A Second Chance for Orphaned Squirrels
The infant squirrels are initially fed a specialized formula using a syringe. When they graduate to eating solid food, they receive a variety of vegetables, fruits and nuts similar to their diet in the wild. At CWC their main diet includes lettuce, zucchini and monkey biscuits (a crunchy bite chock-full of protein and vitamins). They also receive sunflower seeds, nuts, occasionally pieces of corn on the cob and fruit.
Some of the predators of the California Ground Squirrel include raptors, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, gopher snakes and rattlesnakes. While the adult ground squirrels are resistant to rattlesnake venom, the young ones are not. Snakes will sometimes enter burrows at night while they are sleeping. The female squirrels are very protective of their young. The clever squirrels have figured out that if they chew on rattlesnake skin and lick their bodies and the bodies of their young, they will smell like snakes and make it difficult for the snakes to find them.
As their name implies, California Ground Squirrels live in burrows they dig in the ground that can range from 5 feet to 35 feet long. Sometimes these squirrels live alone, while other burrows house multiple squirrels and their babies. Our technicians provide the squirrels with make-shift burrows to sleep in using a tissue box or plastic igloo. Each group at CWC is made up of 4-6 squirrels. These groups remain together until they are old enough to return to the wild.
That’s an amazing fact about the mothers’s scenting their young and themselves with chewed rattlesnake skin. May i also say, another ‘predator’ of ground squirrels is cars? I travel the farm roads in Ventura and much too often see squirrels that have been run over by cars. The only consolation is this road kill provides food for vultures and other scavengers.