All other digits terminate in curved claws that are useful in digging. Woodchuck incisors are ever-growing and heavily constructed with the anterior faces ivory or yellowish ivory in color, lacking the dark yellow pigmentation of other rodents. If incisors are not worn down properly by occluding with the tooth opposite them in the course of chewing, they may continue to grow with often fatal results. Malocclusion of the incisors is frequently observed. They are primarily grazers, eating the vegetative parts of plants unlike other scuirids, which feed on reproductive parts such as seeds, nuts, and flowers.
Woodchucks often sit on their haunches and pull plants over with their forepaws.
In early spring, when green vegetation is sparse, woodchucks may eat the bark, buds, and twigs of plants such as dogwood, sumac, black cherry, and other fruit trees. Favorite foods include grasses and forbs, clover, leaves of sassafras and other trees, and numerous herbs. Woodchucks are also partial to farm crops especially alfalfa, planted clover, corn, oats, and assorted fruits and vegetables. Reproduction Breeding takes place in early spring. Female woodchucks are monoestrus, mating soon after they emerge from hibernation in April.