RobinTN
04-24-2015, 04:57 PM
So I just saw this poor kid for the 1st time about an hour ago, driving home thru my neighborhood. My 8yo was with me, and even she noticed the poor thing didn't look right. We were able to watch him(?) and saw him enter and exit a tree hollow which we're assuming is his drey. Poor thing was SO PITIFULLY THIN, just all angular and bony, and his fur was extremely sparse. Not patchy, just really thin and short, and the tail was maybe a third what it should be. He looked to be a young adult or teenager, but with the fur so 'off' it would be hard to say. He wasn't really small, per se, just so dang skinny. I wish I could've gotten some pics, but my phone was in the back seat... figures.
This is in a residential neighborhood, full of fat fluffy thriving squirrels. I would wonder about parasites, but for the fact that all the other sqrls look wonderfully healthy. There's no food shortage, and even as we watched, he carried a black walnut back to his den. A second thought would be some sort of genetic malabsorption issue... The only other thing I could think of is maybe this one lost his mama way too early and somehow managed to survive (though obviously not thrive).
Where we saw him foraging was in the side yard of house thats back yard is up against the back of our property. That lady, Kay, grew up with my mom and they're little old ladies together now LOL, plus she's squirrel-friendly... Mom says Kay's dad used to feed squirrels, and would trap & relocate to one of his more rural properties when the neighborhood population got too dense. So I would count that yard as an ally to helping this guy.
BUT... his drey is across the road from Kays house. And we don't know those people, or how they feel about squirrels. The positive, though, is that the hollow we watched him going into is in a tree that's not 4 feet from the road, and the opening of the hollow was only about 15 feet up, easily accessible.
Now, what should I do??? I really feel like I need to help this poor guy, but just not sure how to proceed. If I put out a live trap I'd probably have to go thru 15 or 20 others before I got the right one, but if that's what it takes I could...:dono Same problem with trying to feed 'the good stuff'... too many healthy kids in this soup kitchen line, I'd go through a whole bag of Henrys blocks in an afternoon just trying to get ONE in my target squirrel:wallet
Any ideas???
This is in a residential neighborhood, full of fat fluffy thriving squirrels. I would wonder about parasites, but for the fact that all the other sqrls look wonderfully healthy. There's no food shortage, and even as we watched, he carried a black walnut back to his den. A second thought would be some sort of genetic malabsorption issue... The only other thing I could think of is maybe this one lost his mama way too early and somehow managed to survive (though obviously not thrive).
Where we saw him foraging was in the side yard of house thats back yard is up against the back of our property. That lady, Kay, grew up with my mom and they're little old ladies together now LOL, plus she's squirrel-friendly... Mom says Kay's dad used to feed squirrels, and would trap & relocate to one of his more rural properties when the neighborhood population got too dense. So I would count that yard as an ally to helping this guy.
BUT... his drey is across the road from Kays house. And we don't know those people, or how they feel about squirrels. The positive, though, is that the hollow we watched him going into is in a tree that's not 4 feet from the road, and the opening of the hollow was only about 15 feet up, easily accessible.
Now, what should I do??? I really feel like I need to help this poor guy, but just not sure how to proceed. If I put out a live trap I'd probably have to go thru 15 or 20 others before I got the right one, but if that's what it takes I could...:dono Same problem with trying to feed 'the good stuff'... too many healthy kids in this soup kitchen line, I'd go through a whole bag of Henrys blocks in an afternoon just trying to get ONE in my target squirrel:wallet
Any ideas???