After all the kids came and went on Halloween, we brought the jack-o-lantern inside and made sure our guinea pig Cornelius got a Halloween treat too. We set the pumpkin in his estate and let him chew on it for a while. Obviously we can’t let him eat the whole thing, so I cut out some chunks to save and give him for a few days. Then we set the rest of it outside, between our oak trees for the squirrels.
Post Halloween pumpkins are great for compost. You can donate them to community gardens or farms. Some places suggest donating them to a zoo for the animals. I check with John Chapo from the Lincoln Children’s Zoo. He said no thank you to carved pumpkins. It’d probably be better to leave them outside for the wildlife. I know that we have foxes live somewhere near our neighborhood. I wonder if they would eat some. Do you think the pumpkins would draw mountain lions? Would fish eat jack-o-lanterns put in Holmes Lake?