Obesity is still the number one challenge mentioned in speaking with Veterinarians who see pet skunks. So today I would like to take a few minutes to discuss portion sizes for some of the most common foods fed to pet skunks. An obese skunk will not live a long, healthy life and will likely suffer from one or more painful health conditions. Read more about obesity in pet skunks here. As mentioned previously, skunks in the wild need small portions of nutrient dense foods. Pet skunks need the same, from foods that are nutritionally similar to what their wild cousins would be getting. I often get calls from concerned owners who know their skunk is too heavy, but don’t understand why. Skunks in the wild do not have access to processed foods or very many simple carbohydrates other than wild berries, limited fruit and their favorite, wild honey. Their diet is primarily insects and insect larvae supplemented with eggs from ground laying birds and left overs from larger predators. Skunks have been kept as pets for a while, but there has not been enough time pass for evolutionary changes in diet from their ancestral diet. This means they have not evolved into an animal that can burn carbohydrates as fuel like humans do. When skunks are fed a diet high in carbohydrates, their body stores the carbs as fat. We know this is true for several reasons. One, a wild skunk’s diet is at least 85% insects and larvae. In […]