Evelyn Moore
Just like watching birds, watching squirrels in your backyard can also be relaxing and fun. All you need for this is a squirrel feeder and some food for your new friend. If you ever wonder what they like to eat, this article may help you.
There are people who are against feeding squirrels, especially in the backyard. While feeding from the hand can be impracticable if you have a squirrels feeder it can be a fantastic thing. Keep away bird feeders if you decide to let squirrels in your backyard. The main reason is that squirrels will eat all food and maybe destroy feeders.
Always give them simple access to water. Like any other animal, squirrels also need water and in some feeders, you have a special place for water, so think about that when buying. Take care of hibernation as well, and by that we mean ensure enough food or food resources for squirrels.
In our separate article, you can learn about methods of attracting squirrels.
What is best for squirrels?
Most people will nourish squirrels with corn or table scraps. Squirrels are not too picky about food and will eat it gladly, but there are more food way better for them.
Nuts, for example, are ideal squirrel food. If you have a tree with nuts even better, if not maybe you should plant one or two? Keep in mind that some nuts aren't good for squirrels. Hazelnuts, walnuts, and butternuts are a very good choice while raw peanuts are better to avoid.
Squirrels like to eat fruit and vegetables too. They like climbing around trees and snatching food, you can also leave out tiny pieces of fruit like apples, grapes, or strawberries.
Squirrels will eat almost every vegetable in your garden if you have one so offer them some broccoli, carrots, or peas. Seeds are also an option, but not in large quantities, you can leave out pumpkin semen after pumpkin fretwork. 
Other food squirrels will eat
Although it's well known that squirrels prefer plants, they will go for bones too as a great source of calcium for them. Think carefully before this idea, especially if you already have a dog. Insects also can be on the menu if there are no enough nuts, fruits, or vegetables. Squirrels will eat caterpillars, bugs, and crickets. You can plant some fungi as squirrels like it too.
Avoid these foodstuffs in the squirrel diet
Human junk food, things like chips candy and other processed food have low nutritional value so it's not the best for these little animals. If it doesn't grow in nature, probably it won't be good for wildlife, remember that. Although most nuts are good for squirrels, that's not the case with peanuts. Raw peanuts, for example, may contain mushrooms that can hurt animals.
Niger seeds are also on this list. They haven't any bad influence, squirrels simply don't like them. We will finish this chapter with corn. Just like niger seeds, corn can be used but it's in the main junk food for squirrels. You can combine corn with other earlier mentioned and recommended food.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, we can determine that squirrels are opportunistic eaters and probably will eat anything you give them. However, if you already buy a feeder for them you will take care of what to put inside it so try with nuts, fruits, and vegetables as their primary food.
