Using old Halloween or Thanksgiving pumpkins for wildlife.

Evening folks. I'd like to find if any of you used old pumpkins to feed wildlife such as squirrels, coons, possums, and other creatures. I've also noticed that the pumpkins are used as feeders for birds and anybody tried them that way before? I'm in for new ideas to help fall birds and other creatures to get them through in this world. If anybody has any ideas for pumpkins, please drop in for feedback and stuff to make this column an enjoyable one. Good night.

I have seen people putting peanut butter on pumpkins and the results are creepy. If it was me I would just set out an pumpkin and watch what happens. I did work at a landscaping place and pumpkins that were going bad were fed to cows and they did like eating pumpkins!

Hey there! Welcome! Glad to see you here. You tried to make a pumpkin feeder from an after used Halloween pumpkin to recycle it from rotting away? A pumpkin feeder would be so cool!

Hi Blake,
You can either feed the pumpkin itself, or use the pumpkin as some sort of recyclable container to hold other kinds of food. I have only ever done the first.

Any long squashes/zucchini I would just slice and toss to the chickens. The larger squash and pumpkins I would often cut into 8th's in the shape of wedges, and then toss them in.

We also left two pumpkins (for decoration) out too long and they started getting soft and squishy. One morning I noticed they were missing and went over to look. There was a flat piece left from the bottom of each pumpkin, but otherwise they were gone. All the seeds and flesh and skin disappeared and only a whole bunch of turkey foot prints to give a hint as to what did it.

I think just cutting them in half and putting them out there will be enough. I would put most of my food stuffs in the same place, and far enough from the house that it won't attract mice/rats to the house itself. If you are consistent about putting different foods in the same spot, animals will learn its a good spot to get food and come back to check it.

Where I live, there is a local park where people take their pumpkins on November 1st.  There are thousands of them every year and it's fun to watch the wildlife eat them or the pumpkins decay and help grow the soil.  

I don't do the usual Halloween pumpkinstuff (no kids at home, none visiting then, out in the woods, where we're essentially unseen, etc). I do lots of other things with pumpkin though, and any scraps either go to our mixed flock of birds, get tossed out onto one of the hills, added to the compost, or used for target practice.

Could pumpkins be thrown into the compost pile for worms so they can feast on them?

Blake Lenoir wrote: Could pumpkins be thrown into the compost pile for worms so they can feast on them?

Absolutely! Worms seem to love them!

Blake Lenoir wrote: Could pumpkins be thrown into the compost pile for worms so they can feast on them?

Sure, why not?

Where I live pumpkins are too expensive to just throw away.  To me, $10.00 is a lot of money so I don't buy them.

If someone gave me a gift pumpkin, I would remove the seeds for the wildlife and use the flesh for pumpkin pie.

Maybe I could save the rind for a feeder.

Pumpkin feeders are pretty:


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Could fish eat pumpkins and if they have, what type of fish eat them?

Back to pictures. One of pumpkin feeders are amazing. I'm wondering if I could add suet to my feeder to help draw more woodpeckers, juncos, flickers, chickdees, nuthatches and other winter birds. How I add suet to my pumpkin feeders?

Happy November! I wanna find out if pumpkins last into the winter to feed animals such as squirrels and birds without spreading any late diseases?