Cubs begin eating solid food. Lactating mothers stop losing weight, and others are gaining weight slowly. Cherries, blueberries, serviceberries, wild sarsaparilla berries and raspberries begin ripening and become the major bear foods. All bears gain weight rapidly if their natural foods are in good supply. Viburnum berries, dogwood berries, wild plums, hawthorn berries, mountain-ash berries, and hazelnuts ripen.
Bears switch to hazelnuts if the nuts are abundant, otherwise continue feeding on berries.
They continue to gain weight. Berries and hazelnuts become scarce. Bears who are eating acorns continue to feed and fatten. Other bears begin losing weight from expending energy to look for digestible food, or perhaps traveling back to their home range to hibernate. The bear's fur more than doubles in insulative value during the fall in preparation for hibernation.