Skunks are being adopted as pets in most homes. Skunk’s bodies are short, vary in size, and also lighter. It’s normal if anyone owns a skunk as a pet. Suppose you are also thinking of owning a skunk in your home. Must you consider many things like can skunks eat cat food?
Skunks belong to omnivorous species. They are adaptable to different diets. In summer and spring, skunks primarily eat insects and small prey. In the case of cat food, the skunk can adopt cat food as well. But, foods with low fat and crude protein are more suitable for skunks. Cat food has too much protein and fat content, which may harm skunk’s health due to obesity. So don’t feed cat food to skunks.
While owning a skunk at home, there are various things to know about skunks. For ease, we are sharing the information about skunk’s diet we have gathered so far.
Why Do My Skunks Eat Cat Food?
If we compare cats and skunks, they both share the same scavenger traits. It means they tend to kill and eat their prey. But, skunks also can digest starch. So skunks eat plants as well.
As the cat food is processed with organic meat. Skunks tempted by cat food’s smell are absolute. So if your skunk is eating cat food, it’s not abnormal. However, cat food is not good for skunk’s health if cat food is consumed in high amounts as cat food has high protein and calories.
What to Feed Pet Skunks?
Taking care of skunks is more challenging than having a cat. In the wild, skunks eat everything from plants to meat, such as vegetables and small prey. The diet of skunks is different from cats.
As being omnivorous, Skunks require a mix of vegetables, carbohydrates, and meat. A high caloric diet for skunks is prone to obesity.
As a source of protein, you can provide your skunk dairy products, raw chicken, cheese, salmon, or eggs. Skunks also love insects. So you can offer skunks the mice, crickets, worms, or any other insect. Moreover, vegetables are also good choices like broccoli, tomato, cucumber, and carrots.
What Food is Bad for Skunks?
While feeding your pet skunk, you must be concerned about what food is bad for them. Although, skunks eat everything. There is some food; you must avoid giving skunk for their health.
Cat food and dog food are processed to provide high fat and a lot of protein in a small amount of food. Skunks can’t consume a large amount of protein at once. Otherwise, it may harm the skunk’s stomach. Try to avoid cat food until it is the last option.
Other types of foods to avoid are processed ones like potato chips, sweets. Especially those foods containing high sugar and fat. Try to provide the raw food only.
Foods That Pet Skunks Eat
Skunks also require a balanced diet, including all necessary nutrition for good growth, as we have seen what type of food is not good for skunks. Skunks tend to eat raw food more to fulfill their dietary needs, even meat or vegetables.
Proteins
Protein is a big part of a healthy skunk diet. A healthy skunk diet must contain 60%-70% protein. There could be many sources of food for the protein that a skunk will like. Raw chicken is best, and it has a natural amount of protein. Cheese can also be an option for better protein.
Fruits
It has been found that skunks love berries. Skunks will eat any berries like raspberries, blueberries, or strawberries. Other fruits are also good for skunk’s proper diet, like apples, melons,
Vegetable
Eating vegetables by skunks is also essential to balance a proper healthy diet. Vegetables keep good digestion and boost the immune system as well. An appropriate diet of skunk must contain 30 to 40 percent vegetables.
Minerals and vitamins
To make a properly balanced diet for your skunks, minerals and vitamins are required as essential nutrition. Essential nutrients included in your pet skunk’s food are necessary for healthy bones.
Skunks are highly prone to bone issues. To avoid it, adding calcium supplements to the raw meat is a good option. After all, it is for all your skunk’s health.
How to feed a Pet Skunk?
Most skunk owners tried to feed cat food, but their skunk was prone to become obese and have health issues due to excessive fatty content and too much protein.
As the skunks and dogs are omnivorous, Skunk owners considered feeding them dog food. However, dog food is not enough to fulfill the dietary needs of the skunk. Dog food lacks taurine. To fill this gap in the skunk diet, taurine supplements are helpful in skunk food. Calcium supplements are also required to complete a skunk’s diet.
In addition to meat, vegetables are a good option too. A skunk must eat 30% vegetables for their dietary needs. Try to provide raw fresh vegetables. Avoid onions, iceberg lettuce. Both can be purchased from supplement food stores and pet stores as well.
Fruits are also safe for the skunk’s diet except for grapes and avocados. For daily dietary needs, 5% must be included in skunk food.
Skunks under the age of 4 months are required 3-5 meals a day for good growth. For adult skunks, three meals a day is enough for their dietary needs.
Please don’t leave them in the open, as they will eat anything like insects and small prey in the wild.
Is Cat Food Safe For Skunks?
Cat food is not harmful to skunks in the short term. However, cat food is not for skunks due to their different dietary needs.
Cat food contains a high amount of proteins and too much fatty acid. As being omnivorous, Skunks are not good to consume this much nutrition. If skunk continues to eat cat food, they are prone to become obese and suffer from diseases.
What Not to Feed Skunks?
Two types of food must be avoided while feeding your skunk. Toxic foods are poisonous for the skunk. Others are unhealthy foods that impact skunk’s health after some time.
Toxic food includes onions, cat food, grapes, asparagus, and chocolate as well.
Unhealthy foods for your skunk are high-fat foods, processed foods, Iceberg lettuce, and High-sugar foods.
How to know if a skunk has a diet problem?
Being fat is the first indication of bad health for your skunk. The best way is to reduce the amount of food, and naturally, they will lose weight.
Another diet problem could be a lack of calcium if your skunk is skinny and drags its hind leg. It indicates a lack of calcium in bones.
Losing hair by your skunk from the back indicates the lack of improper diet in food.
Lack of taurine in food can be noticed only if your skunk is suffering from a vision problem. If you notice any of the indicators mentioned above, immediately make an appointment with the vet.
Recipe for a healthy skunk diet
Here is a recipe you can feed your pet skunk without being concerned for their health.
In the morning, keep it basic, give a mix of 1 tablespoon of cooked chicken or turkey, two tablespoons of cooked rice or oat, and ¼ cooked vegetables.
In the evening make it a little bit heavy. A mixture of ¼ cooked vegetables, 2-3 tablespoons of cooked chicken or turkey, and 1-2 tablespoons of bread or cooked grains with a spoon of yogurts.
Any commercial skunk food available
Yes, there are skunk foods on the market that are made commercially. But they must be ordered specially from the manufacturer.
You can also order from the Exotic Nutrition Pet Company’s Skunk Diet. The best thing is they manufacture a variety of food for your pet skunk. Also, they provide canned insect food and nutritional supplements for the skunk.
Conclusion
As you can see, skunks are more accessible feeders than cats and dogs. Being scavengers, Skunks tend to eat whatever they see when they are hungry.
In short, as a skunk owner, you have to maintain a well-balanced diet for your skunk to keep them healthy.
Hope this article helped you to know the feeding queries for your pet skunk. If you liked it, share it with other skunk owners. Also, leave a comment too if you still have further questions.
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