Buddy's Mom
05-03-2013, 01:40 PM
I have a baby squirrel (approx 3 week old) that I have been trying to reunite with the mother. The difficulty is that the tree was cut down and totally removed. There is absolutely no tree to put the squirrel under. There are many squirrels in the area. This is not my home where this happened, it was turned in to the wildlife center and I volunteered to try to reunite it and temporarily foster it.
I originally spent the first two days trying to reunite the mom and monitored and watched at the area near the cut tree where they have a feeder and all the neighborhood squirrels seem to gather. I was in a parked car, not out in the open. I also inadvertently tthought I found the mother squirrel and her nest (had nipples hanging when she crossed the street. This squirrel had a nest in the neighboring yard that backed up to the house where the tree was cut down.
I put the bab(ies) under the new tree and the mother checked or seemed interested in what was in the box, but there was a lot of activity and she never took the baby but did seem highly interested. I believe she has at least one baby in the nest. Police showed up twice to check on what I was doing even though I had the homeowners permission, but the neighbors on this particular street were quite obnoxious. Anyway, I'm gun shy because a terrible tragedy happened while I was distracted explaining to the police what I was doing there. During those few minutes, another squirrel came up to the box and killed two of the babies (very early 7:45 am, mom doesn't get up and about until 10:00 am). It was cold and even though I had a rice pack in the box, they didn't make a sound, so even though mom didn't know they were there, she also wasn't alerted by any cries.
I have been caring for the remaining baby and it is doing well, but I would still prefer to reunite it with the mother and will still make an effort if anyone knows that a mother squirrel will still take her baby even after several days. Today is one week since the tree was cut. Our weather is "crappy" today and I know it isn't worth it unless the weather is somewhat nice. The squirrels came out in groves earlier this week when the weather was warm.
I have researched this topic and it seems some squirrels will even adopt orphan squirrels if they are related. Something to do with their DNA and being able to tell when it is a relative. This implies that a mother may still recognize her young if given the opportunity.
This has been an extremely difficult attempt for reuniting. I have spent over 60 hours in this attempt and physically being there to monitor from a distance. The monitoring has given me good insight into the fact that there are a ton of squirrels in this location and I still believe the mother that moved to the new next is this babies mother, I have seen her in the area of the original nest location. There are about 10 squirrels that play in the backyard together and she was one of them. Problem was no one noticed the baby because it is so quite and not making a sound when I've left it out. I am also quite fearful that the rough killer squirrel will find my remaining baby. If weather improves and anyone has positive thoughts on this, I will probably make another attempt and put the baby immediately under the tree I have seen the largest number gather for play and hope the killer squirrel does not return.
Can anyone offer any advice or help?
Thank you,
Buddy's Mom
I originally spent the first two days trying to reunite the mom and monitored and watched at the area near the cut tree where they have a feeder and all the neighborhood squirrels seem to gather. I was in a parked car, not out in the open. I also inadvertently tthought I found the mother squirrel and her nest (had nipples hanging when she crossed the street. This squirrel had a nest in the neighboring yard that backed up to the house where the tree was cut down.
I put the bab(ies) under the new tree and the mother checked or seemed interested in what was in the box, but there was a lot of activity and she never took the baby but did seem highly interested. I believe she has at least one baby in the nest. Police showed up twice to check on what I was doing even though I had the homeowners permission, but the neighbors on this particular street were quite obnoxious. Anyway, I'm gun shy because a terrible tragedy happened while I was distracted explaining to the police what I was doing there. During those few minutes, another squirrel came up to the box and killed two of the babies (very early 7:45 am, mom doesn't get up and about until 10:00 am). It was cold and even though I had a rice pack in the box, they didn't make a sound, so even though mom didn't know they were there, she also wasn't alerted by any cries.
I have been caring for the remaining baby and it is doing well, but I would still prefer to reunite it with the mother and will still make an effort if anyone knows that a mother squirrel will still take her baby even after several days. Today is one week since the tree was cut. Our weather is "crappy" today and I know it isn't worth it unless the weather is somewhat nice. The squirrels came out in groves earlier this week when the weather was warm.
I have researched this topic and it seems some squirrels will even adopt orphan squirrels if they are related. Something to do with their DNA and being able to tell when it is a relative. This implies that a mother may still recognize her young if given the opportunity.
This has been an extremely difficult attempt for reuniting. I have spent over 60 hours in this attempt and physically being there to monitor from a distance. The monitoring has given me good insight into the fact that there are a ton of squirrels in this location and I still believe the mother that moved to the new next is this babies mother, I have seen her in the area of the original nest location. There are about 10 squirrels that play in the backyard together and she was one of them. Problem was no one noticed the baby because it is so quite and not making a sound when I've left it out. I am also quite fearful that the rough killer squirrel will find my remaining baby. If weather improves and anyone has positive thoughts on this, I will probably make another attempt and put the baby immediately under the tree I have seen the largest number gather for play and hope the killer squirrel does not return.
Can anyone offer any advice or help?
Thank you,
Buddy's Mom