Do your squirrels eat cat food?

[Chicken.Lytle]

I have been having difficulty with predators and pests . My rooster has kept the flock safe during the day and the coop has (mostly) kept them safe during the night. But to keep the odds in my favor, I keep a baited Havahart trap in the chicken run.

Today I caught a squirrel that went after the cat food I intended for the raccoons. Has anybody else encountered carnivorous squirrels or do I have deadly mutant squirrels?

 

[CMV]

Squirrels will eat just about anything. Unfortunately, that includes eggs from out of the coop and expensive bulbs from out of the garden. I even caught a red squirrel eating a frog that had gotten squashed in my driveway.

The squirrel lost it to the chickens when they figured out what he was eating, though.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Squirrels are very opportunistic feeders. Cat, dog, chicken, horse, cattle feed they'll eat it all. The tomatoes out of your garden, the fruit off your trees, and many other things. They're just bushy tailed rats after all.

 

[theoldchick]

I've seen them chase cats from the food bowl!

 

[sheila3935]

Yes they eat anything. Even ate my pond pellets this year. They really started packing in september and October not a good sign. Bad winter! Told my DH that he laughed when the temps were warm. Now we are having January weather Low getting into the single digits. Not typical here. What happened to global warming?

My dad taught me to watch for signs of a bad winter. One was the squirrels. If the start packing (stocking up) early means cold snowy winter. So far not much snow yet but really cold.

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

Sheesh! Got a second one today with the rest of the cat food.

 

[racuda]

They even eat birds.

 

[pascopol]

Squirrels are vermin and I treat them as such.

They did not eat my birds so far but they destroyed my whole peach and nectarine crop one of those years, so I declared war on them.

Now I can enjoy my peaches and nectarines.

 

[BlackBart]

Squirrels are Rats with bushy tails. They eat anything a Rat will.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

I've shot about 20 in the last couple of months from my back porch.

I feel like I get revenge when I fry them up with some gravy on the side