Sorry, that is wrong, though many fall for it. The European-Asian red squirrel usually does not like acorns, because it misses certain encymes that are indispensable for correctly digesting them. They eat acorns only rarely in winter and in times of highest despair, when all their other food reserves are gone or unavailable and they are close to starvation. Then they eat them, because a hurting stomach and digestive problems and diarrhea is better than death. But in fact acorns can even kill sciurus vulgaris: I had the bad luck to have been the one finding one of my earliest squirrels coming to our garden last year dead in a field of acorns last octobre, under an oak. No visible injuries, so signs of parasites, no fluids from body openings - only plenty of acorns all around. I was not happy to see it laying there. Beautiful she was in her fur colours, and the hair so unbelievably soft. I dug a hole for her and buried her, rolled in in coloured autumn leaves, did not want to let her laying around there. In the next days I moved out and raised the number of feeders in my neighbourhood even further, from 2 to 5.
I took this picture.
In Northamerica there are several squirrel species: grey squirrels, American red suirrels (not to be mistaken with the European red squirrel, they are different), fox squirrels, golden squirrels, and more. At least the grey ones (those with the terrible squirrel pox virus that kills our red ones) love acorns, and they can digest them easily.
No matter the fur colour, you can always differentiate the European sciurus vulgaris form any other squirrel species in the world, in winter at least: the red European squirrel is the only one that forms these characteristic hair brushes on its ears when it grows its winter coat. In spring, the long hair falls off again. No other squirrel has this "feature". So if you see one with hair brushes, its a sciurus vulgaris.
Plese
never feed almonds to the red ones in Europe, they can kill sciurus vulgaris easily, they are
hypersensitive to the small amount of cyanid included in almonds. Also, please
no peanuts. The peanut is no nut, and its skin rots when it is buried, so the reserve function in winter is not given,a slo it often is infested with spores, mushrooms and insecticides that sciurus vulgaris is extremely sensible to. Also, the nutireiton value for the red squirrelew of ours is ver ylimited and the contained fat in peanuts is such that it cna make a mess of the red squirrels digestion if it eats more thn just one or two. They like them, but they are not healthy for them. Again, with American species it is different, they are in general more robust, more social, more aggressive.
Last,
no cow milk and products made of it, cheese or such things. Makes a mess of the digestion, resulting in diarrhea that for squirrels easily can become lethal. If you need to raise young squirrels, milk replaces as beign used for cats are usuable. If you live in America, you are lucky, you then have access to a company producing so called FOX VALLEY milk replacer, which is the gold standard for red baby squirrel feeding, all rehabbers around here know it, but it is almost impossible to get it here due to export limitations and prohibitions by the US. They offer two milks for squirrels with slightly different formula, you begin with the one and after some weeks you change to the other, its expensive, but maybe the best there is, and with the fewest reports of it causing problems with squirrels' digestion (digestion being a potential for problems with squirrels, always).
The company is in Illinois.
https://www.foxvalleynutrition.com/
Be good to your Eichhörnchen in germany, they have had three terrible years, and are under immense pressure. Their situation is not good. Help them, support them: feeders, and liquid water in winter, natural wool or natural fibres, little rags of cloth (beware single threads that can strangle playing squirrels or knit their tails together, I have seen terrible things with such things, worst were four baby squirrely with eyes still closed whose tails were so miserably bound together that surgery had to be done on them to untangle them again).
This year I heard from rehabbers the first baby orphant squirrel was found in the early beginning of January. Thats is a desaster and shows how terribly off balance things are. That is several weeks too early. Food, temperature, it all factors in. A desaster. Last years, many acorns - see above, but wayx too few filled nuts and nuts in general, due to the dry years there were. Its a desaster. Authporities say all is well.
They are wrong. All squirrel rehabbers over here know that. Things are not well - they are terribly wrong. Those babies born in early January, most likely have not survived the last days, we have record-breaking low temperatures.
In gardens, put nets or anything on tons with (rain)water where they could fall in and drown (squirrels, not rehabbers...). Also have something in these tons that could serve as an emergency ladder. Protect deep holes and especially the openings of vertical rainwater pipes. I once saved a squirrel as a student from that, it was work, and costed lots of money, I had to destroy part of the pipe. In those years it was when I also once nursed and raised a baby squirrel for its first 4-5 weeks before I handed it over to people with better possibilities when the little thign started to become active and wanting to leave the nest. So cute. And so much nerve. And so time-consuming, its a 24/ job, and all your life runs in 100 minute intervals, then the counter resets to zero and the next 100 minutes start ticking away... Day and night. Day and night.
If you have luck and have a nest in your garden resist the temptation and leave it alone a slong as help is not needed (storm, polstering material, food). Esoecially young mothers havign babies for the firts tiem ever, have a low stress tolerance, and if they get disturbedf too much, thexy cna panci, kill all babies, and flee and elave the nest behind. Squirrels are not know for strees resoistence, but mothers with their first family ever are especialyl prone to it. Else, red squirrel mothers are very well, caring and curageous mothers.
If you stumble over a left baby squirrel, and the mother does not show up anymore, do not turn away. Do not walk the easy way and just turn away. You will pay a price, yes: it will steal your heart in no time. It codts work and time, and may it even just eb the time to rbing it to a rehabber. But do not just leave it behind for dying. Its worth it, every minute of it. Squirrels bring joy in your life.
It seems I love these little things.