What Do Chipmunks Eat? How To Feed Them?
What Do Chipmunks Eat? Well, chipmunks like to eat a mix of cereals, nuts, fruits, vegetables, and proteins. This food helps keep them healthy and happy. They’re not picky eaters and will eat almost anything they can find! If you have a lot of chipmunks visiting your house or work area, you should plan their meals carefully. 50% of their diet should have high fiber carbs like oats, wheat, barley, or other cereals. Whether they are your pets or stray chipmunks, their eating habits are almost the same. Feeding chipmunks takes some work and care, but it’s important to try and feed them good food. [acf field=”Schema”]
It becomes necessary to keep them disease-free and healthy while they play.
We will discuss chipmunk’s food, what do they eat, and how to feed them? What are the important foods for chipmunks and how do they take their nutrients, we will cover all?
A fun fact about chipmunks is that they have 25 different species and can feel their home when a place has a lot of trees. Apart from being good at adjusting, they mostly are found hyperactive during early times of the day or evening.
National Geographic says that they can gather up to 165 acorns in a day and yes they eat them as well.
Talking of their feeding, wild chipmunks (not the pets) are mostly seen eating wild berries, nuts, fungi, and wild fruits. They also love to eat fresh and new buds as their “greens”.
For preying on other animals, they mostly feed on small insects, worms of different kinds like earthworms, millipedes.
Things To Feed To Your Chipmunk.
Since they are open to all kinds of food items, you can feed them anything healthy. be it fresh vegetables chopped small or fruits, nuts, and small chicken or meat pieces, they love to eat a variety of food. Nuts and seeds are their top priority. Since these chipmunks cannot find the nutritional values of what they wildly eat, it becomes more necessary to feed the rich and nutritional foods.
Another thing you can surely feed them is their own special food. Yes, chipmunks can be a pet, but you don’t have to own one to buy food from the pet store. All you can do is get some from the pet shop and feed your daily trespassers.to make things more adventurous, you can get your hands on chipmunks feeders like one of those bird feeders and reduce a lot of your daily work. With a chipmunks feeder, you can keep both birds and chipmunks organized, and seeing them takes little treats from it seems to be a fulfilling emotion as well.
If you have a garden of any fruits or vegetables, you might begin to protect them from the chipmunks as they are fond of such things as juicy and pulpy. For those who are thinking of what veggies they eat, tomatoes and strawberries are what everyone has, and chipmunks love to eat.
So now that we have a brief idea of what they can be fed:
For Fruits You Can Feed Them:
- Any sort of berries. blueberries, banana(it is a berry) but chopped is better, mangoes, kiwi, watermelon, grapes tomatoes(it is a fruit), anything. What you need to make sure is that if the fruit is sour too much, they might not like it. Sweet and juicy items are what they prefer.
In terms of veggies you can offer:
- Chopped broccoli, cabbage, cucumber, corn, carrots, beans, or sprouts.
- They can also eat boiled veggies in small pieces.
For live foods you can feed them:
Insects like flies, worms, and other small animals like baby birds. But we are afraid many people don’t like this option at all.
The Behavior of Chipmunks:
If you have thought of feeding them fruits it is better to make sure it contains no seeds and rotten parts. Also, do not give any bad food to them like leftovers or a week-old pasta for dinner. This can make them sick and eventually die if not cured.
Chipmunks like to store food for future use or family to be fed. So if your chipmunks are not eating anything, chances are they are eating somewhere else or want to eat at the comfort of their home.
Store-bought pet foods can be given to chipmunks as well. So if you have a bird or cat, you can share their food with chipmunks as well.
A pro tip to keep in mind is to not feed them too much. This can make them sick and unable to play around thus causing extreme weakness. An optimum amount of food is to let them eat by themselves. If you keep treats or food in a particular place fill it twice or thrice a week as per need. Hence you should avoid giving them easy food as they will get used to it and not do any work. This also causes them to gain weight and become lazy.
To sum it up they basically snack throughout the day and can accommodate eating only vegan food or only a non-veg diet. It depends on what you feed them.
Another thing is that they eat at particular times every day so if you have been feeding them during the early morning hours, they will begin waiting for you to do it every day.
What You Need To Know About Chipmunks.
1. They need at least 15 hours of sleep to function properly. So if you see one of their nests around your place, don’t experiment and irritate them.
2. Chipmunks get angry and have emotions. They even bite when in defensive mode.
3. Wild and natural habitat is their first choice. Hence they are very active and curious to explore around their vicinity.it is better that you also keep them in the wild instead of making them a pet.
4. Bird seeds and peas are the most loved food of chipmunks.
5. Chipmunks are omnivorous. So they can eat from both food groups,e.g, plants, and animals.
What Is The Right Way To Feed The Chipmunks?
Along with feeding them the right food, how easy and fast they are able to reach the food is another important factor.
We recommend you to keep any food that you choose to feed them, in plates or dishes. You can also use disposable utensils if you want to save time by washing fewer utensils.
To give an extra edge and if you have one as a pet, chipmunks feeders are available in the market of different types and sizes that make the job, fun.
As they are very active creatures mostly during the early morning or evenings so you should feed them at these times of the day. Being omnivorous, you have a lot of options open before you to feed them and some human foods as well.
You can keep their food at a place where they can easily reach it like the ground or on a table in your backyard and is also birdproof.
Another thing is that if they are taking away food and not eating before you, it is because of a number of predators they have in the open. This makes them eat inside their holes and burrows.
Final Words:
We hope that you have found this article helpful and found the perfect feeder for your backyard/home. All we need to say is you have to keep it simple and casual with feeding the chipmunks and its ease of getting food from is another big thing to consider.
Keeping them as pets is not recommended since we cannot always give them a rough environment that they are used to.
While you can enjoy their view of eating from these cute feeders if you get an urge to hold them, make sure the grip is very firm.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q1:Are Chipmunks Aggressive?
chipmunks are not extremely aggressive and mostly run away when feeling threatened. However, when they feel the need they might scratch or bite as a protection to themselves.
Q2:Do chipmunks eat peanuts?
Yes, a chipmunk will eat peanuts and other similar nuts. They prefer more fleshy and easy-to-eat foods.
You can feed them shelled and unsalted peanuts but not too much.
Q3:What foods to feed wild chipmunks?
Chipmunks and/or Squirrels love to eat multiple foods including vegetables, fruits, and nuts. You can feed them apples, apricots, peaches, broccoli, beans, corn, mushrooms, almonds, nuts, and seeds too. They also like citrus fruits including strawberries, grapes, oranges, and berries.
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