M&Ms and leave the room, will they peacefully divide the loot? Or will the bigger boys take over and bully the others to have the chocolate all by themselves? By your rationale it should then be concluded that M&Ms are toxic to children. Same scenario, just different species with their respective favorite food.

I don't expect that you leave my comment on your blog and will therefore publish it on my own FB page so that at least some people who blindly believe anything they read because "it's on the internet!" will see it.

By your logic, we would have nothing but crazy squirrels running around in the trees. Good grief! Can you hear them laughing at you?

My credentials: 15 years rehabilitating wildlife, including hundreds of squirrels. Have collected and fed at least TEN THOUSAND POUNDS OF ACORNS with never any incidents other than normal food fights.
And, by the way, I RESEARCH the topics I discuss on my page before I put it in writing. Too bad you didn't do the same.

Bobbi

11/2/2015 01:35:43 pm

To the Licensed Wildlife Facilitator: That was an incredibly harsh response to Mr. Sells acorn deduction.

I have just begun referring to his site and was surprised by your response. As a mother who has had many 'play dates' and is in the medical field, I have to say that your comparison of M&Ms is truer that you think. They ARE toxic in large quantities and DO create VERY aggressive behavior among humans, especially sugar intolerant children! (I can provide many sources to back this information up, if you would like.)

As for the acorn stance. I re-read Mr. Sells blog and he was not saying acorns are toxic, on the contrary, he had changed his opinion from years past to say that they are not. He also stated that the chemical makeup in the acorns have the potential to create a more aggressive behavior when consumed in extreme quantities.... as do M&M's. So, really you are supporting his observation with your example. I would love to hear, in a nice and clinical way, what your findings and sources are to prove that the tannins do not cause an aggressive behavior. Thank you in advance for your clinical findings.

Sincerely,
A new reader to squirrelnutrition.com, Bobbi

William Sells link

11/2/2015 08:00:59 pm

Hi Bobbi!

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I don't worry about the "pinheads" who write nasty stuff. She's not the first, and she won't be the last. She's probably one of the two who tried to get my license pulled by my state for feeding baby squirrels whole milk fortified with cream. They actually told the director of the State Wildlife Organization that I was killing squirrels by feeding them milk! At my hearing, when I presented proof from the Ohio State University that showed that they fed whole milk fortified with canned condensed milk to increase the fat content to their pre weaned research squirrels, the case was dismissed and the two rehabilitators were humiliated.
In the Jordan Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Volume 4 No.
2, 2008, they talk about acorns used as foods and drinks for humans. It stated, " Any bitter seeds can be leached by thoroughly washing the seed in running water. In some parts of Jordan, the whole seeds are eaten directly or can be roasted to be used as a coffee substitute."

Get that? A "coffee substitute!" Coffee is a central nervous system stimulant! Have you ever dealt with a person who has overdosed on coffee! They are" bouncing off the walls" wired. Squirrels gorging on green acorns, ( which are high in carbohydrates, that will cause them to put on fat,) would be like a two month binge on coffee. They would be hyper, their nerves would be frazzled, and the limited sleep, and exaggerated physical activity would produce short tempers, which is exactly what I was observing in my backyard.

I too have heard young squirrels squabble over food when they are confined in a cage. It's very vocal, and sometimes physical. Aggression out in the wild usually takes the form of chasing, but rarely do you hear the loud vocalizations like when they are arguing over food, ( unless there is a bunch trying to get into a feeder.) The only other time I hear that level of that type of vocalization, is during breeding season among suitor males, and females defending their nests during birthing season.

But when it is acorn gorging time during Sept-Oct, I hear it almost continuously when they are up cutting acorns. I probably hear it more, because of the shear volume of squirrels in my yard. On most days, you can count 10 to 20. One day during breeding season, my wife and I estimated 40 to 60 males in our two Oak trees.

I made a house call on a friend with a young Fox Squirrel last week to pick up a cage I had loaned. One of the first things he asked me was why he was hearing so many of the squirrels squabbling in the woods across the road. I asked him if there was a lot of Oak trees in that woods? He said it was mostly Oak and that the squirrels were even bringing them across the road to bury in his yard. I told him the same thing about the Sept- Oct food fights.

But of course, I don't know what I'm talking about because Sigred said it's, "the most idiotic conclusion I have ever read!"

Thanks for writing!

Bill

Laura

11/3/2015 09:40:41 am

Well said Bobbi!!!

Maria Henne

2/19/2018 09:52:06 pm

I liked your intelligent conclusive rationale-
So much for smug,persons, whose anger interferes with logic, intelligence, civilised behaviour- didn't receive that too well either
MH

Reader X

11/5/2015 02:06:36 am

To bad you seem to have horrible reading comprehension. You might want to re-read what's actually written instead of jumping to a conclusion that isn't there. As my husband loves to say "Evel Knievel couldn't even make that jump!" ... or any squirrel for that matter.

Here's a breakdown in layman's terms:
1) "I thought green acorns were poisonous"
2) "Half eaten green acorns were not resulting in dead squirrels in my yard"
3) "Maybe my initial thought is wrong, let's observe this further."
4) "Let's also study the chemical components of green acorns"
5) "after observation and research, there is a strong link between green acorns - which are present at this time of year and have higher amounts of tannin than their mature counterparts - and the behavior of the squirrels at the time green acorns are present"
6) "I have concluded green acorns may contribute to this altered mood during this time."

No where in the above does it say never feed acorns to captive squirrels - only be wary of giving GREEN acorns. I walk away from it as a note that mature acorns are fine. Or, if by chance I have a captive squirrel who is acting out of sorts - I have a place to start in diagnosing why it is acting strange.

Also, you ask for scientific proof. I have to shake my head at this. Where were you in 5th grade? Did you sleep through class when they taught the scientific method? From what I see this is a sound hypothesis with scientific work-through. I believe the ball is in your court to help test the theory with a repeatable test that shows his theory to be incorrect other than "have collected and fed at least ten thousand pounds of acorns" (which, you seem to not indicate if these are green or mature acorns and is also considered anecdotal evidence aka "junk science") or the reductio ad absurdum fallacy of "by your logic, we would have nothing but crazy squirrels running around in the trees". So please, enlighten us to your employment of the scientific method to prove this conclusion wrong.

Dotti

9/28/2018 05:00:48 pm

As a new reader I was very happy to read about the Tannin in green Acorns (Possible) affect on my squirrels this time of year. All spring summer I have no trouble with my dogs on the deck and the many squirrels that live in natural and provided homes in my 4 backyards in the Bronx. From tree to tree and scurrying across the ground I get a few barks here and there. BUT in late Sept. it starts...my 50 ft Pin Oak brings a frenzy of clippings with green acorns half eaten all over the place. My yorkshire Terrier has to be put inside he is so hyper. One reason is the squirrels are fighting and freaking him out, BUT another is I just realized the yorkie has been eating the green acorns that fall on the deck. That is so funny!!!

Sharon

9/17/2020 08:09:54 am

Seems someone has eaten too many green acorns himself!

There is no good place for aggressive opinions. We should all support each other in caring for squirrels, not attack each other!

Seriously, take a chill pill.

Cheryl jones link

10/10/2021 09:59:41 am

I need advice . I rescued a young one that was laying on my garage floor almost lifeless. Young but fully furred and eyes open. Fed Kmr and electrolyte water. Have had her for 3 weeks. I need to let her go to a wildlife center for release. I'm in Chicago in Oct winter is coming . I'm so attached to her but know its best.

Mary Botts

4/27/2016 03:29:59 pm

I gave my baby squirrel of three months A A corn as I was seeing other squirrels eating them up and collecting them in the Yard he took the acorn as as he had a piece of gold and Nibbled away on it. Within 20 minutes he was completely paralyzed with in two hours he went through a painful process and died

William link

4/27/2016 04:45:31 pm

Hi Mary!

Sorry to hear about you losing a young squirrel. Green acorns are not poisonous to squirrels, but, at this time of year, there are no true green acorns, because they are considered green when they fall from the tree in Sept/Oct.

Now, the question remains as to what killed the squirrel. From what you described, it sounds like squirrel died from some form of neuro toxin, since you described that the squirrel became paralyzed and then died a slow, painful death.

Since you said other squirrels were eating acorns and not experiencing the same fate, my suspicion is that it had nothing to do with the acorn, and everything to do with where the squirrel was prior to coming to your yard.

My suspicion is theat you may have someone in the neighborhood that doesn't like squirrels, and is in the process of poisoning them.

One lady wrote me recently and told me about squirrels around her place coming up dead a lot. She found out later that a nearby golf course was poisoning squirrels with the blessing of the towns City Council, because the squirrels were burying nuts on their fairways.

She started looking around, and found a number of trees that had poison pellets placed around the base.

That's just my guess.

Bill

Ila

9/16/2016 05:29:04 pm

Can I give my baby squirrel pecans?

Sigrid Warren

9/16/2016 07:45:46 pm

Yes, you can. But they are not a natural food and should be given in moderation.

Okay, I think it is time that I reply.

This article created chaos among those you labeled pinheads, Bill. Thousands of people with illegal pet squirrels stopped feeding them acorns and every year when I am asked how to distinguish good from bad acorns and post my response I am attacked by dozens of people who claim that acorns are poisonous. I really got fed up over this nonsense given that I have collected and fed well over 12, 000 pounds of acorns to the close to 1,,000 squirrels I have rehabiltated over the years with not one single death. Yet your article is taken as the Bible. There are lots of pinheads out there who did NOT read the entire article--typical American attention span thanks to commercials interrupting programs which have trained their brains to fall asleep after a few minutes. They are not stupid, they have been made stupid by TV. I assume that unlearning years of that is not easy.

But back to the acorn disaster your article created. Thousands of squirrels are suffering from overgrown teeth because their owners have gotten away from their natural foods and feed them processed garbage instead. The result are fat squirrels with liver damage, arthritis, tooth infections, and spinal trauma when they try to jump and fall. I unfriended quite a few people once I became aware of what they were doing

Eventually someone steered me to your article. Your initial conclusion was junk science, but unfortunately that is where people stopped reading, and that is where the damage was done. I did read the entire article ( imagine that!) and tried to get people to do the same, but the damage was done. And some fat guy with a squirrel sitting on his shoulder is getting rich selling home made squirrel food that has lots of corn syrup in it, a surefire way to kill a squirrel.

Could I have said what I did bit nicer? Yes, I could have. I was bullshit( excuse me) over the ridiculous responses from several people who didn't have the first clue about squirrels yet knew everything better. I cleaned house drastically after that, I am sick and tired of seeing squirrels in captivity suffer because they are an illegal pet and no vet will risk helping them since they will lose their license to practice if caught. Most suffered from illnesses caused by the terrible diet their human "friends" were feeding them. One squirrel suffered horrific pain as his upper jaw slowly disintetrated from a terrible bone infection. His owner was too much of a coward to face the music of his illegal pet keeping and have the animal put out of its misery. Imagine the pain this animal had to endure until the pus finally entered the brain and mercifully ended its life. It was one of those "acorns are poisonous" victims.

I lashed out in anger, but I also wanted people to wake up and question the validity of what you had written in the first part, the only part most people read.

What I don't understand for the life of me is why nobody happened to wonder "if this is true, if acorns are poisonous, how come there are so many squirrels? Shouldn't they all be dead by now?" Does anybody think for themselves anymore?

When I watched the Republican conference a few weeks ago, I couldn't help compare Trump to Hitler and the masses who hung to his every word to the brainwashed masses of Nazi Germany. I can say that because I am German. It was an eerie feeling. Nobody thinking for themselves...

Irene Younger

9/4/2018 06:17:22 am

Stick to squirrels since you obviously know nothing about people. I think you're naturally rude and can't admit it. Blaming other people for your awful behavior. Grow up

9/22/2019 08:42:48 am

all of what you said makes perfect sense!...your a losing liberal the only squirlle you should be trying to save is the one in your head because it has a SERIOUS INFECTION!

William link

9/17/2016 10:19:35 pm

Hi lla!

You can feed pecans if it is over 8 weeks old. That's when the molar teeth erupt!

Bill

Dotti

9/28/2018 05:07:24 pm

Thanks I will look for molars to judge my newbees age

William link

9/17/2016 01:01:01 pm

Hi Sigrid,

I'm not sure if you are ripping me a new one, or agreeing with my Blog article on green Acorns. I could care less if someone wants to gather and feed 10,000 pound of green acorns to feed to wild or captive squirrels. The fact remains that they are very high in carbohydrates and do cause squirrels to put on fat when they gorge on them. And they are a CNS Stimulant.

I'm not sure where the fire storm of controversy is taking place, nor do I consider my work as being a Bible of anything. I have the equivalent of a Harvard degree in physiology, and I've applied that knowledge to Squirrels since I've retired. I've dispelled a lot of myths about squirrels in my own mind, and I write about things that I experience first hand.

Take for example the myth that milk will kill a baby squirrel. You know yourself that baby squirrels die for a number of reasons unrelated to diet. They can be fine one day, and the next day get cold, go downhill and die. I get letters all the time from people riddled with guilt, thinking they did something terribly wrong that caused the squirrels death. Most sudden deaths are related to the fall from the nest with latent symptoms and resulting death happening up to 2 weeks later.

How do I know these things? When a baby squirrel dies in my care, I find out why. Observing and participating in autopsies over my 40+ year medical career has taught me a thing or two about finding a cause of death. In most instances of sudden death it's a failure of the liver, spleen or kidney(s) from blunt trauma to the organ, that built up pressure and eventually ruptured due to bleeding into the organ.

One recent death had me puzzled due to the fact that symptoms did not fit the blunt trauma to the abdomen scenario. Shortness of breath was the only symptom. I suspected lung contusion, but on autopsy, found the lungs and abdominal organs to be perfectly intact.

What I did find though, was a pericardial effusion of blood outside the heart. Apparently a small vessel had ruptured within the pericardial sac and slowly bled, which gradually squeezed the heart and made it difficult for it pump blood. The squirrel was short of breath because oxygen carrying red blood cells were not getting to the tissues. The squirrel died because the pump eventually failed.

Had I not been curious enough to find out why, I could have easily speculated that I may have fed him too fast and he aspirated and died of an aspiration pneumonia.

There is no cure for ignorance other than education. I can no more force people to read all of my Blogs before coming to a conclusion, than I can leading a horse to water and forcing it to drink.

If I've created a "firestorm" of controversy, I apparently don't read the same things you do, because very few seem to be writing and telling me where I'm wrong.

I don't know everything there is to know about squirrels, but, my squirrels manage to teach me something everyday. I lived a year in Missouri when I was training at the University of Missouri Medical Center. Being the "Show me" State must have rubbed off on me, because I don't take everything I read or even see as Gospel.

A very intelligent person once said, "Don't believe anything you read, and only half of what you see, because there is always going to be someone out there who can prove you wrong!"

Thanks for writing!

Bill

Kelli

9/24/2016 05:20:58 pm

Mr. Sells I have no degree I'm just a lady raiseing two sweet baby squirrels who lost there mother. I've raised and released healthy squirrels in the past so I guess I'm doin something right. I'm giving these two as well as my other critters evaporate milk watered down of course and they do fine. I appreciate the advice about the acorns I wasn't sure which one to let them try.

Mandi

11/28/2016 12:14:20 pm

I may not have a Harvard degree, but I can tell you that Sigrid is not a polite person. I don't care if she is the Guru of all things Squirrel, she ought to leave harmful name calling like "fat man" OUT of her rant. It was uncalled for, hurtful, and had zero to do with the point she was trying to make. I cannot stand behavior unbecoming of civilized human beings. I'm not saying we all have to be Mary Poppins, but some degree of civility should be observed. Thank you Bill for not feeding into her disgusting display of ill manners, and for replying respectfully regardless of Sigrid's obvious lack of proper raising.

William link

11/28/2016 01:43:05 pm

Hi Mandi!
Thanks for writing! I appreciate your concern, but name calling has never bothered me. In fact, I'm often amazed at the false conclusions that people like "Sigrid," ( which I believe is a fictitious name for Clarissa Summers,) make about my products. I don't know where she got the idea that I put corn syrup in my products, because I am very careful to use only organic wherever possible and have eliminated things that contain hydrogenated oils, phyto estrogen, or trans fats. My Nut Squares are so healthy, that I've had people write and tell me they took the recipe and modified it to make their own healthy energy bars. My wife and I give squirrel talks at local Nursing Homes and always take Lucky and any babies we have in rehab to show and tell. One of the highlights of our visits is when we serve our Nut squares that have been dipped in 70% pure chocolate to our audience. They are always a big hit. If my products are so unhealthy, then my question is how has Lucky survived for almost 9 years when the normal life span of a squirrel is 3 to 6 years?

The reason I think Sigrid is Clarissa, is because she makes the same outrageous claims that Clarissa did. I've always said that I give Clarissa Summers all the credit for turning me on to feeding squirrels a scalded milk diet, but to read her website, you would thing that she originated the idea. When in fact, the oldest research I found on the matter dates back to the Ohio State University who did a study of Squirrel breast milk back in the 1960's,( almost 60 years ago,) where they found that squirrel breast milk was up to 24% milk fat, and that they were feeding their lab babies a combination of whole milk and fortifying it with canned condensed milk.

She also made a claim that she had raised over 5000 squirrels. So, I ran the numbers of what it would take for my wife and I to raise 5000 squirrels. Using the average amount of time it takes to feed a single baby times the number of feedings per day vs the number of squirrels I would have to receive every year over a 30 year period of time, I determined that I would need a volunteer group of at least 12 people to show up at my house 4 times a day, just to get the feeding done. Yet, when you read her site, and all the other critters she leads you to believe that she takes care of, you get the distinct impression that she has done all this single highhandedly.

When I read in her post that she has collected and fed 10,000 pounds of acorns, I had to chuckle. My wife and I go out every late summer and fall to collect Black Walnuts, acorns, hickory nuts, beech nuts, and butter nuts, and spend hours at this activity. Between us we may collect 10 to 20 pounds of nut, (not counting the heavy Black Walnuts.) There's not enough time in a lifetime for a single person to realistically gather 10,000 pounds of acorns! That's 5 tons of acorns.

Whenever a person has to resort to making outrageous claims to make themselves appear to be an authority, I become highly suspicious.

Thanks again for writing!

Bill

Maria henne

2/19/2018 09:38:47 pm

I can't believe that rude, angry, German female- with a fictitious name (coward too), misinterpreting multiple details of your very well clarified informative topic on green acorns- I have an MBA in biochemistry & can testify with my endless hours/days/weeks of scientific research on tannins (as well as other chemical substances) effects on the central nervous system
Sigrid, seems to think she has an exclusive on "knowing", which can be interpreted as smug perhaps? There are countless tragedies relating to the unknown factor, regarding helpless squirrels in the hands of maternal caregivers- what is the alternative for injured babies, fallen out of 75 ft trees, or losing their mother but to attempt raising them by human hands?- we care , we try, at times we fail, & the outcomes is often no different than being released into the wild, for all the diverse tragic ends.
To channel such angry aggressive (not fully comprehended) rhetoric at a man so knowledgeable, educated, dedicated, & having the power of observation (which is the real intelligence, BTW), makes Sigrid look like a veritable rude, neophyte.
Also, I don't really believe those large numbers she has thrown around to lend credibility to her "expertise" exaggeration most often creates doubt on any narrative. Instead we Rehabilitators should be on the same side, and direct angry subversive behaviour to more deserved targets like D Trump

albert T tahhan

8/15/2021 02:56:04 pm

Who cares if he's polite. I'd rather have the right info. given by a rude knowledgeable person than a polite person who is half right. I could tell Sigrid was fed up. Not enough people who read his posts exercise the least bit of insight that I could see. This country in 2021 gives too much voice to hypocrite snowflakes. Ladies and gentlemen grow a pair and then Focus!

Mandi

12/5/2016 01:37:29 pm

Bill,
Thanks for the background on the impolite poster. Her lack of manners really got to me. I've got a fox squirrel that I'm rehabbing. He didn't have use of his back legs when I snatched him up out of the wild. Through the guidance of a squirrel loving friend and sites like yours, I've managed to bring "Carl" from drinking from an eye dropper, to drinking formula from a small bowl, to eating rodent blocks and fresh veggies - with a few nuts and black berries thrown in there as treats. Within a week of my having him on intensive vitamin supplementation, he regained the use of his rear legs. I've asked a local wildlife rehabber if she wanted to continue his journey, and she wasn't too interested. She was going to release him to the wild. I worried that he hadn't a clue how to prepare for winter, and that he'd be an interloper in her yard. Rather than take that chance, I decided to hold onto him until he's ready for release.

I got him a huge cage that is very nearly floor to ceiling, lots of climbing toys and tree branches, and I've gotten him your nut sqares to keep him healthy. This journey has been interesting for sure, but I'm thankful for sites like yours to help me keep Carl healthy. Thank you.

Carey

4/13/2017 01:33:46 am

Hi Bill,

So are the brown acorns on the ground actually the green acorns? I'm so confused lol We've been feeding our flyers a few acorns every day along with the dry squirrel food and fresh fruit. We find the acorns on the ground and make sure they're not cracked or rotten. Is this ok? Do you recommend another nut?
Thanks,
Carey

William link

4/14/2017 09:08:18 am

Hi Carey!

Any acorn is fine, as long as it is not cracked or wormy. The squirrel is fully capable of making that determination. They won't eat a rotton or wormy acorn.

Bill

Lorrie

9/13/2017 04:33:11 pm

Hi Bill,
I understand this may or not get answered as it's a year later.
I have an approx 5 1/2 - 6 week old infant that was washed out of a fallen nest from Hurricane Harvey. All littermates and mother were drowned/dead, but I've kept her alive (warm, rehydrate, slowly introduce nursing suppliment, etc.)
I DO NOT want to keep her as a pet. I have a great deal of respect for wild things.
I would love advice on making sure I'm doing my best to make her transition to a wild squirrel optimal.
I'm doing everything I was taught in volunteering with certified wildlife rehabilitation. Unfortunately, none of the certified's can take her in. They are inundated with injured, orphaned and displaced animals at the moment.
I'm getting as much info as I can from all the sources I can find. My true concern is that she is a singleton. What do you know about the success of singleton rehabilitation to an autumn release.
If there's an article I should read, I'd be grateful for any help.
Warm regards,
Lorrie

William link

9/13/2017 04:40:23 pm

Hi, Lorrie!

If you write to me at SquirrelNutrition@Yahoo.com I can send you all the information you need on raise and release.

Bill

Bill E.

9/13/2018 08:17:16 pm

This may be off-topic, but I didn't see anywhere else more appropriate to ask some questions that I have about saving acorns to feed to squirrels later in the year by freezing them...

Is there any benefit to removing the caps from the acorns before freezing them? One benefit that I'm aware of is that you may catch some of the wormy ones that would otherwise get frozen. Removing the caps may also save you substantial freezer space.

Is there any benefit to drying them out, to any extent, before freezing them? I find that if I don't, then when I thaw them later in the year, they're very soft and moist inside, almost mushy. I don't know if squirrels object to this, but I suspect that they would prefer them to be closer to their original nutty texture.

In my experience, one benefit to delaying freezing them is that it allows all of the worms to crawl out, letting you know which ones to discard (saving you some more space in the freezer.)

So, if drying is a good idea, the big question is, for how long? A couple weeks, a few months? Until the worms stop coming out? Or do you not recommend freezing them at all?

Thanks!

Dotti

9/28/2018 05:14:48 pm

Bill E. I personally would guess that since Squirrels eat mealy worms and insects the frozen worms would add some extra protein...but that is just my guess.

Barbara Martin

10/22/2022 07:08:47 pm

I agree. Too many acorns make a squirrel hyper. I go through this every year with chester who I have had for 9 years. I give him several acorns a day maybe seven and he gets a very diet believe me acorns are just a treat because he sees them through his outdoor cage and then comes in and sulks in his indoor cage and the boy has a whole room for himself and massive room outside in several places to tunnel to. Every time I give him acorns he gets very aggressive he bites he is easily provoked and like clockwork the day after I stop the acorns when the tannin has worn off, he is back to his old sweet self. Tannin is bad it kills horses it is bad for pigs it is bad for humans. Unless you have owned a squirrel and done the acorn thing you have no business even speaking about this.

Clarissa Summers link

11/15/2022 09:34:44 am

Just to set the record straight, I am NOT Sigrid. Don't know who she is or where she's coming from.

Nor have I said or written anywhere that I have taken in 5,000 squirrels. What HAS been written on my web page that my unethical brother felt the need to edit when he had no legal right to, is that I took in at least 2,500 squirrels over a 20-year period. And, yes, that is around 120 per year, spring and fall, and the injured in the meantime. An 18-hour-a -day's work.

Some ended up being unreleasable due to being struck by electricity, had broken backs, head injuries, or other handicaps that would have ensured they'd never make it in "the wild".

A similar thing happened to me as it did with you, Bill: The wildlife organizations all across the U.S. gathered together and lied, condemning me to the Texas State Parks and Wildlife Department for feeding Scalded Milk to the squirrels, lying, saying I was killing them with my natural formula.

They, along with 5 other agencies raided, confiscated, and killed all my squirrels, including a baby fox squirrel I'd not even gotten around to feeding yet. They also took and killed a possum, and other animals they were not supposed to take, including pigeons, flying squirrels, and some native tree (roof) rats.

(As a sideline, I was the only rehabilitator here in Houston, who took in different types of rats, cared for them, and didn't feed them to their predators! -- Horrible people!)

However, within two weeks, Karma went to work! I got to see all of those agencies taken down, treated much worse than I was -- if there is any such thing! -- saw it all on television! This is called "instant Karma"!

Nothing ever came of the 3 court trials I had to go through. They were all thrown out.

I said at the time, that, even though they took away my license to rehabilitate, they can never take away my knowledge, experience, or my willingness to help people!

And that would ordinarily, as they say, "Sum it all up in a nutshell", but at the present I continue to feed all wildlife who comes to me in my back yard -- diurnal and nocturnal.

To reiterate, I don't know who that Sigrid is, but I am not she! We are supposed to be here to help people, not to hinder or try to destroy them because of their own inadequacies.

Clarissa Summers

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William Sells is a Registered Nurse turned Squirrel Rehabber and Nutritionist. His passion is raising healthy, disease free squirrels through feeding them the right way and the treatment of common squirrel diseases. He's always open to questions and comments regarding Squirrels and their care and feeding.

Are Green Acorns Poisonous To Squirrels?

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