What Do Badgers Eat? Leaving Bites Of Food Out For Wild Badgers

Badgers are small and cute digging animals that belong to the weasel family and are found in their natural habitat, among the wildlife of that region. 

Badgers have a flat, wedge-shaped body with broad feet and long, sharp claws. These animals are very good diggers and love digging.

Badgers are the state animals of Wisconsin, and they are considered an integral part of the national heritage of Great Britain. Badgers have an incredible sense of smell and hearing ability. These mammals have very small eyes with not-so-good vision.

These animals love to eat everything. Badgers can sleep for days in the coldest part of the winter, but they do not hibernate.

A badger can be of many types, like a European badger, an American badger, and a honey badger. Badgers feed on insect eggs, grubs, and earthworms and also like to eat various insect species. So, let’s look at some interesting facts about their diet and eating habits.

After reading about what do badgers eat in wildlife, also check out what do moose eat, and what does a badger look like?

How much does a badger eat?

Badgers are cute, small animals that can eat anything that can be eaten by wildlife. Badgers are omnivores, which means they can eat both meat and plants.

Badgers love to eat earthworms. In fact, earthworms make up 80% of a badger’s diet. These wild animals have sharp and long claws that they use to dig the ground and extract the earthworms they eat. Other than eggs, grubs, and earthworms, these animals also eat some small animals like cats, rabbits, hedgehogs, carrion, insects, rats, frogs, and mice.

Since badgers are omnivores, they also eat fruits, seeds, berries, and other plant parts. The fruits that they love to eat include apples, plums, elderberries, and pears. If badgers live near your house and you have fruit trees in your garden, then they will surely eat the fruits from them.

How to feed a badger?

Badgers are wild mammals with a great sense of smell. These animals can smell food to eat from afar.

To feed badgers, you just have to keep some food in your lawn or garden to lure them. They will smell the food and come to eat it. You can offer them fruits like apples or pears, peanuts, raisins, or even bread.

If you live near the badgers' habitat, you can see them daily by offering them some good food. Not only food, but water is also very necessary for these animals.

Badgers need water not only in the summer season when there is a scarcity of water but also in the winter season when the naturally available water has been frozen.

Baby Badger Diet

Baby badgers eat whatever their mother feeds them. When a baby badger is born, it remains in the burrows for about eight weeks.

The mother badger feeds the baby with her milk for the first 12 weeks until they are ready to come out of the burrow and follow their mother everywhere. After a few weeks, they are also able to forage for food for themselves.

The orphan baby badgers in captivity, which cannot be fed with their mothers’ milk, are not fed with any other milk. There is a special milk formula that is required for these babies.

A baby badger is so small that it needs to be fed with a syringe. Once they are a bit older, they can be fed with a baby bottle.

Wild Badger Diet

Badgers are greedy for food. In the wild, they eat whatever they find edible. If the food is abundant, then they choose only their favorite items to eat.

But when there is a shortage of food, badgers will eat whatever is available. They generally make their burrows in areas where a large number of food sources are available, such as areas with a large number of earthworms or fruits.

The diet of wild badgers also depends on their particular species. For example, European badgers mainly eat earthworms, while honey badgers prefer flesh like insects, lizards, scorpions, rodents like rats, and birds over any other food, and American badgers will not eat the food as soon as they find it, they will keep it aside for later consumption.

Feeding Pet Badgers

When you have a pet badger, it won’t go out foraging. It depends entirely on you for its food. You have to take care of all of its food requirements. A badger needs a lot of freshwater every day. You have to provide it with fresh water and healthy food.

You can feed your pet badger flesh, fruits, seeds, and nuts. You should provide a badger with a variety of foods so it can get all types of nutrients to stay healthy.

When you are feeding your pet badger, you have to keep in mind that these animals are very foody and will ask you for food out of boredom. Excess food can make them obese, which is not good for their bodies.

You should only give the amount of food that is needed and no more. You can also make some play areas for your pet, as badgers are very active mammals.

Feeding Wild Badgers

Badgers may look cute, but they have very sharp claws and teeth that can harm you badly. You may want to see a badger, but you do not want to go near it. The best way to feed a badger is to make a pile of food items and wait for them to come and eat them.

These animals love to scatter their food. They first eat their favorite things from whatever you have given them, and then the least favorite ones. Do not overfeed these wild mammals to the point where they become reliant on you as a food source.

These animals are greedy and will eat until they are extremely full. So, it is recommended that you give them only a little food or a rare treat. You can give them a handful of dried food like peanuts or raisins, but if you feed them more, the more dependent they will get on you.

How to feed foxes and badgers in your garden responsibly?

Earthworms, many types of fruit, and nuts make up a large part of the natural diet of both badgers and foxes. You can keep these food items in your garden at a certain time so they can come at that time.

This can eliminate the possibility of uneaten food, which if left in your garden can attract rodents like rats. You should also keep clean bowls with clean and fresh water for these animals.

When you feed these mammals in your garden, do not give them excess food. This will keep them from their natural hunting activities.

Do not feed them with your hands, just keep the food and watch them eat it. Also, do not encourage these animals to enter your home in search of treats, as they are innocent animals who may try the same thing in other homes.

Others may not like foxes and badgers entering their houses, and this may cause trouble for these animals.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for what do badgers eat then why not take a look at what do minks eat, or badger facts.