Skip to content
Grow In Backyard
Squirrels & Wildlife

Do Squirrels Keep Food in Their Cheeks? Chipmunks More So

Tree squirrels carry food in the mouth; chipmunks have true expandable pouches holding dozens of seeds. The difference, and why it matters.

By Salma 2 min read Save to Pinterest — opens Pinterest in a new tab
A grey squirrel sitting on a mossy log, holding a nut in both front paws with its cheeks flat
Photo: JonPauling, Pixabay Content License, via Pixabay
On this page

Tree squirrels carry nuts in their teeth, one at a time. The bulging-cheek trick belongs to chipmunks and ground squirrels, and it follows directly from how each animal stores food.

Who has what

animalcheek pouchescarries
Grey, red, fox squirrelnoone item, in the teeth
Chipmunkyes, internaldozens of seeds
Ground squirrelyes, internalmany seeds
Flying squirrelnoin the teeth

Why the strategies differ

chipmunktree squirrel
Storageone larder, undergroundthousands of scattered caches
Trips neededfew, heavymany, light
Time in the openminimisedunavoidable
Cost of losing the storecatastrophicnegligible
Pouches usefulverynot at all

A robbed chipmunk may not survive winter

The whole winter is one burrow store, eaten during periodic wakings from torpor. That is why the pouches exist — the fewer trips across open ground, the better the odds — and why a squirrel raiding that larder in October is so serious.

Why sticky food is a problem

Pouches empty by the animal pushing forward with its forepaws. Anything that adheres — peanut butter, bread turned to paste, sugary foods — can lodge, block the pouch and cause infection. A chipmunk with an impacted pouch cannot feed properly and will not recover without intervention.

  • Nuts in the shell pass cleanly
  • Dry seed passes cleanly
  • Peanut butter and bread do not
  • Anything sugary risks both impaction and gut disruption

The widening head is the identification

No tree squirrel can swell its face sideways. If the head looks twice its normal width, you are watching a chipmunk or a ground squirrel — and the facial stripes will tell you which.

Common questions

Do squirrels have cheek pouches?

Tree squirrels — greys, reds and fox squirrels — do not have true cheek pouches. They carry food in the mouth and between the teeth, usually one nut at a time, which is why you see a squirrel running with a single acorn visible in its jaws. Chipmunks and ground squirrels do have genuine internal cheek pouches, which expand enormously and are the reason a chipmunk's head can appear to double in width.

How much can a chipmunk actually carry?

A great deal relative to its size. Reports commonly describe chipmunks carrying dozens of seeds at once, and in some accounts in excess of a hundred small items such as sunflower seeds, with the pouches distending to roughly the width of the head. The pouches run from the cheeks back along the jaw, and the animal empties them by pushing forward with the forepaws.

Why do chipmunks have them and tree squirrels not?

It follows from how each stores food. A chipmunk larder-hoards — one concentrated store underground — so it needs to move large quantities quickly from a food source to the burrow, and every trip across open ground is a predation risk. A tree squirrel scatter-hoards, burying nuts one at a time across a wide area, so carrying one item per trip is exactly what the strategy requires.

Do squirrels ever store food in their mouths overnight?

No. Carrying is transport, not storage. A tree squirrel buries each nut in a separate shallow cache within minutes; a chipmunk empties its pouches into the burrow chamber. Food left in a cheek pouch would spoil and, in chipmunks, pouches that fail to empty properly become impacted — a genuine veterinary problem in captive animals.

Can cheek pouches get injured?

Yes, and impaction is the usual issue. A sticky or sharp item can lodge, the pouch becomes blocked and infected, and the animal cannot feed properly. It is one of the arguments against offering sticky foods such as peanut butter to garden wildlife, and against bread, which turns to paste. Nuts in the shell and dry seed pass through pouches cleanly.

Which am I watching, then?

Look at the face. A chipmunk has dark and light stripes running through the eye and across the cheek, and when loaded the head looks comically wide. A tree squirrel has no facial stripes and carries visibly, in the teeth. If the head has swollen sideways, it is a chipmunk or a ground squirrel — no tree squirrel can do that.

Backyard Weekly

Know what to plant, week by week

Join the weekly email for seasonal jobs, fixes for what is going wrong, and gear worth buying.

Not ready to subscribe? The planting calendar is free and needs no email.

By subscribing you agree to our privacy policy. Grow In Backyard will never sell your address.

Keep reading