Have you considered taking her to a vet?

I would take her to the vet.....at least to make sure she is now oK and that she is OKay for you to be playing with.....they can probably also tell you what to feed her.

Yes, I have. I'm worried about picking her up and getting bit. I'm trying to figure out how to get her in a pet carrier.

What I am finding is that seeds (stripped sunflower seeds, pecans, almonds and some berries are the best. Perhaps you could use a food processor to make a paste? Main problem will be dehydration.

Have you tried to contact a local wildlife rehab or Audubon Society? I saw several listed in the St. Pete area in a quick Google search.

Oh, what a wonderful thing you are doing helping the animal

Please, try contacting these people - they helped me with a sick squirrel before:
http://www.wildlifehavenrehab.org/emergencyHelp.php

Olya

You should be able to get her in the cat carrier just by baiting the back of the carrier with the food you've been giving her and sitting near it on the floor while she goes in to get it. If she acts shy of the enclosure, try throwing a towel over the top of it to darken the interior a little. Once she's in, just close the door. But if you can't safely trap her, don't just grab: you're very wise to worry about being bitten. Rabies and other animal-borne diseases are nothing to play around with.

I salute you for what you are doing. Blackberries, blueberries
and strawberries are liked by squirrels. It also helps with dehydration. they also like corn,maybe cream corn. Acorns crush.
Her jaw might heal more with time if she survives. She will need to keep her survival skills.

My best, Felix

Thanks for everyone's reply. I really appreciate it as I am concerned for my little friend. I can't even imagine how painful that must be for her and she's so very thin.

I have tried blueberries, melon, peanut butter (can't do anymore due to the salt), home made walnut/cashew butter and canned corn and even eggs. I think I will look for some sunflower butter at a healthfood store tonight and some blackberries too.

She seems to prefer the whole-grain bread with the crushed seeds to everything else. She doesn't to have much interest in the other food.

I usually try to smear the walnut/cashew butter onto a quarter-sized piece of bread. It takes her about 20 minutes to eat that amount of food - which isn't much food. Obviously, there is a big issue with the functionality of her jaw.

She seems to drink water out of a bowl on the ground just fine, so I don't think dehydration will be an issue. But, keeping her from starving seems to be difficult.

I'm hoping to get her to go into a carrier so I can find some rehab place to take her. But, I am very concerned that her future is not 'great' and they will euthanize her. :(

It's really amazing that she is so attached to me now, because prior to her accident, she wasn't this clingy to me.

The Publix store-made peanut butter doesn't have salt added. Maybe that will help.

I've had a pair of female twins here that are really, really friendly. One would meet me on the sidewalk every morning or hang out in the trees at about head height to pay hide nd seek. Mating season brough a blockparty in the backyard and now none of them are welcomed! The new agressive male taught them to raid the birdfeeder--after I had taught them not to. Nothing we can do, but what a pain!

PLEASE DON'T TAKE THE SQUIRREL TO A VET!!!!

I work at a Vet's and they do not want to deal with injured wildlife.
A wild life refuge will know what can be done.

Ohhhh StP! How great of you to be caring for her. I had a few squirrel pals at my last condo and they would litterally scratch at the door for me to come out and hand feed them nuts and fruit. They would crawl up on my lawn chair and nap when I was inside, waiting for me to come out. A lot of people have their share of troubles with squirrels, but we have none where we built our new home and I really miss their madcap nature. I hope your lil gal makes it.

I will second coffeemom 's opinion
-- Do not take the squirrel to the vet, UNLESS you called ahead and they agreed to treat her (and not euthanize).

I really hope you contacted Wildlife Heaven - they were so helpful. I was feeding a squirrel on campus with a huge growth on her neck - turned out to be cancer. WH volunteers helped me trap her, and took her in to care for her...

Please, keep us updated :)
Olya
Olya

Thanks again for all the advice.

Thanks Felix for the blackberry recommendation. It worked...she ate one right away. A good sign...especially at $3.99/pint. LOL...

Last night, I went to Publix and bought several bags of sunflower seeds, washed the salt off (read online that salt can cause heart failure in squirrels) and made a paste out of it. Also, I bought some of that Rye-Ola Sunflower bread.

She really seems to like the bread. She has eaten half a slice, with the sunflower paste, over a 2-hr period. I am thinking it is the most she's eaten in two days?

Yeah, I am now not going to take her to a vet as I do think they would euthanize. I'm going to see if my hand-feeding her is enough to 'turn her around'. If not, then I will engage a wildlife rehab. They are all so far away from me - ie: north Pinellas county. I'm downtown St. Pete.

This morning, she was sitting on my back steps right by my door. Also, she now runs up my leg and sits on my arm or in my lap. WOW! I am amazed by this, as I am not encouraging her to do this.

Maybe her behavior is from head trauma? I'm not so sure she can see well out the eye on the broken jaw side. I think her whole left side of her head was basically crushed by whatever attacked her.

It might be worth a call to a wildlife rehab center to explain what's happening and ask for advise.
I think it's wonderful what you are doing.
I do worry though for your safety.
A little scratch or a playful nip from your grateful little buddy could quickly become very serious for you.
I'd get her checked out before playing with her.
Glad to hear she's doing well!

I still think you need to call...there is so much to wildlife that an average joe - like me - would not know. My sis-in-law is a rehabber in Pensacola, FL - squirrels, foxes- and she always preaches on how one should never take the initiative, but rather seek help.

Most of the rehab places have lots of dedicated volunteers all over the place. Could be someone living in St Pete

Here is another link - locating rehabbers in Fl
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contactA.htm#fl

Good luck
Olya

I am going to join the chorus & suggest you call the rehab center, even if only to confirm that what you're doing is okay. I've been bitten by a squirrel before, and those bites are PAINFUL. Rabies is not a big concern with squirrel bites, unless the squirrel had been acting strangely, which it kind of sounds like yours is - she's gotten suddenly so friendly that you wonder whether she has head trauma.

I would just be very, very cautious - better to call the rehab center and see what they say, than to end up bitten or having her die due to some small error.

Cheers!
Heather W

Hey Saint,
Glad she's doing better. I would love it if you could keep us informed. This is such a Positive story.
Be well.
Felix

saintpfla,

How is the squirrel doing?

Olya

When the tree guy was trimming my queen palms, he said he couldn't trim the one back all the way because there was a squirrel's nest and a mommy squirrel watching him. Turns out the squirrel I feed, whom I called Sammy, is really a Samantha! Now that I know she's in that tree with the little ones, I put the peanuts right under the tree. My husband thinks me and the tree guy are nuts, but he also stops and feeds the squirrels at a park near where he works, so he can't say much to me!lol

Glad to know there's more crazy squirrel people out there!
Julie

I thought I would share my squirrel story. When living in PSL I stopped at my chiropractors/ A baby squirrel had hitched a ride in the grill of someones car and was darting up and down the pavement hysterically. I grabbed an empty Pepsi box out of the car and scooped him up. On the way home I stupidly checked in the box and he bit me. Great, I thought now I have to wait 10 days to see if he dies of rabies then I will know I am next!
Cool Runnings(a movie about a Jamaican Bobsled team) had just been released and my kids named him Sanka after a guy in the movie that kept crashing. Every day they would run to his cage and say "Sanka,You dead Mon?" They knew if he survived the 10 days they could play with him.
We fed him milk with a syringe and he loved Reeses peanut butter cups! He loved being a house squirrel and when he was stronger I tried to put him outdoors. He would beat me back to the door.I put him up in the tree and ran like crazy. He banged on the living room window until someone let him back in. When we decided to move we were showing the house and Sanka jumped out of the tree and landed on my shoulder pleaing for some attention. The Couple seemed a bit alarmed but I said "He comes with the house!" They put an offer on it that night!{{gwi:901377}}

Oh...what a nice story.

Sadly, my squirrel never came back to me after three days of caring for her. Those three days, she would wait by my back door for food. Then, day four, she didn't show. I looked for her for a few days and finally gave up.

So, she is probably in the great garden in the sky.

Julie, it is usually pretty easy to tell the gals from the guys. Don't bother looking at the face!

9 out of 10 of the squirrels that attack my fruit trees are males. I guess the gals stay home and make babies?

Lisa

Julie, you do know that the squirrel probably killed your palm tree, right? By making a nest in the middle it ate out the heart and the tree will produced no new fronds and will die. The same thing happened to me and then it cost a lot to take the tree down and dig out the stump. :o(

SaintP, I'm sorry your squirrel disappeared. She probably was injured too badly to survive for long. Just a few comments in case anything similar happens again. (I used to work for Florida Audubon and did a lot with rehabbing at that time, even had a license to care for baby birds. We got LOTS of baby squirrels).

First, Heather W is right that rabies is not a big concern with squirrels. There hasn't been a documented cases of a rabid squirrel in something like 65 years or more. For some reason, they seldom ever get it.

Secondly, they CAN and will BITE like crazy, and it can be quite painful and get infected easily. So the advice (and your instinct) not to try to pick the animal up by hand were absolutely correct. Especially a squirrel in pain...you might be hurting them badly, and they would naturally bite in defense.

And third, the advice not to call a vet does not hold true for all vets. Some are quite well trained in the care of birds and other wild animals and will gladly treat one. You just need to know if your vet is one of those or not. Believe me, I have carried countless injured birds to the clinic in Altamonte that Audubon used at that time. And other animals, as well. They were always treated when the vet felt it was possible to save their lives. So this all depends on the policy and training of the vet in question. And even my regular vet will advise me honestly on whether or not an injured animal is too seriously injured for me to take care of. If the animal is too far gone, he will euthanize for a minimum fee, but he has no problem in telling me how to care for an injured animal that he thinks can be rehabbed.

I think you did your very best for this little squirrel, and probably made its last days much more comfortable. Good for you for caring so much!

Marcia

Saintpfla, I'm sorry to hear about your squirrel.

Lisa, I never get that close to the squirrel to see what it is. I just drop the peanuts in the usual spot outside the garage door. It would run up and sit in the nearby tree when it heard the door open. If I forgot to put out the peanuts, it would actually scratch at the window when I'm watching tv!

I'm going to try and look next time I see it, because there's probably more than one.

Katkin, thanks for the warning. I'll keep my eye on it. We had 4 queen palms and got rid of 2 of them. This one is actually the nicest, but they do get ugly and need to be pruned at least 2x a year. I'd like to get a nicer palm or a shade tree instead.

Julie