I've been asked this many times, so I thought I would write about it :)
The answer is roasted! Definitely roasted. If possible, nuts for humans not pet food nuts. And no salt. Now, let me tell you why roasted peanuts by using my experiment with my 3 balcony squirrels.
If you prefer watching to reading, here is the video:
I always bought roasted peanuts in-shell (human food) because my squirrel *senpais around me taught me that squirrels love them.
*In Japanese, Senpai means a person who is older, more experienced, in a higher social position, etc. In English, it’s like mentor but not exactly. I meant more experienced in this case.
But I bought raw nuts for the first time! Because the nuts from nuts.com were finally running out.
For people who haven't watched my ”Unboxing Nuts.com” quick review, in late August in 2019, they sent me a box of peanuts in-shell, 25lb for free!:
But since it was finally running out, I needed to get some new nuts for my squirrels. Since it's a bit of a nuisance to go nut shopping due to the COVID situation, I decided to order some online. I searched ‘peanuts in-shell roasted, no salt’ on Amazon and found this one:
The FAQ says ”raw” but a squirrel is in the photo and it says that it attracts squirrels too.
I read the reviews and FAQ and people said that their squirrels love them! Plus it was a good price. I thought it'd be a good experiment so I ordered raw peanuts in-shell for the first time. This was also my first time ordering non-human food!
And then this happened -- Sunny, one of my 3 balcony squirrels, the cleverest one, didn't take it!!! She sniffed it but she didn't even grab it!!! This never ever happened with previous peanuts, including the nuts.com nuts. I was like ”what???!!! Don't you want it???” I picked another one from the bag and tried to feed her. But she didn't take that either!!!
So I decided to roast them. Homemade! Fancy right? 😆 20 minutes, 400 degrees, according to the Internet. The colors didn't change but I tried to feed her again after they cooled down. She ate them!!! Ok, picky squirrel! But I was happy.
Then Summer, another one of my balcony squirrels, showed up, so I gave her one of the special roasted peanuts. But she didn't eat it!!! I was like ”Why???!!!” ”Am I a bad cook?” Anyway, I fed her a raw one and she ate it!
I tried the same on Sully, another one of my balcony squirrels. He ate both😂 This made him the greatest squirrel😂
After all this, I thought that the raw peanuts might have mold or something we humans and other animals like birds can't see or smell, that’s not good for them. Summer eats most of the raw ones but not all of them. She sometimes cautiously sniffs them, and sometimes takes them and sometimes doesn't. So I don't know what the difference between the nuts is, but my balcony squirrels definitely do.
I'm not a squirrel nutritionist, just a squirrel charmer, but this is why I recommend roasted nuts. Always no salt. There were only 3 samples so your squirrel might be different, because each squirrel is indeed different.
This is my opinion, then one of my followers commented “Please don’t feed squirrels raw peanuts! It can have bacteria etc.” So I reached out to Kaytee and asked for assurance that the product is in fact safe for squirrels since the packaging displays squirrels and says "for squirrels" & here is their response:
Personally, I think squirrels are smart about their food and know what they’re doing because their greatest teachers, moms, teach them everything they need to survive this tough world. If the raw peanuts are bad for them, they’ll know not to eat them, and actually don’t eat them. When I gave my 3 balcony squirrels raw peanuts, ⅔ of them didn’t eat them. It’s up to you what you want to do with this information, but I just thought I’d share.