What Should You NEVER Feed Squirrels | Nature - Daily Express

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Squirrels have lived in the UK for thousands of years. There are approximately 140,000 red squirrels and 2.5 million grey squirrels in Britain. Red squirrels are a native species in the UK and have lived in the country for around 10,000 with grey squirrels first introduced around the 1800s. But what should you never feed squirrels?

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What should you never feed squirrels?

Squirrels tend to be herbivores, although they are known to feast on the odd bird egg if other foods are in short supply.

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Grey squirrels will adapt to the conditions around them, but they will eat a variety of items.

Grey squirrels particularly enjoy peanuts, hazelnuts, walnuts and almonds.

They tend to eat many items, but the issues with feeding squirrels surround filling them up on foods that have little or no nutritional value, while some foods are outright dangerous.

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READ MORE: What you should NEVER feed to garden birds

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What should you NEVER feed squirrels: What should you NEVER feed squirrels (Image: GETTY)

What should you NEVER feed squirrels: There are 2.5m grey squirrels in the UK (Image: GETTY)

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Peanuts

All rodents particularly enjoy peanuts, but they do not have a lot of nutritional value.

Peanuts are not actually nuts and are instead legumes.

This means they do not hold much nutritional value for squirrels.

What should you NEVER feed squirrels: Squirrels have lived in the UK for almost 10,000 years (Image: GETTY)

Junk food

You should not give squirrels salty and sugary snacks.

These have little nutritional value for squirrels.

Squirrels are naturally hyper and sugar can make them even more excitable which is bad for their health.

Other junk food including hot dogs, pizza and more is also bad for squirrels.

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What should you NEVER feed squirrels: There are around 140,000 red squirrels left (Image: GETTY)

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Breakfast cereal

Breakfast cereals do not have much nutritional value for squirrels.

They may enjoy cereal, but it will most likely just fill them up with no real health benefits.

Eating food which fills them up and offers no nutritional value can lead to severe malnutrition.

What should you NEVER feed squirrels: Squirrels should not eat pet food or junk food (Image: GETTY) The day's biggest headlines in UK and World news Subscribe Invalid email

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Pet food

Meats are not part of a squirrels diet which means cat and dog food are usually bad for feeding squirrels.

Squirrels are vegetarian and can actually die from consuming food which has a high meat content.

Corn

Squirrels can eat a little amount of corn cut up into pieces, but as squirrels have a tendency to overeat, they should avoid corn.

Corn turns sour very quickly and can grow mouldy quickly so you should make sure it has not reached this stage before you give it to squirrels.

Mouldy or sour corn can be toxic and even fatal to squirrels.

Other foods you can feed to squirrels include:

• Chopped apples
• Green beans
• Carrots
• Spinach
• Bean sprouts
• Celery

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