Mother moved the babies, now what?

[rkem]

So over the past six weeks, mama squirrel had been nesting on my balcony. Sadly a few days ago something happened and one of the babies. I found him dead, 3 floors down :(. I'm pretty sure it was her baby because she was fussing over it and for about an hour after she stayed near the body vocalizing very loudly. There was also another squirrel around which she chased off.

From looking at the body, I saw several puncture wounds, not what I'd expect from just a fall. Also hard to understand how it could have fallen as there is chicken wire all around my balcony with just a few tiny holes (most of them 3 feet off the floor). I'm really not sure what happened.

The other two babies survived but yesterday morning when I called mama squirrel out for breakfast she showed up with a mouthful of nesting material. And by evening, the nest box on the balcony was deserted. I'm guessing she moved them to a new location. I read in a few places that it is something that they will do, or maybe it was due to what I can only guess is an attack by another squirrel (nothing can get on that balcony other than squirrel).

Her new nest can't be that far because sure enough, when I came out with breakfast, she showed up. Since I figure she's not done raising her babies I'll keep on feeding her but I was wondering if I should leave the nest box there or dismantle it?

Thanks

[Spanky]

It may have been crows or other birds that could have easily gotten to the balcony like a squirrel. Did the puncture wounds have "top and bottom" teeth like a squirrel (or even a rat attack?) or were they single punctures that may have been a beak? :dono

Another clue might be the nest box... does it have both interior and exterior predator guards? Could a crow / bird have gotten in there? Or maybe the babies are old enough they are coming to the entry hole to start seeing the world.

Mommies will move their babies and they almost always have a back up nest. Undoubtedly she decided someplace would be safer for her brood.

I am sorry this happened to the little baby. RIP.

[rkem]

There is no way a bird larger than a finch could have gotten on the balcony and rats are agile but I am on the third floor so I'd be surprised if it was that.

The puncture wounds seemed to be on the head and neck area and not very wide but deep. I suppose if the baby somehow crawled out of the box and somehow managed to slip through one of the openings, then on the ground he could have been easy pickings for predators like cats and crows. Or it's also possible he fell and that the cuts were post mortem predation, and we do have a lot of cats and crows in the area.

But from the setup and the top to bottom chicken wire on all sides (the only access is my apartment), it's hard to imagine that he could have slipped out. It is like a giant cage and only clever squirrels have managed to come in. There had been a few instances of rogue squirrels barging in and mommy squirrel (and sometimes me :P) scaring them off, hence my suspecting other squirrels.

I'm hoping they are safer wherever she took them and I'm happy that she's dropping by for food. I did get a brief glimpse of the surviving babies, which was nice.