Coyotes are highly adaptable omnivores with a diet that is about 90% meat but also includes a variety of fruits, vegetables, and other plant matter. Their diet varies depending on their habitat and seasonal availability of food.

What Coyotes Eat

Primary diet (mostly meat):

• Small mammals such as rabbits, rodents (mice, chipmunks, squirrels), ground squirrels, prairie dogs, and raccoons
• Larger mammals including deer (white-tailed, mule), elk, moose, bighorn sheep, and occasionally livestock like sheep and cattle (especially vulnerable young or weakened animals)
• Birds including thrashers, sparrows, wild turkeys, pheasants, quail, and songbirds
• Reptiles and amphibians such as snakes, lizards, frogs, and toads
• Fish and aquatic animals like trout, salmon, crabs, crayfish, and clams
• Insects including grasshoppers, beetles, ants, caterpillars, and hawkmoth caterpillars

Plant-based foods:

• Fruits such as blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, pears, apples, grapes, melons, plums, and cactus fruit
• Vegetables including carrots, corn, cabbage, lettuce, peas, potatoes, soybeans, squash, and sweet potatoes
• Grasses and grains like wheat, maize, sorghum, and acorns

Other food sources:

• Carrion (dead animals), including large ungulate carcasses
• Garbage and pet food in urban areas
• Occasionally domestic pets and poultry (chickens, ducks, turkeys)

Coyotes are opportunistic feeders and will adjust their diet based on what is available in their environment, from rural wilderness to urban settings. They can hunt alone or in packs, with packs capable of taking down larger prey. They also scavenge when fresh meat is not available