Is mama alive??

[tarheel33]

I have a grey squirrel that has taken over my bird house. She was actively building a nest then I would see her head poke out. Now when I can get close enough to see she is either sleeping or dead. Do they hibernate prior to giving birth?? Or should I assume she might be dead?:sad

[muffinsquirrel]

Gosh - I don't know on this one. No, they don't hibernate before giving birth, but they stay with the babies almost constantly after they have them, keeping them warm and feeding them. As long as you don't see a bunch of flies around, I would just assume she is OK. I hope someone who knows more than I do about this gives you an answer quickly. I will say this - don't get up too close and bother her! They can be wicked when they are protecting their babies.

muffinsquirrel

[Momma Squirrel]

Tarheel33, we had a similiar situation, Momma Squirrel stayed in almost all the time(haywire) we weren't sure if her or the baby(hopper) were ok. She only came out to maybe get some water and very little food. We were very worried and about to give up. About 2 weeks later she started coming out more, we still weren't sure about the baby, then a few weeks later out popped the prettiest little face you ever saw. I guess you just have to be patient and hope for the best. Keep us posted as to the progress.

[Southern Wildlife]

From what I have seen over the years they will stay with the new born babies for several days some times a week or more only leaving for a quick drink and maybe a quick bite of food and when she feels they are ok she will then come out for longer periods of time. We get clients that calls us thinking the squirrels left the attic but a week or so later see mama coming and going on a regular basis, she never really left the first round she was just curled up with her babies.

Regards

Rick Federation
Southern Wildlife Management
squirreltrapping.biz
678-935-5900

[island rehabber]

Hi Rick,
This is a VERY old thread.....watch the dates at the upper left hand corner of each post to see when it was made -- this is from 2006!

However it's a good time for me to tell you about a little Squirrel Board rule: You are more than welcome to post your website and info as a signature in your posts, as you are doing. We simply ask that you put a link on your website that leads the reader BACK to The Squirrel Board.

If you can't or are unwilling to do this, we'll have to remove the specific website info from your signature. I personally am glad to have a humane trapper on board, to whom we can refer people who come here looking for a way to get squirrels out of their attics without hurting them. :thumbsup

[Southern Wildlife]

I will tell the web page person to put the link up for you. Thank you for noticing that we are humane trappers, many think because we trap for a living that we do not love animals, this is far from the truth we try to trap all we can in humane live traps and release to a suitable habitat and when an animal is hurt we have a rehabber on staff. I think we have about 12 squirrels at the moment but that can easily double at any time. If we can help at all we are just a post, call, email away.

[Southern Wildlife]

I asked them and they said it is done and this is the link for you as seen on our site.

http://squirreltrapping.biz/contact-us/

I saw that the post was from 2006 but this same situation has come to us with our business many times around this time of the year so I thought it might be relevant to your readers.

:thumbsup

[CritterMom]

OK, SW, as long as you are here I am going for some free advice.

I live in coastal Maine and my property borders a large wooded area. I have raccoons. HUGE raccoons. I clean up and take the squirrel food inside at night, and dump the water as well. I have no issue with my coonies...except that 3 years ago they decided to turn my upstairs deck into a latrine. There is nothing to attract them there - it is an open deck - but I cannot get rid of them. They don't need to leave - I just don't want them crapping on my deck with their roundworm infested feces! They nest in the woods - I even know the tree - and they travel across the woods to poop on my upstairs deck! Arrrgh!

I have purchased commercial capsasin products that are sprinkled on. Yeah. I have dumped all manner of predator pee up there. I am guessing that a 40 pound raccoon isn't too frightened of coyote or fox pee and bengal tiger pee is hard to come by... I actually made a "bed of nails" - a sheet of plywood with long nails pounded through it on 1" centers that I laid down there (thus turning it into my tetanus deck). I watched the freaking things very carefully tiptoing around the nails, carefully placing each paw down between them - so they could poop in the middle.

Other than hiring a contractor to build a roof over it and enclosing it, is there ANY way to keep them off? I have scrubbed it so many times I just want to cry. I wouldn't mind using my deck and right now I suit up like I'm doing hazmat work just to go out there!

Needless to say I do not want to hurt them and would never reloacte this early - mama has babies (whom she will teach to come poop on my deck I am very sure)... Sigh.

[Southern Wildlife]

Crittermom I will try and help you. First what part of Maine? I lived in Ellsworth for a short time and Troy and Newburg. I really miss it up in Maine.

Now to business how are the raccoons getting on the deck? Do you have stairs on the deck leading to the ground or is it isolated. If it is isolated with no external stairs then you can wrap the deck supports with galvanized flashing so they can not climb up. This should work if no trees are close to the porch or the house surface is no climbable for them.

As far as I know currently there is no known raccoon repellents that are scientifically proven to repel raccoons. Predator urine almost never works.

Is the offending raccoons just the female and young of the year or big boar raccoons also because if it is just the female and young I have a trick that may work but will not work at all if older more dominate males are working the latrine.

Motion activated water spraying devices may work and notice I said may but you will have to have it on a timer so it does not go off when you are on the deck.

It may come down to either removing the den tree, or making it so they can not climb it and don't worry she will use a back up den hopefully further away next year. They always have a couple or more back up den locations. As a last resort they may have to be trapped and removed many, many miles from the current site but this may not be legal in Maine.

Well thats all the free advice i can give the rest you will have to pay for LOL!!!!!

[CritterMom]

I am in the Portland area.

Ugh. I have a number of foundation plantings that are providing access, the worst of which is a curly willow that I and my squirrels LOVE.

This is a small upstairs deck accessible from two of the bedrooms. Oddly, they do not poop on the ground level deck that surrounds the house - only the upper one.

Not sure of the sex and not likely to get close enough to lift a tail! These are rabies vector animals the size of rottweillers with much larger teeth that crap death worms - which makes them pretty much the textbook example of Animals Crittermom Doesn't Screw With! I heard them out there one night last summer and got my trusty flashlight and started peering out at them...one came over, opened it's mouth as wide as possible (which is very wide indeed) and pressed it up against the window I was looking out of. I could see it's tonsils! They were just past the 367 razor sharp teeth I think.

Well you have given me the wrong answer. You were supposed to say "plant daffodils up there - they HATE daffodils" or something easy. I need a carpenter to give me an enclosed upstairs deck...

Maybe marigolds? Nothing likes them...

[Southern Wildlife]

Wish I could have been more help but sometimes an easy or cheap answer is not to be found.

[island rehabber]

Thanks for doing the link, SW. :thumbsup
CritterMom, that sounds terrifying! I have one old spindly coonie who sometimes stumbles up to the cat food I put out for my feral friends in the evening. He's enough to scare me into running backwards into the building. My logical mind knows you need to INGEST raccoon poop in order to get the hideous, deadly roundworm, but my hysterical idiot mind believes it can go right straight to my brain by osmosis from my eyes if I look at him! :shakehead (Won't be applying for a Rabies Vector rehab permit anytime soon.......)

[Milo's Mom]

Thanks for doing the link, SW. :thumbsup
CritterMom, that sounds terrifying! I have one old spindly coonie who sometimes stumbles up to the cat food I put out for my feral friends in the evening. He's enough to scare me into running backwards into the building. My logical mind knows you need to INGEST raccoon poop in order to get the hideous, deadly roundworm, but my hysterical idiot mind believes it can go right straight to my brain by osmosis from my eyes if I look at him! :shakehead (Won't be applying for a Rabies Vector rehab permit anytime soon.......)


Wine snorting here! OMG!! :rofl4 :rofl4

[Southern Wildlife]

Crittermom I have been thinking about your situation last night and today. I have trapped a lot of raccoons over the years and have seen a ton of raccoon damage but one thing I can honestly say is I do not remember ever having a raccoon leave his mess so far from the hole in the tree or structure. usually they defecate just before entering or soon after entering the structure. Are you absolutely sure you do not have raccoons in your attic? If you pay my airfare I will inspect it for free. It will take me half an hour or so and then I am out of your hair and will go and visit my little sister in Bangor. LOL. Let me know about the airfare.

[CritterMom]

Crittermom I have been thinking about your situation last night and today. I have trapped a lot of raccoons over the years and have seen a ton of raccoon damage but one thing I can honestly say is I do not remember ever having a raccoon leave his mess so far from the hole in the tree or structure. usually they defecate just before entering or soon after entering the structure. Are you absolutely sure you do not have raccoons in your attic? If you pay my airfare I will inspect it for free. It will take me half an hour or so and then I am out of your hair and will go and visit my little sister in Bangor. LOL. Let me know about the airfare.

It is *possible* but I don't think so. I have someone in my attic but the comings and goings scream squirrel to me...a tiny noise at about 6:30 PM and another when it is starting to get light in the morning - and dead silent in between. The only possible access is through a "fake" chimney - not masonry - it is just a cover over an old v-vented fireplace that I don't use because I am afraid it will burn my house down. That is on the other side of the house. I would hear something the size of a coonie up there and the arrival/departure times would be different. I watch one big one go to bed almost every morning in her nesthole in a tree in the woods behind my house.

I would be up there myself but it is waist deep in that blown in insulation stuff...

Airfare?? Have you flown lately? OMG...:shakehead

[Southern Wildlife]

The departure times and arrival times could work and remember nothing is written in stone when dealing with wild life. I would have somebody with nuisance wildlife experience check it out. You may be surprised but i would not be. If I am correct then that may solve the problem.