Food for Captive Squirrels

Are your looking for a healthy, easy to feed diet for your pet squirrel? Exotic Nutrition's Deluxe Squirrel Diet is the recommended pellet diet for captive pet squirrels. It is precisely calculated with the correct amount of protein and vitamins your squirrel needs to thrive. This diet is made with premium ingredients including walnuts, pistachios, pecans, almonds, pumpkins seeds, dried fruits & vegetables, and high protein pellets. 

Is your picky Squirrel not getting accustomed to a healthy pellet diet? Exotic Nutrition's Squirrel Complete is an all-natural diet made with tree nuts, vegetables, berries, seeds, and squirrel blocks for added nutrition and dental health. This is a great option for providing picky Squirrels with complete nutrition without compromising taste. This diet includes premium ingredients like walnuts, pecans, almonds, and peanuts that your critter with love!

Nuts are beneficial because they offer squirrels chewing exercise. They also provide natural proteins and essential fatty acids, both vital dietary components for healthy squirrels.

Vegetables and seeds are common in herbivore's diet. Since squirrels are predominantly herbivores, sweet potatoes, corn, pumpkin seeds, cranberries, apples, and rose hips are all used in Squirrel Complete to replicate natural flavors. 

Animal protein in the form of dried insects such as crickets, mealworms, and black soldier fly larva are incorporated into this diet. Squirrels in the wild will typically consume a number of insect species as sources of protein.

Vitamins and minerals are added to this diet in the squirrel pellets ingredients to form a complete and balanced diet. If you squirrel tends to shy away from eating the pellets or clocks, it's suggested to include an additional vitamin or mineral such as Exotic Nutrition's Squirrel Booster (multivitamin) and/or Squirrel-Cal (calcium supplement) in the diet.

Natural sunlight for 1 hour per day in an outdoor cage or screen porch during warm months provides vitamin D and will help your squirrel healthy. Another option is to use an open window securely screened with aluminum screening or hardware cloth. Indoors, a full-spectrum light (FSL) for 8 hours per day is the net best option. Although it does not provide vitamin D, is it believe to have other health benefits. Shop our Deluxe Floor Sun Lamp with UVA/UVB lighting.

Squirrels are rodents and unlike human teeth, a rodent's teeth will continuously grow. Squirrels need safe & healthy toys or treats to chew on to keep their growing teeth groomed. The pellets in Squirrel Complete will help with tooth grooming, but it's also suggested to use apple sticks, chew toys, and a pumice chew block to help grind teeth down during use. Shop our chew toys.

Read about unsafe food for squirrels here: Unsafe Foods for Squirrels

If your squirrel is resistant to eating pellets or rodent blocks, we suggest withholding fresh food, nuts, treats, and other delicacies until your squirrel gets used to healthy pellets being the main portion of their diet. Make sure the pellet diet is the only food provided, otherwise they will fill up on the other food you are provided and never have reason to try new things. The biggest mistake we hear from owners is that their squirrels aren’t getting accustomed to pellets immediately, so they just offer another food. From a realistic standpoint, squirrels will take time to get adjusted to pellets if they have been used to fresh food, nuts, treats, and other delicacies. While these foods are fine, they do not contain all the necessary and precisely calculated proteins, fats, or other vitamins and minerals your squirrel needs to thrive. It is similar to convincing a child to eat their vegetables after months of letting them eat non-nutritious food. 

If they do not eat the new pellets at first, do not succumb to giving them nuts or anything else, feeding a diet too high in fatty nuts can lead to obesity and picky eating. The transition into a diet of healthy pellets can take time, but patience and trust in the food is key. When offering a pellet diet for the first time, we recommend feeding 100% pellets for 5 days straight, with zero other food options or treats. Even one minuscule piece of nut can discourage them from eating the pellets because they think they will eventually be offered more nuts if they continue withhold eating. We hear from many satisfied owners about successful transitions, all of which say they persisted when their squirrels turned their head away from pellets during the first few days, and eventually they came around to trying the new diet once they were hungry enough. 

Squirrels are intelligent animals, they will never let themselves starve. Owners should never feel guilty about offering strictly one diet for this short amount of time, it is one of the healthiest diet options you can provide for your squirrels, and you can always return to offering nuts and other variety once your squirrels have shown they will eat the pellets.

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