Skunk diet
There are many different views on feeding skunks. Some people suggest feeding 90% vegetables, 5% meat or dog food, and 5% other foods like fruit, nuts, cereals etc. In the wild, skunks mainly eat insects, dig for larvae and worms, eat some rodents, frogs, eggs, or carrion. And they supplement this with some plant material and fruit, berries from bushes or ripe fruit that has fallen off trees. They don't raid cabbage and carrot fields.
It is true that many skunks have a weight problem so I guess that is why people feed a lot of veg because it is generally low in calories. But I heard people say that they need a low protein diet because protein makes them fat. Well, in the wild, their diet is very high in protein. But in the wild they have to search for food and do a lot of walking so this gives them exercise yet in captivity they get a food dish placed in front of them. Then there are skunks that are very active and skunks that are more placid which plays a role in their weight.
I don't know how skunks can get all the nutrients they need from a diet that consists of 90% vegetables. Especially if it seems that their bodies are designed for a high protein insect diet. Many people who have skunk kits and follow the 90% veg diet, have skunks that are too thin, have bad coats and are sickly looking. Kits at least should get a higher amount of animal protein.
I personally feed about 50% meat/ bones/ dry dog or "light" cat food and 50% vegetables. Or for my overweight boys I feed 60 - 70% vegetables. I chop chickens up for the skunks but take all the skin and fat off, and they also get lean turkey. I know feeding chicken and turkey isn't like feeding insects but vegetables are not insects, either.
As I said I chop up whole chickens so the skunks get calcium from bones. A lot of people who only feed meat and vegetables feed a diet lacking calcium (and adding yoghurt or cottage cheese doesn't provide enough calcium, either) and as a result a lot of skunks develop brittle bones and suffer broken bones. So a diet of meat and vegetables needs to be fortified with calcium and vitamin D3. Skunks also need taurine which is found in muscle meat and especially the heart muscle. It is destroyed during cooking so taurine may need to be supplemented as well.
I feed fresh veg in the morning (I finally got Tyler and Peppy to eat a wide variety of fresh veg :-) ) and defrosted frozen veg at night. At night I then add some low fat bio yoghurt and supplements like fish oil or cod liver oil, vitamin E, lecithin granules, chlorella and spirulina, and ground salba and flax seeds. I don't always give everything and only started with the spirulina and chlorella when Tyler got sick. I also don't give fish oil and salba/ flax seeds together, one night it is fish oil or cod liver oil and the next night they get salba/ flax seeds.
I've also started feeding cat food. I always read that skunks shouldn't have cat food because it's too rich or fat for them. Then a skunk lady once said that it would make more sense to feed cat food because it's got added taurine which the skunks need. So I looked at a lot of dry foods and compared the calorie content of some dog and cat foods and a light cat food has got approx. the same fat and calories as an adult dog food. I supplement the chicken and turkey with a bit of dry dog and light cat food so they have more variety. At least with the dry foods I can count the calories better than with meat. I read that skunks should get 10-15 kcal per pound of body weight per day so I have been counting calories since to get my boys' weight down. They are not grossly overweight but podgy. And they have lost weight slowly but steadily. :-)
Anyway, I'm still not happy about the skunk diet and don't know how to best simulate a diet of insects. All I'm saying is that there are many different opinions out there so it's best to research the diet of wild skunks and look into all sorts of diets and use common sense when deciding what to feed. Good pages on skunk diet can be found on the Skunk Haven web site (which has a lot of good information about all aspects of skunk care):