Black substance around LittleGirl's mouth, nose and front paws

[craig2l]

LittleGirl, as you can see from the pic is obviously lactating. She appears healthy in her movements and appetite and is quite friendly with us, allowing petting and touching. However, in the last month or so she went from having a perfect unblemished coat (first pic from 6 weeks ago) to having a black substance develop around her mouth, chin and snout as well as on her front paws. Several of her whiskers are stuck together. The remainder of her coat looks fine, though she had some fur on her tail that was stuck together. This is Autumn in northern CA and I'm wondering if she has gotten into tree sap which has attracted all sorts of dirt to it. It appears she is building a new nest in an Italian Cypress in our yard and I can see that there are beads of sap on the main trunk and if she were gnawing on branches I can imagine more sap could have leaked out. If folks think this is from sap, will it eventually slough off? It seems that all living creatures see a natural evolution of fur, skin, nails etc. where new tissue is always replacing the old; hopefully that would happen in this case. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Craig

[CritterMom]

Do you have walnut trees around there?

[craig2l]

Do you have walnut trees around there?

No walnut trees around here that I'm aware of. We feed her whole walnuts in the shell which we feed to many of her friends. We've noticed that she is rubbing the sides of her head into our lawn, apparently to remove the foreign material. This afternoon it appeared she had successfully removed some of it, possibly by removing her fur with it.

Could it have something to do with giving birth or tending to her babies? She is obviously suckling her babies as her teats are very enlarged and pink at the base (visible in one of the attached pics).

She is a very sweet girl who allows a great deal of contact from us. However, she is quite feisty with other squirrels and can be very aggressive in chasing them away. Maybe it's possessiveness over us or just her strong maternal instincts on display.

Craig

[JLM27]

No walnut trees around here that I'm aware of. We feed her whole walnuts in the shell which we feed to many of her friends. We've noticed that she is rubbing the sides of her head into our lawn, apparently to remove the foreign material. This afternoon it appeared she had successfully removed some of it, possibly by removing her fur with it.

Could it have something to do with giving birth or tending to her babies? She is obviously suckling her babies as her teats are very enlarged and pink at the base (visible in one of the attached pics).

She is a very sweet girl who allows a great deal of contact from us. However, she is quite feisty with other squirrels and can be very aggressive in chasing them away. Maybe it's possessiveness over us or just her strong maternal instincts on display.

Craig

It looks like she got into tar, black paint, or tree sap of some kind. Do you know where her nest is? Do your neighbors have a shed with old cans of paint or tar?

[craig2l]

It looks like she got into tar, black paint, or tree sap of some kind. Do you know where her nest is? Do your neighbors have a shed with old cans of paint or tar?

Unfortunately we do not know where her nest is though we think she has been building a new one in our Italian Cypress. Whether she has moved in there yet and moved her babies I do not know. Our suspicion is that it is tree sap as there are various trees here in northern CA that seem to be creating sap now. We have been wondering whether other folks in the squirrel world had seen this before. I do remember reading someplace (I don't think it was on TSB) that someone had a wild squirrel with what she called Sap Face. She seemed amused by it. We don't find it amusing as I imagine it must at a minimum be an annoyance for the girl. Hopefully nature will takes it course and the substance (and possibly her fur) will slough off and be replaced with fresh new fur.

Craig

[JLM27]

Unfortunately we do not know where her nest is though we think she has been building a new one in our Italian Cypress. Whether she has moved in there yet and moved her babies I do not know. Our suspicion is that it is tree sap as there are various trees here in northern CA that seem to be creating sap now. We have been wondering whether other folks in the squirrel world had seen this before. I do remember reading someplace (I don't think it was on TSB) that someone had a wild squirrel with what she called Sap Face. She seemed amused by it. We don't find it amusing as I imagine it must at a minimum be an annoyance for the girl. Hopefully nature will takes it course and the substance (and possibly her fur) will slough off and be replaced with fresh new fur.

Craig

That's what I was thinking. I was just worried that a neighbor or a highway work crew had left some paint or tar around in an open can. Wonder why she was rooting around in sap.

[CritterMom]

I asked about walnuts, but lots of nuts grow on the tree with thick green husks on the outside - walnuts do, hickories and others do as well. They fall to the ground when ripe and the husks rot off of them exposing the more familar hard shell we are used to from the store. The rotting husks were actually used by pioneers to make fabric dye, and it is brown black, thick and sticky and of course they get it on their faces while they eat the nuts.

[craig2l]

Well, it seems clear that LittleGirl is nesting in our 35 foot high Italian Cypress close to our house. And that she has in fact moved her babies to that new nest. This morning we saw two baby squirrels frollicking around the base of the Cypress, never more than a couple of feet away from the trunk. They were doing what babies do: jumping over one another and running around the tree. Very sweet to watch. Then a male squirrel jumped up close to them and all three of them disappeared up the tree. I wonder if we should expect to see them out again at about the same time in the morning in the coming days. I suspect they will venture out more and more widely as their level of confidence increases. It struck me that it's probably not a good idea to feed them nuts or anything as they are in the process of learning to forage for their own food.

This is such a treat to watch the wonders of nature unfold.

Craig