Squirrels - Creating a habitat in your own garden

Squirrels actually live in forests and parks with lots of space and high treetops, but when food becomes scarcer in the cold months of the year, the cute rodents also venture into our gardens to search for food.

With these tricks you can attract these pretty acrobats to your garden and create a habitat for them there.

Squirrels are actually very shy animals and usually live where foxes and owls say goodnight: in deeper mixed and coniferous forests with mature trees that already produce plenty of nuts and seeds. When searching for food, they try to avoid the ground as much as possible to avoid the risk of encountering predators. Only to bury their winter reserves do these nimble climbers occasionally venture out of the shelter of the trees for a while.

"Squirrels," as they are also called, have an excellent sense of smell and can therefore find most of their food even when the ground is covered in snow. Any food that isn't found again begins to germinate in the spring. For this reason, squirrels play an important ecological role, for example, in forest development. Incidentally, it is said that if squirrels gather food particularly diligently in the fall, the winter will be harsh.

The main components of squirrels' diet consist of nuts, seeds, and fruits. However, insects, worms, larvae, and snails are also on the menu.

To crack a nut, the small rodents proceed cleverly: They nibble a small hole in the nut and then pry it open with their powerful front paws.

How to attract squirrels to your garden

If you want to attract squirrels to your garden, make sure you have a well-stocked feeding station and a place to sleep. A nut bar is a great way to start. In addition to various nuts, you can also add some corn, dried fruit, and carrots to the nut bar for variety.

Anyone who has a hazelnut bush or perhaps even a walnut tree in their garden and lives near a forest or park can often observe the climbing masters with the bushy red fur up close during these weeks.

Looking for a beautiful squirrel feeder? Check out our selection of squirrel feeding stations .