What Do Skunks Eat?

AshraAbdulRazzaq · July 26, 2021, 11:05am

What do skunks eat? Skunks eat small rodents, beetles, grasshoppers, rats, mice, and insects. They love to eat oily, meat-based baits like chicken and fish. They are known as omnivorous because they eat animal and plant material, and with the change of season, they change their diet.

For humans, the skunk is a problem, and they fear their power and long-lasting odor. Skunks prey on animals that are harmful to humans, so that’s why skunks are beneficial to humans. Many yard pets that skunks love to eat are roaches, snakes, scorpions, and spiders. Based on previous research, a skunk’s diet can make up as much as 65% of harmful insects. Skunks can ingest the following common pests:

Roaches
Black widow spiders
Snakes

Diet of the skunks is based on insects. However, they also love to eat small animals that are weak prey. These include rabbits, voles, mice, and sometimes, a skunk will eat ground-nesting birds, amphibians, fish, and small reptiles.

Skunks will frequently incline toward animals to eat over plants, yet relying upon the season, they may have to depend on scavenging to discover food. Winter and fall seasons limit the accessibility of food sources. During these cooler months, a skunk will depend on any little prey it can get. They will eat food that isn’t fresh and incline toward food varieties that tumble to the ground and are available. Because of these habits, skunks eat decaying crops and fruits that people would not harvest.

These mammals are not particular with regards to eating. They will often strike trash bins, including many of the favored food varieties they look for. Here skunks can track down a steady source of rodents and spoiling food, and they are known to scavenge through dumpsters and garbage bins to search out dinner. It is one of the reasons numerous people have a pessimistic point of view toward animals.

The dietary habits are consistent, and the only changes are in the cold weather months where food can turn out to be scant. Since a skunk doesn’t sleep, they are consistently out searching for a food source and will depend on whatever they can discover. They frequently eat the first thing they come across and proceed onward to discover additional sources of sustenance. Skunks won’t go after any bigger animal, so they are not feared by many.

Natural Diet for Captive Skunks

Wild skunks don’t make great pets, yet hand-raised tamed skunks can be engaging, docile, and adoring. Skunks are omnivores who will eat pretty much anything. In the wild, skunks are inclined to scavenge through trash, and the diet can be quite eclectic. But in captivity, you need to guarantee a varied healthy diet.

Protein

Skunks should be offered an assortment of proteins; meats and dairy should add up to around 60 to 70 percent of the eating routine. Chicken and boiled eggs can be offered raw, boiled, or scrambled - with or without the shell. Offer crude chicken or marrow bone once per week. Canned salmon or sardines are top choices. However, you need to stay away from can fish. Cheese is an incredible source of protein and vitamin D. You can offer crickets, mealworms, super worms, and frozen pinkie mice. Hulled and crude nuts, like almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and walnuts, are high in proteins and fats.

Vegetables

Vegetables ought to be 29% to 39 percent of the diet. You can offer a huge amount of vegetables and greens. Offer most vegetable crude or frozen. Choose broccoli, cauliflower, yellow squash, zucchini, bell peppers, green beans, snap peas, carrots, eggplants, radishes, turnips, beets, cucumbers, and tomatoes. You can cook and offer potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and oak seed squash, but offer these things a few times a month and only after cooking them. Limit bean sprouts. You can offer healthy greens, including spinach, red cabbage, romaine lettuce, kale, and endive.

Fruits

Fruits are beneficial to offer a captive skunk. Skunks like berries - raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries - however, offer cranberries just occasionally. Other fruits you may offer include pears, apples, bananas, and melons.

Fats

Fatty acids and fat help keep a skunk’s healthy skin and coat. Nuts, seeds, poultry, soybean oil, additional virgin olive oil, and coconut oil will help give unsaturated fats and omegas. You need around 25% to 30 percent of your calorie intake from fats.

Vitamins and Minerals

A varied diet will give fundamental nutrients and minerals; get your vet’s input if you think supplements are required. For supplements, visit your nearby wholefoods store instead of offering supplement items intended for general captive pets. Calcium is fundamental for many body functions, as well as bone development. Skunk Vet Care says a captive skunk can endure low bone density, bone prods, joint pain, and fused bones when calcium supplements are offered without different sources of calcium, like crude chicken neck or cheese. Vitamin D is fundamental, often consumed naturally in eggs, fish, and sustained dairy. If your vet OKs it, offer a 100 IU dose of D3 at least four times a week. Taurine is an insignificant amino acid, but a taurine supplement might be fundamental if you offer a low-protein diet.

Nutrition-Related Health Problems

Most pet skunks live just around five years in captivity, but their natural life expectancy in the wild ought to be at least 10 to 15 years. Without a healthy diet, pet skunks often experience the ill effects of heftiness, diabetes, kidney illness, and malignancy. A healthy, varied diet will diminish the risks of these nutrients and diet-related ailments. Avoid processed foods and dog/cat kibble.

Skunk Diet

Animals	Plants	Insects	Others
Small Mammals	Berries	Wasps	Human Garbage
Lizards	Nuts	Honey bees	Pet food
Frogs	Leaves	Grubs	Bird Feeders
Snakes	Grass	Earthworms	Skunk bait
Fish	Fungi	Larvae

What do skunks eat?

Here is a briefly explained what skunks eat. :

ANIMALS

In animals, skunks eat the following:

Small mammals – Skunks often eat rats, mice, and other small mammals, especially in the wintertime.

Lizards and salamanders – Skunks get most of the protein from small lizards like skinks, salamanders, or anoles.

Frogs – Skunks will make a diet out of pretty much anything more modest than they are, including frogs and amphibians.

Snakes – Skunks will even chase and eat venomous snakes since skunks are insusceptible to snake venom.

Fish – Skunks lean toward hunting on land. However, they will eat fish occasionally. If you have a goldfish pond, search out for skunks.

Birds – Skunks don’t generally eat flying birds unless they get the drop on them, but they have a reputation with chickens.

Eggs – Skunks are popular egg thieves and will snatch any they can, particularly chicken eggs, if they get into the coop.

PLANTS

In plants, the skunks eat the following:

Berries and nuts – Skunks like eating many kinds of berries and nuts, like walnuts, pecans, and hickory nuts.

Fungi, Leaves, and grass – Skunks eat large amounts of greens, some roots, and fungi like wild mushrooms to balance their diet.

OTHER

Human garbage – Skunks, like raccoons and other night-rummaging creatures, will get into your garbage cans and wreck while looking for food.

Pet food – Cat and dog food is a source of food for skunks because the urban skunks become more dependent on individuals for food.

Bird feeders – Skunks are also known to be typical bird feeder pests. Ensure you utilize a baffle on your bird feeder pole!

Skunk bait – If you are attempting to trap a skunk or skunk that has become a bug in your yard, individuals have had accomplishment with canned cat food, tuna fish, sardines, crisp bacon, or bread with peanut butter.

INSECTS

In insects, the plants eat the following:

Wasps and honey bees – Skunks are one of the essential hunters of honey bees. Mother skunks will help their young how to scratch the bee colony and eat the honey bees that come out to research the uproar.

Grubs, earthworms, and larvae – Skunks can often be seen digging holes chasing for worms, grub worms, and bug larvae.

Crickets, beetles and other little insects – When it comes to invertebrates like crickets, beetles and other little insects, skunks aren’t demanding. They will eat any bug or worm.

Frequently Asked Question

Here are some often-asked questions about “what do skunks eat?”.

Q1. What do skunks eat at night?

Skunks are nighttime, easygoing, and naturally non-aggressive; they incline toward little animals and bugs for dinner instead of your garden. They occasionally visit gardens, which might be because maize or other plants are near the ground.

Q2. Do Skunks eat cats?

Skunks don’t feed on cats either; in any case, they may eat little cats that are left unprotected. It implies that owners of little cats should be alerted of skunks. Even though skunks do not directly feed on pets such as dogs and cats, they can do considerable harm to them.

Q3. What is skunks’ favorite food?

Skunks’ favorite food is meat, but they will also eat vegetables and plants. Some other common food Sources are small animals, insects, eggs, birds, poultry, worms, berries, grubs, and grasshoppers are also common food sources. Skunks also like honey and foods with a strong odor.

Q4. What do skunks hate?

Skunks hate certain odors, although it seems ironic. Ammonia, Citrus, predator urine, and mothballs (dog, coyote, etc.) are some smells that skunks hate. If you use mothballs or cotton balls doused in ammonia, keep them out of the reach of youngsters.

Q5. Can skunks climb?

For digging, skunks have long claws and sharp teeth. They are short-sighted but have a keen sense of hearing and smell. The stripy skunk is not a good climber. Although it can climb fences, wire mesh, and boards, it rarely climbs trees. In climbing, long nails are an absolute handicap.

Q6. Where do skunks nest?

The typical skunk hole has many entrances. Skunks also nest in locked places like under bushes, hollow logs, woodpiles**,** open prairies, under porches, culverts, sheds, basements, garages, and abandoned or incomplete buildings.

Q7. What natural skunk repellent is there?

Boil a chopped onion
A chopped jalapeno
In 2 quarts of water, one tablespoon of cayenne pepper for about 20 minutes.
Into a spray bottle, Strain the liquid.
To make skunks steer clear of squirt plants.
Each dose should last up to five-six days

Q8. What is the best skunk repellent?

The top best five skunk repellents are the following:

Peppermint Essential Oil 4 oz.
Natural Armor Animal
Animal Repellent Granules.
Clever sprouts Dog Cat Repellent.
Ultrasonic Animal Repellent.
Motion Activated Pests Repeller.

Q9. How deep do skunks dig?

Skunks have short legs, which allow them to dig under a foundation no less than 2 feet deep to access crawl spaces. Try not to be astonished; even though you don’t smell a skunk, a skunk lives in your home.

Q10. Where do skunks keep their babies?

Skunks generally have a solitary litter of four to six children in May-June; skunks in old woodchuck tunnels, empty logs, wood or rock piles, or under buildings and stone walls. The young stay in the den for around two months.

Conclusion

What do skunks eat? Skunks love to eat meat-based things and eat small rodents, insects, crickets, beetles, grasshoppers, grubs, mice, and rats. They consume both vegetation and animals but prefer the latter. Humans are terrified of the skunk’s strength and lingering stink.