Strange mother behavior

[squirrellyk]

I raised a family of baby squirrels that are now 2 years 7months old now. One of the females had 7 babies in my house as she had been severely attcked in January and needed medical attention to survive. She was pregnant went I took her in and she had no desire to go back out. Anyway she moved the babies the very first day to another nest box. The problem is...she now carries them around the house in her mouth and cuts their bellies in the process as they are now 5 weeks3days old. Today she cut one so severely it died an hour ago. I would like to know what this behavior is as there are no "predator" threats. I can put her outside early in the day as she does this most days now anyway. She comes in periodically to feed them. Any other suggestions other than separating her from them.Iwant her to train them to be outside wild squirrels when older. Any help would be greatly appreciated.:thankyou

[island rehabber]

Wow this is a strange one...poor baby, and poor stressed out mom. Is it possible that your mamma squirrel still believes whatever attacked her is somewhere in the house, or in the area, and that's why she keeps moving her babies? If she was attacked by a dog or cat, for example, is there one (or the same one, God forbid!) still nearby? This is a tough one..it just seems as if she can't rest. She feels as if her nest is not safe -- or not safe all the time, so she keeps "protecting" her babies.....

[thundersquirrel]

keep her calm. when our squirrel had babies, she also gave them minor cuts. that was when she was afraid and would jump around a bit and accidentally step on them with her big claws.
maybe it's her teeth. make sure she's gnawing on stuff, plenty of hard nuts and such.
maybe her brain has been affected from the injuries. that's what happened with our squirrel, and i think that's why she let her babies die. :sad

stay nutty :crazy
thundersquirrel