Worried about my wild Grey!!

[puddinpie]

Hey everyone.

I posted a couple weeks back about how I feed my wild Greys that visit my back yard. Well I have that one that comes usually every other day. There is something wrong with him for sure. He is wobbly and not steady. When he runs, ( which he can do that well enough, He is fast )it is just that he kind of tilts to one side when he is running. Well when I feed him ( I have to stand far away from him, he will NOt let anyone or any other squirrels even get to close to him)I have to throw nuts to him one by one. I mean it seems almost like he does not see very well, at least out of one eye. I mean he seems to get where he needs to go ok, he is quick and all, but his balance is surely off. He gets spooked by noise too. I mean today I was feeding him some nuts and all of a sudden a car beeped and he got scared and ran up the back alley telephone pole. I can tell he is not steady though as he was kind of wobbly up there. He did eventually come down and run back across the ways to wherever he lives. He does not live on my block, I do not know where he lives. I think it is in the other block over. He will run through our alley across the street and into the other alley across the way and into someones back yard. Not sure where he goes from tehre though.

He seems like he is getting a tad worse with the wobblyness, I mean that or he is just having a bad day, I dont know. I do not even know what is wrong with him. I had a squirrel that I use to see a couple years back that had this same thing wrong with him. He got steadily worse to a point where he could no longer sit up and eat, he would lie on his side or have to be propped up against the tree to eat. I eventually stopped seeing him, he would not come around anymore :(

I am worried so much about this little guy. I mean I try as I might to look out for him for when he does come around so I can feed him. There is NO way in hell I could even catch this little guy. He seems very leary of everything! I mean when I feed him, he usually goes inside the weeds, well there is no green right now since we are in winter here, but it is just these dead tall weed like things and he sits in there and I have to throw the nuts over the fence to him in that brush.(he does not come in my yard, he stays in the neighbors yard when he comes) That is how he eats. When he gets spooked by another squirrel or noise he runs out through a hole in the gate and disappears( he must go home). I tried following him, but he is a fast little guy, I cannot find him or where he goes. I did catch a glimpse of him running in the alley and through another yard, that is all I know.

I know he must be thirsty but he wont even come close to anything. We have water out for our others than come and they drink, but he wont come that close. iT is like he is leary. What does he have??? I mean I only seen this is one other squirrel a couple years back and I am guessing he died from it. Have any of you ever seen a squirrel like this before???? Any ideas what he has?? Will he die??

[farrelli]

He could have anything from a parasite, to head trauma, to an ear infection, to vertigo. Sometimes it gets better, sometimes it gets worse. I think the best you can do for him is try to provide food, water, and maybe shelter. Any chance that you could put up a nest box for him? If so, maybe you can lure him in and make him feel like your yard is a safe place, maybe then he'd move in. It could take time to gain his trust. I used to live in Chicago, so I know that all that may not be possible. If he gets really bad though, like the other one you mention, perhaps he would eventually be catchable.

[puddinpie]

Yeah, I would love to put up a nest box, but we have SOO many squirrels around here that they would take over the box for sure. He will not even come that close( likely due to all the other squirrels that come around here. We have quite a few. I think he is intimidated by the other squirrels. It is so sad to see really. It would be next to impossible to catch this little guy I am afraid. I mean there is NO way he will go near a trap, no way. He is leary of everything. He will not even come that close to me. He stays on the other side of the fence in my neighbors yard when I feed him. I mean it might be easier to get closer to him if I did not have all the other squirrels here. We get like 10 squirrels that visit us daily. They also like to stay in my neighbors yard as well. When too many squirrels are around, he will run off back to where he lives.

I feel really bad for him. The wobbly squirrel I saw a couple years ago, well he just got worse and one day he just stopped coming. ( he might have died, I dont know). I do try and feed him whenever I see him though. It gets kind of rough though becuase we have so many other squirrels who like to chase him away, or he just gets scared and runs off. :(

Oh, we put water out, but he wont ever come near it. I think due to all the other squirrels around. I even tried putting it next to the telephone pole in our alley when he ran up it the one time. I thought maybe he would take a drink when he came down. No, he just ran off. I pray it snows a bit here soon or rains so he can get something to drink......









He could have anything from a parasite, to head trauma, to an ear infection, to vertigo. Sometimes it gets better, sometimes it gets worse. I think the best you can do for him is try to provide food, water, and maybe shelter. Any chance that you could put up a nest box for him? If so, maybe you can lure him in and make him feel like your yard is a safe place, maybe then he'd move in. It could take time to gain his trust. I used to live in Chicago, so I know that all that may not be possible. If he gets really bad though, like the other one you mention, perhaps he would eventually be catchable.