astra
05-21-2010, 06:32 PM
Hi everyone,
I am new to this board, but very excited about joining it because I love squirrels ( and animals in general). Due to my living conditions (city and renting), I cannot have a pet squirrel or rehabilitate anyone. But I hope, one day I will. I live on the 3rd floor of a house in a city and have a rather large balcony that is visited by 3 squirrels. They are grey, but the black variety. One of them is not fully black, but with noticeable brown in her fur. The other has some white/grayish spots on her back. And the third one is almost 100% black - this black one got very used to me, isn't afraid, doesn't run away, actually, comes up to my door to let me know she/he is here. The brownish one knows that I give nuts, but still runs away, and the one with white spots is the "wildest" - always runs away.
I have a few questions to the pros here:
1. I know that feeding wildlife is not recommended and I know why, but my feeding is not regular or abundant enough to make them forget their foraging skills.;-) I have been giving them almonds, chestnuts, grapes, apples. I know sunflower seeds/peanuts/corn are not good for them. What else is good for them?... Should I leave a container with water for them as well?... Or milk?....Will they eat veggies ( e.g. celery, carrots, broccoli etc)?
2. There is a pigeon that comes here, too. This one eats squirrels' almonds! Literally! This pigeon swallows them whole! I was so surprised to see that, I thought those nuts would get stuck in this throat. This pigeon eats all their nuts, while they are still working on one. So, I don't know how to get rid of him, how to make him not to come.He is very persistent and somewhat obsessed with these nuts, because I've had many pigeons come and go, but this one keeps coming back. In fact, he sits on the roof of the house next door, as soon as he sees squirrels, he flies here right away. I don't mind if he ate bread crumbs etc, but he eats these whole nuts! Any ideas how I could deal with this pigeon?
I am going to post some pics - for some reason, the size of pics comes out too large. So I have to reduce the size before uploading them.
Thank you all!
Astra
I am new to this board, but very excited about joining it because I love squirrels ( and animals in general). Due to my living conditions (city and renting), I cannot have a pet squirrel or rehabilitate anyone. But I hope, one day I will. I live on the 3rd floor of a house in a city and have a rather large balcony that is visited by 3 squirrels. They are grey, but the black variety. One of them is not fully black, but with noticeable brown in her fur. The other has some white/grayish spots on her back. And the third one is almost 100% black - this black one got very used to me, isn't afraid, doesn't run away, actually, comes up to my door to let me know she/he is here. The brownish one knows that I give nuts, but still runs away, and the one with white spots is the "wildest" - always runs away.
I have a few questions to the pros here:
1. I know that feeding wildlife is not recommended and I know why, but my feeding is not regular or abundant enough to make them forget their foraging skills.;-) I have been giving them almonds, chestnuts, grapes, apples. I know sunflower seeds/peanuts/corn are not good for them. What else is good for them?... Should I leave a container with water for them as well?... Or milk?....Will they eat veggies ( e.g. celery, carrots, broccoli etc)?
2. There is a pigeon that comes here, too. This one eats squirrels' almonds! Literally! This pigeon swallows them whole! I was so surprised to see that, I thought those nuts would get stuck in this throat. This pigeon eats all their nuts, while they are still working on one. So, I don't know how to get rid of him, how to make him not to come.He is very persistent and somewhat obsessed with these nuts, because I've had many pigeons come and go, but this one keeps coming back. In fact, he sits on the roof of the house next door, as soon as he sees squirrels, he flies here right away. I don't mind if he ate bread crumbs etc, but he eats these whole nuts! Any ideas how I could deal with this pigeon?
I am going to post some pics - for some reason, the size of pics comes out too large. So I have to reduce the size before uploading them.
Thank you all!
Astra