WILD MOMMA & 3 KIDS DISPLACED BY RACOONS ~LIVING IN WOODPECKER NEST~NEED ADVICE

[Trooper]

They say that when it rains it pours, and no pun intended for our neighbors in Houston, TX. I am dealing with Trooper's ailment when all of the sudden the nice mamma with three little squees who was living in our redwood-made house I have 17 feet on the side of my shop, vacated the house. Two nights ago, I hear a commotion at 2:00am and went outside the shop to check and a family of raccoons (parents and 3 cubs) tried to snatch the babies.

Because I placed a good predator barrier inside the woodhouse, the coons could not get anybody, but mamma and the kids evacuated the house.

Yesterday while having dinner, I saw the whole family "stuffed" inside a three generations old woodpecker nest inside a power line pole. Now if you can imagine a woodpecker in these parts measures no more than 3.5 inches long by 1 inch round. Now I have three 8-12 weeks old babies (eyes open, climb wood pole, bushy tail) stuffed in there and momma tries to get inside too to breast feed (pictures below show momma coming down the pole and getting in).

What should we do:
1-Babies have been there for 2 days and it has been hot in California peaking at 90F.
2-Powerline pole get direct sun most of the day.
3-We do not know for sure if momma can breastfeed inside. Lots of shuffling happens before and during that period.
4-Crows fly over, land on power line and used to land on top of pole.
5-Hawks also are around but not much lately.
6-Babies used to come out on the wood house, wrestle and play with each other, so they are mobiles and even climb the pole on top alone.

What should we do? Leave them alone? get them out and put in rehab cage which I already have?

Any experienced advice will be appreciated.

Trooper's dad

[Trooper]

The last picture above in my previous post is momma lounging on my redwood built house the day before the ousting. She is laying down after breast feeding.

Here below is the original "Woody", the Woodpecker when he alone made the original nest hole 2 years ago. Look at his size!!:tap And now 4 squirrels want to live there???

Thanks,

Trooper's dad

[Jen413]

Poor Momma and babies!! I have no idea what to suggest but hopefully someone does!

[Mel1959]

Can you access the hole in the telephone pole with a ladder? What about placing a nest box on the pole that momma and babies can move into? I think that the current situation is risky and just asking for a baby to fall out. I also don't think it's remotely safe from raccoons. I think the situation begs for you to intervene in some way.

[island rehabber]

Can you access the hole in the telephone pole with a ladder? What about placing a nest box on the pole that momma and babies can move into? I think that the current situation is risky and just asking for a baby to fall out. I also don't think it's remotely safe from raccoons. I think the situation begs for you to intervene in some way.

Great advice -- and I would go with a Coveside or Jake's nest box which have the predator guards.

Damn raccoons. They are omnivores. They can eat ANYthING. Why do they have to totrture our squees? :soapbox

[Lighten-Up]

This is a tough one....I've been thinking about it since last night.

I thought about putting a nest box on the telephone pole, but also did not know if that would be legal.

Could you wrap hardware cloth around the nest box on the building where they were, and put a 4 inch portal hole that squee could get in but the raccoons could not? My thought is that you would make the hardware cloth at least a foot or two bigger than the original nest box. Kind of like making a type of release cage around the nest box. But not a big one, just a secondary safety baffle for them, far enough away from the box, that they could lounge on the box without the raccoon getting to them. This would not guarantee that the mom would go back in, because of the new caging might be scary at first, but it might ensure future use of the nest box???? Someone is bound to inhabit it again, and some kind of double protection might make it safe.

With the raccoons around, it is difficult to think of what to do, because they could get to any new nest box you would put up.

[Mel1959]

How are these youngsters doing?

[Trooper]

Well thank you for all the ideas. Last night one of the girls decided to walk down the power line feed from the pole to our house and from there she managed to go to the redwood house they were born in and stayed until the raccoon raid. Of course she tried to climb the wire back up but her coordination on wire walking wasn't good and she aborted several times. A few tries she looked like she could have fallen, nut as providence would have it, she did not.

Fearing for another raccoon raid, cold night alone and lack of response from the momma who still comes and seems to be nursing "inside" the woodpecker's nest; I made a butterfly net style with a open weave plastic burlap sack and placed it over the wood nest entrance and spooked her out into it and caught her. Wow, what a wild one, she was screeching and bit me several times, but she spend the night in a small covered box. When she calmed down this morning I gave her 6 ml of Pedialite and she is sleeping again.

According to the pictures on this site for age estimation, we estimate her to be between 7.5 to 9 weeks old: fluffy tail, curls it over head, definitely a strong bite, slinky body fully furred of course. I have not been able to estimate the degree of dehydration by the skin test, because she is a handful, but I plan to give her as much as she can take for another 6 to 8 hours before Fox Valley.

The power pole placement of a nest is tenuous, as some of you noted. The pole is 26 feet tall and my ladders don't go that high. Also the heat exposure and predator exposure remains the same. The ideal would be for momma to take them to another tree nest, but all the trees nearby are taken by other squees. Shall I try to leave the one I have in custody on top of my house roof, next to the power lines and hope momma or her would walk up the pole again, of would that be a sentence for her in the end? By the way, I tied a 7/8" diameter manila rope from the middle of the pole to the roof of the house, because that would give her a better change at grip and traction.

Or should I take her until release?

Any advice will be appreciated.

Trooper's dad

[Diggie's Friend]

As shared on another thread when the raccoons came after the squirrels, get two plastic spray bottles from your local home supply, or Walmart type store. Fill one with 3/3 vinegar, and 1/3 water. Put the nozzle on stream so it shoots 12 to 15 feet. Then when you see them, or wait for them if that is your plan, let them have it multiple times so they high tail it out of there and think twice before returning.

Also, collect your urine from the first urination of the day which is the strongest, and using a funnel pour it into the 2nd spray bottle. Spray the perimeter of the yard where the raccoons come in. It sends a message of predator present to them.

Let us know how it goes.

[Trooper]

Hi Diggie's Friend: we are already spraying fox, wildcat and coyote urine on our plants and perimeter to discourage rats and squirrels from eating our plants. Nothing works.

About the human urine spray: if I do it on the perimeter the coons enter, that is the same perimeter my wilds squirrels enter too and we have a lot of them. Would that scare them away too?

Trooper's dad

[Mel1959]

I personally would put a predator proof squirrel box as high up the telephone pole as possible, regardless of the legalities involved. Who is going to really care that a squirrel box is there considering it's temporary? Island Rehabber suggested the names of a couple of boxes that must be very predator proof. I'd get one of them. Just my opinion.

[Trooper]

Well, we saw momma take the two left babies out of the woodpecker's nest to, what I assume a better nest, but not the old redwood house I built. Probably for fear of raccoons coming back.

Now I am left with the third baby girl who ventured to our home roof and was never able to get back, even with momma looking on and seeing how many times she tried to climb and walk the telephone wire, momma did nothing and baby couldn't make it back. So after we secured the baby in our shop and been given her Pedialyte for 18 hours, she is now eating 6 ml of FoxValley baby formula watered down until I get a fresh batch of 20/50 formula (on its way).

In the meantime, I am at a loss on how I will move her to a larger cage and get her for feedings. She is a handfull:tap She fights me all the way while I get her (she is currently inside a small animal cage about 16" long by 9" wide and 8" tall), of course wearing deer skin gloves to survive her repeated bites. She only calms down when she drinks the formula, adopting that famous position squees do, where she hold the syringe with both hands, the way a wino would hold a bottle of cheap wine:grin2.

But once the wine is gone, back to wrestling we go!

So since I will have to raise her the rest of the way until release, any bright ideas on how I am going to put her on a 5' wide by 4' tall by 2' deep pre-release cage and be able to get her 3 times a day to feed her? Any suggestions?:thumbsup

Trooper's dad

[Mel1959]

Why can't she be placed somewhere to be reunited with mom? Maybe mom would take her now.

[Lighten-Up]

Why can't she be placed somewhere to be reunited with mom? Maybe mom would take her now.

That sounds the most logical.

If mom did not kick her out, and she only had issues getting back, and now mom has relocated to an easier place, not the woodpecker hole; letting mom take care of her sounds like the most harmonious option.