Baiting Red Squirrels

rob-nikon

rob-nikon

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I thought I would ask whether anyone has ever used small quantities of peanut butter as bait for red squirrels? I usually use a mixture of good quality hazelnuts either whole nuts (still in the shells) or kernels. I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not due to non natural additives in peanut butter. I'm only thinking of using very small amounts to get specific images but I wont use it if it's not a good idea.
 
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It's easy to buy peanut butter that is just peanuts and salt with nothing else. Grey squirrels like peanut butter but I'm not sure it would work for photos.
 
salt still isnt very good for wildlife though best to get the natural earth no added salted PB if you want to go that route - I assume you want something you can smear on a tree or something to stop them taking the bait and scampering off, if so you could blend up some hazlenuts with some fat , be better than commercially bought stuff
 
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big soft moose said:
salt still isnt very good for wildlife though best to get the natural earth no added salted PB if you want to go that route - I assume you want something you can smear on a tree or something to stop them taking the bait and scampering off, if so you could blend up some hazlenuts with some fat , be better than commercially bought stuff
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The idea is for smearing on a tree trunk to get that 'looking round the tree trunk' look. Unfortunately gravity conspires against using nuts, I really need something a little sticky so it stays up. If I can't find something that doesn't contain anything that's not good for them I won't use it. Like you say salt isn't good for them. As photographers use peanut butter with badgers and foxes I wondered what would be good, squirrels are a lot smaller than foxes/badgers.the hazelnut blended with fat may be a good idea.
 
Personally I don't think I would use peanut butter, you can easily prise hazelnuts into a hole and after a while the squirrels should get better at hanging around for you.
 
I reckon that blending up some hazelnuts with some pine nuts would create a sticky enough paste to stick in tree bark and be natural enough to do no harm to the squirrels. Maybe even stick a few whole pine nuts to the sticky goo.
 
If you by any chance have a food processor, you can blend any nuts you wish into a nut butter. You can buy hazlenut butter from the brand Meridian. That's 100% hazlenut and no salt or anything added
 
Nod said:
I reckon that blending up some hazelnuts with some pine nuts would create a sticky enough paste to stick in tree bark and be natural enough to do no harm to the squirrels. Maybe even stick a few whole pine nuts to the sticky goo.
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I may try that. Maybe some whole pine nuts and crushed hazelnuts in the sticky goo may work well. I would be much happier doing something like that than use peanut butter.
 
Yes but you can get it in big supermarkets. My local sainsburys (a 24/7 one) has it. Holland and Barrett does too
 
Some companies have started adding xylitol sweetener to peanut butter. I don't know the effect on squirrels, but it is deadly to dogs so personally I wouldn't risk using it.
 
My personal opinion would be to keep whatever mixture you use natural as the animals won't benefit from additional additives whatever they are. I'm sure as has been said, ground nuts will produce a paste which will be easy to place into bark and will have no adverse effect on their health.
The problem is we just don't know for sure anymore what is added to things such as peanut butter in jars, anything that could be detrimental to their health and welfare should be avoided imo.
This isn't intended to offend btw, just my own opinion.
 
If the tree belongs to you (or you have the owner's permission) can you drill a few holes in just one or two branches and wedge in some whole peanuts?

Dave
 
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NEVER use peanut butter the high salt content will cause the animals that eat it to dehydrate, why even think of using peanuts in any form, use hazel nuts or other natural nuts they would find in the wild.
 
If you put the nuts through a blender then your subject has to stay and eat them and can be pushed into the bark often,works better for birds.
 
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magicaxeman said:
NEVER use peanut butter the high salt content will cause the animals that eat it to dehydrate, why even think of using peanuts in any form, use hazel nuts or other natural nuts they would find in the wild.
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You will be glad to know I never did use it. I went on the trip nearly a month ago. I decided not to use it but did not return to this thread to say that. I only used hazelnut kernels fit for human consumption (and a few whole hazelnuts too) as I would never intentionally harm a Red Squirrel or any animal for that matter, the health of wildlife is far more important to me than a photo. The reason I asked was because I had heard of others use it for badgers/foxes (along with jam) and wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not. The replies in January and February showed it wasn't a good idea so I followed their advice and didn't use it.
 
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mikew said:
If you put the nuts through a blender then your subject has to stay and eat them and can be pushed into the bark often,works better for birds.
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If I was going to try for the particular idea I had then I probably would try blending up hazelnuts and pine nuts. As I didn't do this I stayed away from the idea I had in mind. Crushing up hazelnuts works in a similar way. My normal practice is to provide a variety of shell hazelnuts, hazelnut kernels and crushed hazelnuts as it gives the squirrels a choice and they can come back for if they please. It's also dotted around several locations too and is only supplementary feeding as their environment has plenty of natural food available.
 
rob-nikon said:
You will be glad to know I never did use it. I went on the trip nearly a month ago. I decided not to use it but did not return to this thread to say that. I only used hazelnut kernels fit for human consumption (and a few whole hazelnuts too) as I would never intentionally harm a Red Squirrel or any animal for that matter, the health of wildlife is far more important to me than a photo. The reason I asked was because I had heard of others use it for badgers/foxes (along with jam) and wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not. The replies in January and February showed it wasn't a good idea so I followed their advice and didn't use it.
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do yourself a favour and don't google for baiting badgers ;) - Jam seems to be a favourite with pine martens, but i'm still not sure its a good idea due to the high sugar content
 
magicaxeman said:
NEVER use peanut butter the high salt content will cause the animals that eat it to dehydrate, why even think of using peanuts in any form, use hazel nuts or other natural nuts they would find in the wild.
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Just to note that not all peanut butter contains salt. Just read the ingredients, you can find a few that are 100% peanuts.

Not all peanut butter is created equal ;)
 
htid said:
Just to note that not all peanut butter contains salt. Just read the ingredients, you can find a few that are 100% peanuts.

Not all peanut butter is created equal ;)
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So true, some just contains peanuts. In any case I doubt that squirrels will get too much salt from baiting with peanut butter and if they do you have another photo opportunity by providing a bowl of water ;-)
 
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