The main foods of the badger are ground squirrels, mice, voles, rats, snakes, rabbits and hares if it can catch them. It digs its prey out of its burrow. It often buries all of the escape exits of its prey and digs out the animal and eats it. Few rodents escape being dug out. Sometimes the badger digs out a deserted burrow and waits for the owner's return.
Badgers seem to be immune to rattlesnake bites unless the snake bites their noses.
Badgers eat all snakes. The badger eats any birds, dead animals, and large insects it can catch. It will sometimes bury an animal it has killed for eating later. Sometimes a coyote will free-load a meal on the badger. It will watch the badger dig out a small rodent, wait for the rodent to run from an escape hole and pounce on it.