Neighborhood pacific grey squirrel feeding questions.

[dan2116]

Hello all. I am brand new to the forum. I live in upper northern California and have had grey squirrels in the neighborhood for as long as I have lived here. I have been feeding them for some years now. Is there anyone in the forum that can assist in foods to avoid, supplement in their drinking water, fruit not to feed, etc. Thank you for your help.

[Mel1959]

:Welcome:Welcome. Squirrels in the wild know exactly what they need to stay healthy and will seek it out. Anything you provide is a treat for them. Some of the things I provide my wilds are: avocado chunks (no skin or pit), fresh coconut chunks, fresh corn chunks, sweet potato or butternut squash chunks and sometimes grapes, blueberries, apples or cherries. They can’t have the seeds from cherries or apples. And don’t feed Brazil nuts….they are too high in selenium.

I also make boo balls from Harlan Teklad rodent block to help provide them a balanced diet….especially since my husband likes to feed them nuts. :eek:fish

[dan2116]

Thank you very much!! I used to feed them black oil sunflower seeds, but the mess left behind was large. I now feed them raw sunflower seeds (no salt) from the local grocery store, and they love them. Their favorite is un-salted peanuts in the shell, if the Blue Jays don't get them. I introduced apple pieces this year and they (like you mentioned) take what they want and leave the rest. One thing to mention if someone runs into this is I have stray cats in the area plus something came into the neighborhood and killed four of the nesting squirrels in cypress trees on my property. It was horrible to see them tore up like they were. One survived and she is back to normal. Anyway, what I did was cut up Iresh Spring bar soap into chunks and scattered under there nesting area trees and around my yard and the cats hate it and no more issues sense I have done that.
I want to build a nesting box for them but the only good place to put it is near there feeding area and don't know if that would be problematic or not.

Thank you again for your help.

[Mel1959]

Raccoons, owls or cats are typically the culprits for nighttime attacks on nesting squirrels. I’m sorry you have to deal with that. I’m sure it was gruesome. I have mounted a feeding station on an oak tree that houses 5 nest boxes in my yard. I’ve never had any problem with this set up. All the squirrels take turns coming down to eat, even those that don’t live in my yard know there’s food available here.

What you might try as a deterrent for any animal that may be climbing your trees is securing a plastic dog neck cone around the tree at a distance up the tree where it couldn’t be accessed by jumping. You know the “cone of shame” dogs have to wear when the have surgery to prevent chewing. They make some pretty big dog cones with a pretty significant diameter. Of course this will do nothing to prevent an owl from raiding a nest. But nest boxes with predator guards would. I have plans for that type of nest box if you’re handy with power tools and wood. If you’d like the plans send me a private message with your email and I’ll send them to you.

This is what they look like.

[Diggie's Friend]

This is an observational journal that includes charts of various foods thatboth the Western Gray squirrel of the Pacific Coastal range and the introduced Eastern Fox Squirrel both living alongside one the other, was observed eating over each of the four seasons.

Scroll down to see both the lists and bar chart in particular, with an easy view of the diet of both the Western Gray squirrel and the Eastern Fox Squirrel consumed at the same park location.

In captivity, it is needful to support a diet with rodent block which has various options including homemade recipe kindly supported for those that desire to make up their own diet as a guideline.

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/73345801.pdf