Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Omnivorous Squirrels

Today I shot a Starling that was raiding our bird feeder. Later I looked out and found a squirrel eating it. I had no idea squirrels were meat eaters too. Did a bing search and found it is common. The squirrel comes to the feeder every day to eat the seed on the ground, which I don't mind since I would like the see the seed on the ground cleaned up. He can't get to the feeders on a count of how they are hung. Today he found a little extra protein.

That is amazing. I had no idea they would eat a bird. I guess, they really are "rats with furry tails" because a damn rat will eat anything.

Great photo looks like a real camera with a telephoto lens.

Around here, the red squirrels mostly eat pine cones and sometimes, lead.

That's nuts!

Nice pic! I first saw squirrels eating meat a few years ago when we had the 17 year cicadas hatching. A couple of greys were in the parking lot at work picking up and eating the ones that were on their last legs and couldn't fly.

They would munch down for a minute or so, then run and get another.

I guess when the belly is growling, many things look a bit tastier.

They have a reputation for raiding other squirrels' nests, eating bird eggs and nestlings, and anything else they can.

Squirrels, rabbits and even deer will eat something we think is not on their menu. If they’re deficient in certain minerals then eating a starling cranium and brain might be the perfect multivitamin. 😉

Remember seeing a squirrel raiding a garbage can and gnawing on a KFC drumstick.

Local city park had a zoo with some whitetail deer in it. Same pen kept peacocks. In the spring, the peacocks hatched some chicks and a couple of the chicks got their head nipped off by the deer, so they had to separate them.

Fella I know who is a professor of Biology says all vegetarian animals would be carnivores, if they had the ability.

Think about it. Most will eat the afterbirth from having a baby. Lotsa protein and nutrients.

Makes since, just never thought about it. It surprised me when I saw it.

Seen squirrels and chipmunks go after baby birds when I was a kid.
Fuzzy tailed rats.

Well who doesn't like eggs fort breakfast?


I have seen a chipmunk eating a snake, but never a squirrel...

I've trapped a lot of nuisance squirrels, and
the other squirrels will eat on the trapped
squirrel a lot of times. It'll look like it was
run over with a lawn mower

When we shoot them up in Oregon, It's not uncommon to scan back through the scope and see another squirrel chowing down on another one that had met the 17 earlier. Nasty little critters.

Some years ago, I heard a bird squawking loudly and incessantly in a patch of alders. Went over to it to find a robin hen about 3 feet from her nest raising the ruckus. There was a red squirrel in the nest eating the hatchlings.

Shoot a Idaho ground squirrel (whistle pig) then you can shoot his buddies that are eating on the carcus, sometimes several,

Do not know much about tree squirrels. But we have been watching ground squirrels consuming their brethren since we learned to use ground squirrels for off season target practice.

It's rare to have a bird nest in the trees here because of the fox squirrels. What few are built will be destroyed.

Eastern gray squirrels eat a range of foods, such as tree bark, tree buds, flowers,[30] berries, many types of seeds and acorns, walnuts, and other nuts, like hazelnuts (see picture) and some types of fungi found in the forests, including fly agaric mushrooms (Amanita muscaria).[31] They can cause damage to trees by tearing the bark and eating the soft cambial tissue underneath. In Europe, sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus L.) and beech ([bleep] sylvatica L.) suffer the greatest damage.[32] The seeds and catkins of gymnosperms such as cedar, hemlock, pine, and spruce are another food source.[33] The squirrels also raid gardens for wheat,[34] tomatoes, corn, strawberries, and other garden crops.[35] Sometimes they eat the tomato seeds and discard the rest. On occasion, eastern gray squirrels also prey upon insects, frogs, small rodents including other squirrels, and small birds, their eggs, and young.[2][24] They also gnaw on bones, antlers, and turtle shells – likely as a source of minerals scarce in their normal diet.[31]

35+ years ago I was a young kid walking around the Superstition Mountains shooting jackrabbits and cottontails with my .22. Right after hitting the trail one day I shot a running cottontail and thought I’d leave it and return later hoping to find a coyote or cat but when I returned I was surprised and a little horrified to see 3 other cottontails with bloody faces eating their fallen comrade. It was something a young boy didn’t expect to see, I dumped 2 more of those bloody cannibals.

I’m really kinda surprised at the surprise in this thread.
How do paleontologist figure out what dinosaurs ate?
They study their teeth!
Ever taken a look at a squirrel’s choppers?
7mm