Squirrel with injured front paw

[ltsmas]

I have been feeding a female squirrel since last October. She had already buried many acorns in the yard and then our landscapers came to fix my front yard and covered almost all of it with new topsoil and seed. She came around for many days digging for the acorns but couldn't find them because they were buried under 4" of topsoil. I felt sorry for her so I started putting sunflower seeds out for her. Each week she would allow me to get closer. I've gotten within a foot of her. she has even hopped onto my porch when there wasn't any seeds there to eat, as if to say - where's my food? She usually comes twice each day to eat the sunflower seeds I leave for her. I noticed in the summer that she was a nursing mother. I heard and saw the babies in the nest in the tree out front but never saw them again. Last week I noticed that the mother squirrel had a large red blister on her front left paw. She could use it to hold the seeds while she ate, but she didn't use it when hopping. I borrowed a trap to capture her and take her to our local wildlife center for treatment but she wouldn't go into the trap so I removed it. The next day the bubble/blister was gone and she just had some raw spots on her paw. She was hopping around on all 4 paws so I assumed all was well and her paw was healing. I haven't seen her in 2 days now and I'm worried. Yesterday I saw the 2 babies in the tree near the nest but she's not around. Did she leave because the babies came back to this area? I know the mothers are territorial and chase the babies out of the area to start their lives alone. In the past few weeks she has buried many acorns in the front yard from our oak tree. Should I put out different food for her?

[gardenjewel]

Sounds like she is gathering a nice stash of acorns for the winter. These last two days you haven't seen her she is probably off doing squirrelly things, and will return soon. A wild squirrel is fine to eat some sunflower seeds, as long as its not the main part of her diet she will be fine. However, she would probably enjoy and benefit from getting some other supplemental feeding from you....like other types of nuts. Almonds would be the healthiest nut choice, and wild bites from henry's healthy pets would be the best thing you could feed her. You could also bake up something like the wildbites using the vitamins at henrys. You could also try some rodent block from a local pet store. She probably wont eat the rodent block without a little extra somthing added to it...like heating it in a short time the microwave with some peanut butter. You want the block to absorb the peanut butter. I also put out some veggies like carrots , green leaf lettuce and cranberries which mine seem to love.
Julia

[ltsmas]

thanks for the reply. Actually, I saw her just after I posted the other day. I live in a Townhome and went to the living room to open the sliding door and heard a weird sound on the outside of the door. As I slid it open, a squirrel (who has been there before) jumped off our sliding screen door. I saw the red spots on her paw and realized it was my cutie! she ran around the building and to the front yard and started burying acorns - but never came to eat any of the seeds I left for her. She usually comes around 8:30 AM and then late afternoon but hasn't been there. I did leave some larger acorns from a tree at our pumpkin patch. I left 3 and 1 was eaten, so I assume it was her and not my little chipmunk who ate the large acorn. I hope she comes back. I left some pieces of apple this morning - don't know if she will eat them or not.