Most healthy squirrels are perfectly safe to eat when properly handled and cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F. The real skill is knowing how to spot the ones that aren’t safe, both before and after you pull the trigger. A few visual checks of the animal’s behavior, skin, and internal organs will tell you almost everything you need to know.
Watch the Animal Before You Shoot
Your first and best screening tool is observation. A healthy squirrel is alert, moves quickly, and reacts to your presence. An animal that’s lethargic, stumbling, walking in circles, or showing no fear of humans is signaling that something is wrong. These behaviors can indicate neurological damage from rodenticide poisoning, rabies, or advanced infection.
Rodenticide exposure is a real concern for squirrels living near suburban or agricultural areas. Squirrels that have consumed anticoagulant poisons may show widespread bruising or bleed from the nose, mouth, or eyes. Other types of rodent poison cause muscle tremors, seizures, hind-limb weakness, stiffness, or an exaggerated startle response. If a squirrel looks “off” in any way, pass on it. There’s no way to cook out chemical toxins, so a poisoned animal is never safe to eat regardless of preparation.
Check the Skin and Fur
Once you’ve harvested a squirrel, give the body a good look before you start field dressing. You’re checking for two main things: unusual growths and hair loss.
Squirrel pox (also called fibroma) produces firm, wart-like tumors on the skin ranging from tiny bumps to masses about an inch across. They’re white to gray and sometimes cluster together into larger lumps. They look alarming, but the meat underneath is safe to eat. The virus is transmitted by insect bites and doesn’t affect the muscle tissue.
Patchy or widespread hair loss usually means notoedric mange, caused by a mite that burrows into the skin. You might see bare patches or light scabbing. The good news: this mite is specific to squirrels and cannot infest humans, and the meat is safe for consumption. That said, a squirrel that has lost most of its fur in cold weather is likely in poor overall condition, and the meat quality will reflect that.
Botfly larvae (called warbles) show up as large, raised lumps under the skin, usually along the neck, chest, or flanks. When you peel the hide back, you’ll see the larvae sitting in pockets on the surface of the meat. They look disgusting, but they’re harmless. Cut them away with a knife and the rest of the meat is fine. Warbles don’t transmit disease to humans and are killed by cooking.
Inspect the Internal Organs
The most important safety check happens when you open the body cavity. The liver and spleen are your primary indicators. In a healthy squirrel, the liver is a uniform dark reddish-brown and the spleen is small and smooth.
What you’re watching for is tularemia, a bacterial infection common in rabbits and rodents that can be fatal to humans. A squirrel with tularemia will have a liver and spleen that are noticeably swollen, sometimes two or three times their normal size. You may also see small white or yellowish spots scattered across the surface of these organs. If you see enlarged organs or white spots, discard the entire animal. Do not attempt to salvage any meat.
Also look for unusual amounts of blood pooled in the body cavity, discolored or greenish tissue, or any foul smell that goes beyond the normal scent of fresh game. These are signs of internal bleeding, infection, or decomposition, and any of them mean the animal should be discarded.
Plague Risk in Western States
If you’re hunting squirrels west of the Great Plains, plague is an additional concern. Evidence of plague activity has been detected in wildlife across every western state in the contiguous U.S., with the highest concentrations in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Ground squirrels and their relatives are particularly susceptible.
Plague spreads between rodents through flea bites. A squirrel that died suddenly with no obvious cause, or one found near other dead rodents, should raise a red flag. Avoid handling any squirrel that appears to have died on its own rather than from your shot. Fleas leave a cooling body quickly, so a freshly dead animal can still pose a transmission risk through its fleas jumping to you.
Handle and Dress Safely
Tularemia, plague, and other infections can enter your body through small cuts on your hands or through contact with mucous membranes. The CDC recommends wearing rubber or latex gloves when skinning and dressing any wild rodent or rabbit. This is not optional if you hunt regularly. Keep gloves in your pack and use them every time.
Field dress the animal as soon as possible after the kill. Remove the entrails, inspect the organs as described above, and rinse the body cavity with clean water if available. Keep the carcass cool during transport. In warm weather, getting the meat on ice within an hour or two makes a significant difference in quality and safety.
Cook It Thoroughly
Wild squirrel meat should reach an internal temperature of 160°F throughout. Use a meat thermometer, especially with larger cuts or whole roasted squirrels, since visual cues like color aren’t reliable with wild game. This temperature kills the bacteria that cause tularemia, any parasites in the muscle tissue, and common foodborne pathogens.
Braising, stewing, and slow cooking all work well for squirrel because the meat is lean and can get tough at high, dry heat. These methods also make it easy to maintain temperature throughout the cut for an extended period, adding an extra margin of safety.
Never Eat the Brain
A case report published in The Lancet described a cluster of patients in rural Kentucky with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal degenerative brain condition, who had a history of eating squirrel brains. In parts of Appalachia, squirrel brains have traditionally been scrambled with eggs or added to stews. While a definitive causal link hasn’t been established, prion diseases like CJD are untreatable and always fatal. Cooking does not destroy prions. The risk, however small, is not worth taking. Discard the head or, at minimum, avoid any contact with brain tissue.