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What Animals Eat Bananas – Detailed Information

You have seen monkeys peeling off and eating whole bananas like cake. Monkeys are only one of the many animals that love to eat this delicious fruit.

You will get wild animals and domestic animals feeding on bananas. When it comes to pets, you need to monitor their consumption because bananas have high sugar levels. Essentially, this fruit is famously consumed by countless living beings worldwide, including human beings.

Banana peels have high fiber content and can be used as a substitute food option for farm animals to get additional nutrients. Many animals eat bananas since they find them tasty and sweet. The fruit is very nutritious for different animal species. Here are what animals eat bananas.

What Animals Eat Bananas?

1. Elephants

Elephants What Animals Eat Bananas
Elephant Eats Bananas via Pinterest

These animals are attractive, mainly on twigs, bushes, wild berries, grasses, bamboo shoots and bananas. Also, the elephant’s diet can include tree bark, plant roots, and even soil.

Like other animals, these animals can peel the bananas on their own. Also, elephants spend a lot of time collecting food and water. As you can see on the animal planet, the elephants can cut down the whole tree to eat bananas.

2. Birds

Birds What Animals Eat Bananas
Birds Eat Bananas via piqsels.com

There are different species of birds that eat bananas. This includes blackbirds, flycatchers, robins, stonechats, jackdaws, willow warblers, whitethroats, and starlings.

Bananas are nutritious and healthy for many bird species because they contain important nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin B, iron, and magnesium and have fiber.

A small amount of fiber in bananas is enough to make them active. In addition, the fruit plays an important role in maintaining the birds’ healthy digestive system.

Because of this, researchers have seldom seen birds having trouble defecating. While this important food for birds is healthy, you will soon discover that not every bird can eat bananas, even though you try different feeding methods.

For example, it does not matter if you let your pet bird eat bananas or use them as an ingredient in other foods.

If your bird loves bananas, you need to feed these fruits in small amounts one or two times in one week to avoid serious side effects. Some bird species prefer to eat mashed bananas because they make them easier to swallow. Geese and crows are other common birds that eat bananas.

3. Squirrels

If you need to befriend the squirrels, give them bananas. When doing this, you should give them bananas using a small amount. Two slices of bananas a day is enough for squirrels.

Nevertheless, the downside of these fruits is that they cannot be fed to squirrels regularly. Bananas offer squirrels low-fat content, protein, potassium, and other important vitamins.

Don’t forget about bananas’ high sugar content level, as squirrels are very small to digest this fruit efficiently and regularly with no ill effects on the bodies.

4. Chipmunks

These animals are small rodents with visible stripes on the body and are a type of tree squirrel. Chipmunks are very clean animals and are omnivores.

The diet of these rodents can include a variety of foods, like seeds, nuts, insects, bird eggs, worms, grasses, grains, and raw fruits and vegetables.

The good news is that dried bananas are the most nutritious foods for squirrels because they are high in potassium.

Over time, however, too many bananas can make squirrels fat. Therefore, you need to feed them with these tasty fruits in smaller amounts one or two times a week.

5. Rabbits

Rabbits should eat as few bananas as possible, just one slice. If rabbits eat too much of this fruit, it will negatively affect their digestive system due to its high sugar and starch content.

The rabbits can also develop life-threatening health problems if they eat many bananas for an extended period. One of these conditions is gastrointestinal stasis, which is delayed by the food passing through a gastrointestinal tract.

6. Deer

The deer diet generally includes a variety of foods such as grass, berries, bananas, young shoots, twigs, bark, and other vegetation. Also, deer love to eat bananas because they are sweet and delicious.

Deer love bananas very much such that they’re attracted to rotten bananas. That’s why these animals often raid backyards with the banana trees for a healthy meal.

Because deer don’t have upper front teeth, they have a hard time eating particular foods, but because bananas are so soft, they have no trouble chewing them.

Also, bananas are much healthier for deer because the fruit has a high level of vitamins and fiber. But excessive consumption of bananas can cause digestive problems in the deer.

7. Rats

Rats are another type of animal that eats bananas. So, bananas are good for rats to eat. If you are now wondering if you can let your house mouse eat banana peels, make sure there are no harmful pesticides on the peel.

Wash the bananas well to remove all toxic chemicals. Also, consider cutting the inside of a banana or banana peel into small pieces to make it easier for a small rodent to eat. However, it would be best to not feed the rats banana skins every day because it can cause stomach upset.

8. Gorillas

Gorillas love to eat bananas and other common fruits such as apples, guavas, mangoes, etc. However, in the wild, gorillas can eat more than 100 different fruits that they find in their habitation.

Gorillas and monkeys have been seen eating a large number of bananas. It is correct that gorillas eat wild bananas, though not as much as most think. Also, other primates, like lemurs, and apes, love eating this tasty fruit.

Gorillas What Animals Eat Bananas
Gorillas Eat Bananas via Flickr

9. Raccoons

Raccoons also eat fruit, like bananas, meat, and plants. Also, they can eat a banana peel because they can extract the nutrients needed from the peel, although they cannot digest the cellulose in the banana peel.

However, if a raccoon regularly eats a banana peel, it can cause stomach upset, digestive problems, or diarrhea.

Raccoons What Animals Eat Bananas
Raccoons Eat Bananas via Reddit

Conclusion

Most of the animals like eating bananas. This includes deer, squirrels, birds, raccoons, elephants, rats, rabbits, etc. These animals eat bananas since they are highly nutritious and sweet. However, you should feed them a quality that will not cause health issues to their body.