How fussy are animals about what they eat?

[bitchstewie]

Couldn't think of a better title but bear with me.

Our garden backs onto a sports field with woods at the other side.

Lots of trees and plants and greenery everywhere.

So if you're a squirrel or a rabbit and you get up in the morning and you're surrounded by all that greenery why do you travel several hundred yards to sneak under my fence (the rabbit) to eat the plants in the garden?

It doesn't bother me it's what animals do and perhaps I'm thinking a bit too anthropomorphically but does a rabbit or a squirrel really think "I like the red flowers" and travel half a mile to eat them when there's an abundance of green stuff right under its nose?

[Simpo Two]

It goes to the best restaurant - as you would

[pequod]

Simpo Two said:

It goes to the best restaurant - as you would

This ^^^ is why.

Animals can smell 1000x (ok that can't be proven) better than us, and will search out a food source to their liking even if it means burrowing under fencing to get to it.

Dogs eat grass this time of year too, but only certain types, so they must select through smell, which ones are good to eat?

[Simpo Two]

pequod said:

Dogs eat grass this time of year too, but only certain types...

How did you deduce that?

[ctdctd]

Simpo Two said:

pequod said:

Dogs eat grass this time of year too, but only certain types...

How did you deduce that?

Dogs eat grass any time of year and pretty much any type if it's for an upset tum-tum.
If they are just grazing then yes, only certain types will do.

[paralla]

The entire South London squirrel population go to extraordinary lengths to dig up the plants on my roof terrace (four storeys up) rather than eat anything from the massive park that we back onto.

Im sure they do it just to piss me off.

[Export56]

We occasionally get a muntjac in our back garden, not sure what it eats as they are quite shy and leg it when I spot it. It did however appear to coincide with my herbs being scoffed, it avoided the mint and lavender though.

[Evoluzione]

ctdctd said:

Simpo Two said:

pequod said:

Dogs eat grass this time of year too, but only certain types...

How did you deduce that?

Dogs eat grass any time of year and pretty much any type if it's for an upset tum-tum.
If they are just grazing then yes, only certain types will do.

Dogs eat st so go explain that!

[bitchstewie]

paralla said:

The entire South London squirrel population go to extraordinary lengths to dig up the plants on my roof terrace (four storeys up) rather than eat anything from the massive park that we back onto.

Im sure they do it just to piss me off.

That's pretty much what I'm talking about

A field full of greenery and food but noooooo they like the plants in my fking garden.

[Jasandjules]

I used to gather some of the nuts from the tree and put them in a little pile on a bench so the squirrel would have an easier life. He would look at the ones on the bench, maybe take one, then spend 10 minutes hunting around for another one around the tree.............. So I guess pretty picky.....

[paralla]

My squirrel defences are currently at DEFCON 1.

[Zumbruk]

The same reason the hares & muntjac come and eat my wife's garden plants rather then the hundreds of acres of farm crops we're surrounded by.

The bds.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

My cat often ignores fresh water, but if I was the car and all the filthy brown water is running in the gutter, she'll lap it up!

[Zetec-S]

Despite spending a fortune on proper food, our dog will often prefer to eat the bark chippings in our garden.

[55palfers]

My SiL's dog won't eat broccoli.

Absolutely anything else that has been scraped off our dinner plates into her bowl, but broccoli? No.

[Snow and Rocks]

We're completely surrounded by miles of forest woth all sorts of things growing. The badgers somehow home in on my gf's tulip bulbs and scoff the lot.

They dig them out of the ground, they knock over large plant pots to get them, they climb onto the patio table to get at a pot up there, they even got into an old shed where she was storing a bag of them ready to plant.

Needless to say, there are no tulips in the garden.

[juice]

55palfers said:

My SiL's dog won't eat broccoli.

Absolutely anything else that has been scraped off our dinner plates into her bowl, but broccoli? No.

How funny - our two WHV's absolutely LOVE raw brocolli stem

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

pequod said:

Simpo Two said:

It goes to the best restaurant - as you would

This ^^^ is why.

Animals can smell 1000x (ok that can't be proven) better than us, and will search out a food source to their liking even if it means burrowing under fencing to get to it.

Dogs eat grass this time of year too, but only certain types, so they must select through smell, which ones are good to eat?

This is how good some animals can smell.

I was on a search years ago - very public missing person - and the police asked for mountain rescue and SARDA (search dogs) support.

I got chatting to one of the handlers as we searched and he told me of a search dog hound found a sunken trawler in about 50m of water. I was curious how good they were.

The dog was sat in the bow of a rib and picked up the scent from the decomposing bodies as the gas bubbled to the surface.

Incredible.

[Scrump]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

My cat often ignores fresh water, but if I was the car and all the filthy brown water is running in the gutter, she'll lap it up!

My cats are the same. Ignore fresh water in a bowl and then go outside and drink stagnant water found in an old plant pot.

[Equus]

I think the trick is to shoot all the rabbits and squirrels and replace them with giant pandas.

HTH.