What the porcupine eats depends on where it lives and the season.
Porcupines enjoy grass in the spring.
They eat roots, shoots, berries, young leaves, nuts and flowers in summer. In the fall and winter, porcupines eat conifer needles and tree bark. A full-grown North American porcupine has as many as 30,000 quills. It usually weighs 8-15 pounds. Large males have been known to weigh as much as 40 pounds.