Product Description
Petco Natural Unsalted Peanuts in Shell Wildlife Food - You may ask, why do I need peanuts? If you offer squirrels & other wildlife peanuts it may divert their attention from your bird feeders keeping your feeders full and ready for the birds and not empty from the squirrels.Petco Natural Unsalted Peanuts in Shell Wildlife Food is a high energy food source that is grown and packaged in the USA.Quick TipsOffer a separate feeding station for squirrels and critters away from bird feedersPlace feeders close to ground to allow easy access for critters. Consider mounting a squirrel platform to a tree or postKeep feeders full to help prevent squirrels from raiding bird feeders or nibbling on flowers
| Price: | $6.79 |
| as of Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:47:47 GMT ***Remember, deals price on this item for sale just for limited time*** | |
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #5327 in Pet Products
- Size: 3 lbs.
- Brand: Petco
- Ingredients: Whole peanuts.
- Dimensions: 3.00" h x 10.00" w x 17.00" l, 3.10 pounds
Features
- Natural unsalted peanuts in shell
- Attracts a variety of wildlife to your yard
- High energy food source
- Grown and packaged in the USA
- Ideal for squirrels & other outdoor wildlife
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
By flowerchild
All Squirrel Food Not Created Equal!
Peanuts: Substandard Squirrel Food?
Peanuts, which are not native to North America, are not natural squirrel food. Peanuts aren't even nuts--they're beans! They are lacking in certain nutrients, and their flimsy shells don't make them good for hoarding. As an alternative, give out hazelnuts, also known as filberts, still in the shell. They are acorn-sized, have a sturdy shell that holds up well with hoarding (and in your pocket), and squirrels love them! Commercial hazelnuts are closely related to the ones that grow wild in the woods of the eastern U.S., so it's a type of food that squirrels have evolved with.
There are squirrel feeders and other devices designed to keep squirrels occupied on the market these days. I've noticed that most of them give out peanuts, or have an ear of dried corn available. Dried corn or peanuts are not "bad" per se. But if you are going to make a squirrel perform for you, it seems only fair that you give them something decent to eat in return!
Note: This is not to suggest that other types of food won't work. Filberts can sometimes be expensive, and roasted, unsalted peanuts are usually more affordable.
While ordinary roasted peanuts aren't the greatest squirrel food, raw peanuts may be downright harmful! The following is reprinted with permission from IN A NUTSHELL, the official newletter of the Squirrel Lovers' Club:
Note: This is still much disagreement about the following information.
In the last issue of this newsletter, I printed a letter that appeared in the FORUM section of National Geographic Magazine, March 1996 claiming that raw peanuts are dangerous and possibly fatal if fed to squirrels.
Since then I have received the following article from a newsletter put out by the State of Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife:
No Raw Peanuts, Please!
Don't feed raw peanuts to squirrels and other animals because it can seriously hurt them. That advice comes from fellow backyarder and Eastern Washington University history professor James K. Kieswetter, Ph.D., of Medical Lake, who found out the hard way.
"I had been feeding raw peanuts to my backyard squirrels when I noticed thev were beginning to look pretty ratty," Kieswetter says.
A friend who works in the human nutrition field told him that raw peanuts and other legumes contain a trypsin inhibitor or substance that inhibits or prevents the pancreas from producing trypsin, an enzyme essential for the absorption of protein by the intestine. With the help of a veterinarian friend. Kieswetter reviewed animal nutrition literature and discovered similar problems.
While the exact relationship between the trypsin inhibitor and malnutrition in rodents is not fully understood, the detrimental effects have been documented since 1917. Squirrels fed a steady diet of raw peanuts, soybeans. other legumes, and sweet potatoes could easily develop severe malnutrition.
WDFW Urban Wildlife Biologist Patricia Thompson also reports that there are mycotoxins in raw peanuts that can cause liver, kidney, and brain diseases which unfortunately are seen in many birds.
If you want to feed peanuts, Kieswetter found, the solution is to roast them. According to the Washington State Cooperative Extension Service, roasting hulled raw peanuts for 20 to 30 minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring them frequently, will destroy the trypsin inhibitor and render them suitable for feed. If that sounds like a lot of work, buy roasted peanuts but be sure they aren't salted. (Salted nuts of any kind should never be fed to wild animals.)
Kieswetter has become an information crusader about the dangers of raw peanuts, alerting several local backyard feed suppliers about the problem. He recently noticed an article in National Geographic advocating the feeding of raw peanuts to squirrels and wrote the magazine to set the record straight; his letter was printed in the March 1996 edition.
As for his own backyard squirrels, they're off the raw peanut diet and looking much more robust, thank you!
Since receiving this, I have talked with Mammology Professor Joel Brown at the University of Illinois, Chicago and Morton Arboretum, Dr. Chris Wallen, Behavior Ecologist at Morton Arboretum and our own wildlife veterinarian, Dr. Fran Wilkerson.
The general consensus is that giving squirrels a steady diet of raw peanuts may not be particularly good for them; but that (like most things) in moderation raw peanuts probably cause no problem whatsoever. As Prof. Brown puts it, "The dosage determines the poison."
Best advise is to not be afraid to give your squirrels some raw peanuts. Just try to limit it to a relatively small portion of their diet.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
By N. JOHNSON
I truly appreciate being able to purchase this item on Amazon and so do my squirrels. I always have a constant supply.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
By Judith A. Sandberg
Can purchase cheaper at the grocery store! S&H over the top! My mistake. The quality of the peanuts was OK.
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