I'm moving--will the squirrels I feed be able to survive?
Hi guys, so I have a small yard and for about 1 year, I have a squirrel feeder that has attracted some urban squirrels to my yard. I see squirrels digging around in the garbage and figured it would be healthier if they could have access to nuts and such and now I'm trying out Henry's Healthy Blocks for adults.
Unfortunately, I have to move in a month and I'm deeply worried that certain squirrels will not survive the winter when I cut off this source of food. One in particular who comes by regularly looks smallish compared to other squirrels her age (she is at lease 1+ years old) so I wonder if she has become dependent to the feeder. She seems very fearful of other squirrels and they always chase her off. However, there has been instances where she does not come by for several days, but that could just be her running off to mate with some boy squirrel.
So my first question for the experts out there is--are squirrels--especially those who grew up rehabilitated by humans--able to pick up on how to forage? This squirrel wasn't rehabilitated by humans, but I feel like maybe rehabilitated squirrels have the closest contact with humans.
Secondly, is there any way to start training her now to look for food elsewhere? For instance, only leave a couple nuts out and slowly wind down? No food at all? I don't want the next tenants living here to get freaked out by her coming by and possibly peering through the windows. I think a lot of people overreact way too much when they see a squirrel, fearing that they carry rabies (which is not even true: ). If I stop leaving food out, will she quickly learn to stop coming by?
As a note, I started leaving nuts out by the squirrel feeder when she was already an adult (but maybe a young adult? hard to tell because she's always really small, except when she's pregnant..).
I appreciate any advice.
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