Food for Indiana Squirrels – Dos and Don’ts

“I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!” If you give an Indiana squirrel unlimited access to feed corn, they’ll take you up on that offer. Before you start setting out food, it’s important to know how you can best help the squirrels. Many people don’t realize the dietary needs that squirrels have, making it easy to set out the wrong choices for our furry friends. Today let’s talk through some of the dos and don’ts when it comes to feeding your backyard friends in order to keep them happy and healthy.

Squirrel Feeding Dos:

DO help them achieve a balanced diet: Keep their bones healthy and strong by occasionally setting out nuts and “squirrel cookies” as a treat.
DO provide them with clean water. Squirrels need fresh water every day.
DO try putting out corncobs – squirrels love working to get the kernels off the cob.
DO place the food away from your home and bird feeders. You don’t want the squirrels to confuse what they’re allowed to eat with what you’d like them to keep away from.
DO place the food in a squirrel feeder to help the squirrels with portion control.

Squirrel Feeding Don’ts:

DON’T allow corn to become moldy over time; always buy quality corn that is fresh.
DON’T put out shelled nuts or seeds – they can quickly go bad. Squirrels won’t mind taking the time to get the food out of the shell.
DON’T put out sugary, unhealthy foods. Urban squirrels are opportunistic feeders, so they’ll eat anything that’s available.
DON’T offer treats like nuts and seeds all the time – use them as a reward and offer them in small quantities.

Our last tip is to help the squirrels with portion control. According to Wild Birds Unlimited, squirrels spend a lot of their time eating, and “they eat more than their body weight in food each week.” Our biggest portion control tip is to purchase a squirrel feeder so you can regulate the flow and quantity of food. If you put corn in these, they’ll automatically regulate how much the squirrel can consume by making the food slightly challenging to access.

Squirrel feeders don’t have to be expensive. Just make sure that you can adjust the flow of food to an appropriate level. You can purchase squirrel feeders from many places such as Lowes, Wild Birds Unlimited, and Walmart. For example, here are two we really like from Walmart:

Walmart-feed-corn-Squirrel-feeder-lafayette-indiana

This feeder lets you set the flow of feed to squirrels. All you have to do is load it with feed corn and enjoy watching the squirrels come to your feeder.

Walmart-squirrel-corncob-feeder-lafayette-indiana

This feeder would be ideal for setting out whole corncobs. You can set one corncob out at a time for the squirrels to come and enjoy, that way they don’t overindulge.

If you have any questions about whether a particular food is safe for your backyard friends, feel free to give Daily Family Farms in Hope, IN a call at (812) 371-5644. As spring begins, add some variety to your furry friend’s diets with corn. Order your fresh, quality ear corn online from Daily in a 10 lb. box to last you all spring. We hope you enjoy setting out some feed corn or corncobs for your squirrels as the Indiana weather begins warming up!