They use their long front claws to build their own den if necessary. Striped skunks are nocturnal, sleeping during the day in their underground burrows and emerging around dusk to search for food. They are usually never found further than two miles from a water source. Both males and females undergo periods of inactivity from November until March. Females often remain in their winter dens for the entire duration, but males usually emerge during mild temperature periods to feed.
Winter dens usually consist of six females and their young.
One male sometimes occupies a den with females, but usually lives alone in its own den. The striped skunk is a true omnivore, eating a vast assortment of things including insects, small mammals, the eggs of ground nesting birds and amphibians, fish, crustaceans, fruits, grasses, leaves, buds, grains, nuts, and carrion. What a striped skunk decides to eat depends on what it encounters in its travels, with the diet changing depending on the time of the year and available resources. Females are monestrous, but they occasionally can have a second estrous if the first pregnancy is unsuccessful. Males use their spray to communicate with the opposite sex during mating season and to mark their territories.