how long can a porcupine survive without water?

Question

We recently moved into a new build home in Colorado. During construction we noticed a lot of wood looking chewed on throughout.. but thought it was from lumber yard before being installed. Windows, doors etc were left wide open, sometimes overnight! Our home backs to an open prairie being used as farm land.

moving in, we are now hearing what sounds like a large animal in between floors, & in attic.. but there's no broken vents or possible entrances on exterior of our home for it to be there. Our siding is a cement mix etc There's also not typical feces or torn up insulation, or insulation trails in our attic.. only chewed wood! A wood eating /chewing animal having access to our homes structure is TERRIFYING.

How long can a porcupine survive, hypothetically, without water and only eating construction wood?!

Answer 1

Hello, to answer your main question a North American porcupine cant last very long without access to any water ( a couple days to a week). For the food part a porcupine cannot survive solely on construction wood, a healthy porcupine will eat berries and seeds during summer months as well as bark. However I am unsure that a porcupine would be in your house, North American porcupines are big, between 15-25lbs. I would be surprised if one was living in your attic and in between floors. I would recommend having a local exterminator look at it as my best guess it is some other pest.

I hope this helps and best of luck on your issue.