Do you care for animals?

[Skybird]

A request, in these days, where it has everywhere these high temperatures, who lives in the base floor and has a garden: please put out a shallow bowl of water for hedgehogs, squirrels, birds and change 1-2 times a day the water! I see it sometimes on my videos how wildly determined my little friends here first go for the water bowl even before they steal the first nut of the day, the water situation here in the neighborhood seems to be dramatic, the nearest water hole I do know of is almost half a kilometer away. For this reason currently also some foreign squirrels come, which I have never seen - not because of the nuts, but because of the water!

For the same reason please cover rain barrels and watering cans, squirrels that jump in there looking for water can't get out and have to drown miserably. At pools, have a rough wooden handle or branch sticking out into the water, or have a towel hanging in at the edge (but secure it to the edge so an animal doesn't just pull it into the pool when it tries to climb up).

Helping one animal may not change the whole world, but the whole world changes for that one animal.

Squirrely thanks!

[Eichhörnchen]

Well said!

[Rockstar]

Several feral Muscovy Ducks visit my front door from time to time. I'll empty a bag or two of spinach in a big bucket of ice water for them. They love it.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Skybird

A request, in these days, where it has everywhere these high temperatures, who lives in the base floor and has a garden: please put out a shallow bowl of water for hedgehogs, squirrels, birds and change 1-2 times a day the water! I see it sometimes on my videos how wildly determined my little friends here first go for the water bowl even before they steal the first nut of the day, the water situation here in the neighborhood seems to be dramatic, the nearest water hole I do know of is almost half a kilometer away. For this reason currently also some foreign squirrels come, which I have never seen - not because of the nuts, but because of the water!

For the same reason please cover rain barrels and watering cans, squirrels that jump in there looking for water can't get out and have to drown miserably. At pools, have a rough wooden handle or branch sticking out into the water, or have a towel hanging in at the edge (but secure it to the edge so an animal doesn't just pull it into the pool when it tries to climb up).

Helping one animal may not change the whole world, but the whole world changes for that one animal.

Squirrely thanks!

I do this for a variety of bird types and bees but don't get squirrels unfortunately.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

I do this for a variety of bird types and bees but don't get squirrels unfortunately.

I had seven different ones over the winter! Three four-year olds, with whom it all started, and four new ones, the first cat amongst them, and one youngster who must have lost his mother early, he is so small. I fear for him for the winter, he doe snot grow and also is not the brightest lamp in the lamp shop.



Hazel- and walnuts do the trick. Red squirrels are highly individual, no other food I found that attracts them all, just wal- and hazelnuts. They already differ in taste on sunflower seeds, for exmaple, some Eichis here do not touch them.

Regarding European squirrels: NEVER cow milk, never almonds, and better no peanuts (due to the spores on their hull, our European red squirrels also have problems digesting them, the American species are different and usually more robust regarding their food: but our European red ones are not). By the way, it is a myth that European squirrels love acorns. They can't digest them either (some Americans can), they take them only in times of emergency when there is dramatic food shortage - and if they have to take too much of them due to lacking alternatives, they die from it, just like from almonds, only for different reasons. Almonds and too many acorns are deadly for our European squirrels. Peanuts only as an occasional praliné, please (they are no nuts anyway). Pine nuts are expensive, but much sought after. No cashews please: wrong fat, it messes up their digestion! Cow's milk products provoke diarrhea, which can be fatal for squirrels if left untreated. Never cow milk, please.

What many don't know: cow's milk is actually not good for cats either.

I love my gang, I really want them to survive over the difficult months of the year. I don't do it and accept the expense (about 160 kg of nuts a year) because I feel like a conservationist, I do it out of affection for and compassion for the individual creature. Three of them I know now for four years, since they were youthful hotspurs, these three are also the only ones I still reliably recognize, by their appearance and behavior. These three also now recognize me and refrain from sounding the alarm when they see me..

[Catfish]

Yes we do, and we put some water all around the house and garden
Thankfully it just rained for two hours

[Commander Wallace]

This really is good advice, Sky. Thanks for pointing this out. I have left bird baths on the ground, filled with water. On occasion, I have seen toads sunning in the water.

[mapuc]

We do not have squirrel here on our island. What we have a lot of is rabbits and birds. I haven't seen any hedgehog this year. Hedgehog is a night active animal. Maybe I should invest in a action camera(or what you call them)

Markus

[Skybird]

Thank you to everybody helping out. But please, if you do the first step, also do the second: these places need to be kept clean. Birds love to poo into the water , virusses of one individual can infest the place and infect others. So do not just fill in new water, but empty the old one and clean the bowl or whatever you use. I even use desinfectant spray on the sitting places at the nut bar and to clean the water bowl. I wash it off after some time of course, so that they do not drink desinfectant. Thankfully, squirrels are not caring much for new smells. Water becomes stale very fast when it is hot, so please take that into acount! I fill it in the eveing when the last animals had come and it turns darker, the water stays okay over the cooler night and in the morning, and when I raise later during late morning I again replace the water for over the day.

In winter I fill hot water in the later morning (because the squirrels then have a very limited action window late morning to early evening at best, the water then stays fluent and does not freeze for most of their action time.


Thanks for helping out!