Will Skunks Eat Cat Food?

Skunks eat a wide and varied mix of food, and being opportunistic hunters, they'll jump on a free meal wherever they find it. For some, this will mean the carcass of another animal that has died by other means, such as attack from other predators, collisions with vehicles, or even human intervention, such as poisoning or trapping. For other skunks, back gardens can provide everything that is needed to stay alive. Food can be found in abundance, and there are plenty of places to hide out and shelter, too. 

Pet food — cat and dog food — is actually one of the biggest attractors or wild critters. The food is meant to be appealing to carnivores, just like your furry family friends, but that doesn't mean just your family friends alone. Dry and wet cat or dog food left out on the porch is a prime meal for any passing scavenger, and skunks are no exception to the rule. 

Skunks will eat pretty much anything they can find, meat or plant-based, including cat and dog food, chicken feed, and even leftovers and gone-bad food that humans throw out in the trash. Compost heaps are another hotspot for skunk food, and a wide variety of other wild critters, too. Even bird feeders are food to these creatures. 

If you have a cat, dog, or any other animal or pet on your property, make sure that you are not leaving food out. Food is the number one thing that brings wild critters to your property. 

If you feed your pet outside, make sure that food isn't left out overnight, when skunks are most active, or for long periods of time. Many a nocturnal wild critter has been encouraged to forage for food during the usually-dangerous daylight hours, and if skunks know that you feed your cat or dog every day outside, it'll soon know when to come running to feast for itself. 

Of course, knowing that skunks enjoy cat food makes it easier for you to bait a trap, but we do not actually recommend using cat, dog or any other pet food as bait for a skunk in a trap. The cat food is just as likely to attract a cat into the trap as it is a skunk, and you don't have that much control over which creature will end up in there. 



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