Do Squirrels Like Chicken?

For about a week it rained...every day. I watched the rain puddle on my driveway, walkways and lawn. I watched as the rain overtook my backyard, until it was under water. And then, not surprisingly, it stopped raining and the sun came out. And so did I. After a sunless week, I happily traipsed to the garbage can. When I opened the lid, my happiness crashed momentarily. A bag had been ripped open and lettuce and other scraps of garbage littered the inside of the can. I immediately blamed raccoons for the mess even though, they had never bothered my cans before.

And then I saw the chicken bone, broken in two and sitting on top of the adjacent recycling bin.

It didn’t seem that that was something a raccoon would do. It seemed like something a squirrel would do. Which led me to my next thought, “Do squirrels eat chicken? Do they like chicken?” I thought squirrels were, well, vegetarians. Then I looked at the backyard where they normally scavenged. It was still flooded from the rain. How could the squirrels look for their buried food? How could they find it underneath the water? Would they even try or would they simply look for food elsewhere? Like in my garbage can.

According to The All New Squirrel Place http://www.squirrels.org/facts.html squirrels rarely eat meat, but they will when faced with hunger. My backyard and any nut buried in its perimeter was under water for several days. In other words, there was no food for the squirrels unless they hit a garbage can.

I really don’t have a definitive answer on who or what left the chicken bone. There are no cameras watching the garbage and recycling bins. What I can say is there have been no more ripped garbage bags since the rain stopped and the backyard dried up.

And if you know that squirrels really do eat chicken, let me know.