Skunks’ Diet and how they get it

If it’s food and if a skunk is hungry, it will probably eat it. Skunks have a wide-ranging appetite and as they’ve increasingly become urbanized, that appetite has continued to broaden – usually in direct relation to the availability of human garbage and gardening.



Both in the wild and in well-populated areas, skunks are relentless foragers and they will eat whatever they can find or catch. In their natural habitat, the animals are virtually omnivorous, dining on insects, grubs, earthworms, small rodents, snakes, lizards, frogs, mushrooms, berries and fruit. If they catch a caterpillar, they roll it on the ground to remove its hairs before eating it. They will deal similarly with beetles that emit a defensive scent until the odor dissipates.

Skunks will also eat the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds such as larks and quail, and they sometimes raid chicken coops, both for the fowl and for the eggs. Unsecured garbage cans provide prime foraging opportunities for the animals, and pet food left outside also represents an easy meal.

Fruits, nuts and garden crops are also high on the menu.

By nature however, skunks are willing to sing (dig) for their supper. Heavily-watered lawns and other grassy areas are ideal habitat for worms and grubs. Skunks have very sensitive noses and they follow them to find the ground-dwelling critters, using their long-clawed front feet to dig them out. While this helps to control unwanted insect populations, it also results in one- to three-inch deep pits and piles of dirt amid the greenery of a lawn, athletic field or golf course.

Skunks normally don’t commence their foraging until after dark and usually return to their dens before daylight, so encounters with the animals are infrequent. In searching for food, they usually follow established routes, staying within a range of about two miles from the den.

Even with the obvious downsides, some well-meaning people may put food out for the animals. Bad idea, since this practice can lead to the skunks losing their natural wariness towards humans and further, lead to a clustering of the animals and the potential for diseases and parasites.

So if a skunk meanders into the neighborhood, leave it alone and it will probably wander off on its own in no more than two or three days, as long as you don’t encourage it to stay. Meanwhile, don’t bother it and it is not likely to bother you. Just make sure you don’t leave around any enticements for it to stay, because skunks can get pretty comfortable pretty quickly.

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