Our other freeloaders

I've often written in RPCA about dear little Mooch, our long-time
resident stray who scarfs down as many as seven meals a day on our
veranda, and sleeps in his own bed-chair equipped in the winter with
heating pads. At the same time, at the rear of our house we assist
another group of freeloaders. Toronto has a large black and grey
squirrel population. A good number of them show up in our backyard,
because in the winter I toss out sunflower seeds. I figure that like
Mooch, these little survivors deserve a break. It's gratifying to look
out the kitchen window and see as many 9 or 10 squirrels munching and
arguing among themselves. A lot of people feed the birds, but if you
also have squirrels in your area I suggest you help them survive by
following suit.

Bobcat wrote:
I've often written in RPCA about dear little Mooch, our long-time
resident stray who scarfs down as many as seven meals a day on our
veranda, and sleeps in his own bed-chair equipped in the winter with
heating pads. At the same time, at the rear of our house we assist
another group of freeloaders. Toronto has a large black and grey
squirrel population. A good number of them show up in our backyard,
because in the winter I toss out sunflower seeds. I figure that like
Mooch, these little survivors deserve a break. It's gratifying to look
out the kitchen window and see as many 9 or 10 squirrels munching and
arguing among themselves. A lot of people feed the birds, but if you
also have squirrels in your area I suggest you help them survive by
following suit.


Thank you for doing that.
Best wishes,
Polonca and Soncek

"Bobcat" wrote in message
...
I've often written in RPCA about dear little Mooch, our long-time
resident stray who scarfs down as many as seven meals a day on our
veranda, and sleeps in his own bed-chair equipped in the winter with
heating pads. At the same time, at the rear of our house we assist
another group of freeloaders. Toronto has a large black and grey
squirrel population. A good number of them show up in our backyard,
because in the winter I toss out sunflower seeds. I figure that like
Mooch, these little survivors deserve a break. It's gratifying to
look
out the kitchen window and see as many 9 or 10 squirrels munching
and
arguing among themselves. A lot of people feed the birds, but if you
also have squirrels in your area I suggest you help them survive by
following suit.

We have out very first squirrel in forty years of living here. His
nest is next door, but he likes our water bowls.

I'm figuring out what and when I can feed him without making too much
of a mess or encouraging varmits or giving my dog unneeded treats. He
loves apple cores left on the fence.

Jo

"Jofirey" wrote in message
news

"Bobcat" wrote in message
...
I've often written in RPCA about dear little Mooch, our long-time
resident stray who scarfs down as many as seven meals a day on our
veranda, and sleeps in his own bed-chair equipped in the winter with
heating pads. At the same time, at the rear of our house we assist
another group of freeloaders. Toronto has a large black and grey
squirrel population. A good number of them show up in our backyard,
because in the winter I toss out sunflower seeds. I figure that like
Mooch, these little survivors deserve a break. It's gratifying to look
out the kitchen window and see as many 9 or 10 squirrels munching and
arguing among themselves. A lot of people feed the birds, but if you
also have squirrels in your area I suggest you help them survive by
following suit.

We have out very first squirrel in forty years of living here. His nest
is next door, but he likes our water bowls.

I'm figuring out what and when I can feed him without making too much of a
mess or encouraging varmits or giving my dog unneeded treats. He loves
apple cores left on the fence.

Jo


Squirrels like dried cracked corn Persia loves watching the squirrels.

Jill

"Jofirey" wrote in message
news |
| We have out very first squirrel in forty years of living here. His
| nest is next door, but he likes our water bowls.
|
| I'm figuring out what and when I can feed him without making too much
| of a mess or encouraging varmits or giving my dog unneeded treats. He
| loves apple cores left on the fence.
|
| Jo

I have lots of very fat squirrels but I do feed them specially or they steal
the food for the birds. Get proper squirrel feeder so there wont be any
mess. I have this one
http://www.birdfood.co.uk/product_de... 0&prd_id=112
and it took them all of 30 seconds to figure out that they had to lift the
lid to get the food!

Angela

On Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:19:12 -0800, Bobcat wrote:

I've often written in RPCA about dear little Mooch, our long-time resident
stray who scarfs down as many as seven meals a day on our veranda, and
sleeps in his own bed-chair equipped in the winter with heating pads. At
the same time, at the rear of our house we assist another group of
freeloaders. Toronto has a large black and grey squirrel population. A
good number of them show up in our backyard, because in the winter I toss
out sunflower seeds. I figure that like Mooch, these little survivors
deserve a break. It's gratifying to look out the kitchen window and see as
many 9 or 10 squirrels munching and arguing among themselves. A lot of
people feed the birds, but if you also have squirrels in your area I
suggest you help them survive by following suit.

I've been feeding the 4/5 that live in front of our building at work. We
are in that large area where the acorn crop failed last fall (second year
in a row here), and most of the other squirrels I see look thin, and there
are few of them, but these are fat. Maybe too fat. I gave them tree nuts
beginning around Xmas when they became available in the stores, and
peanuts (cooked, unsalted) all along. More recently, I started giving
them black oil sunflower seed on Mondays and Fridays, ear corn on Tuesdays
and Thursdays, and either peanuts or tree nuts on Wednesday (I found some
leftover Brazil nuts for $0.99 a pound at one store and I bought a bunch -
the only other discounted leftovers were pecans, and they were much
higher, but I bought some anyway).

Watching them eat corn is most interesting: some of them bite off the germ
and bury the rest, one eats the germ and throws away the rest which
another one grabs as soon as the first one leaves, one carries the whole
cob up into the tree and works on it there. Peanuts and tree nuts are
usually buried immediately, then others dug up to eat. Sunflower seed are
eaten in place immediately, with leftovers left in place for later.
They can eat a sunflower seed in about five seconds.


--

T.E.D. ) MST (Missouri University of Science and Technology)
used to be UMR (University of Missouri - Rolla).

On Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:19:12 -0800 (PST), Bobcat
wrote:

I've often written in RPCA about dear little Mooch, our long-time
resident stray who scarfs down as many as seven meals a day on our
veranda, and sleeps in his own bed-chair equipped in the winter with
heating pads. At the same time, at the rear of our house we assist
another group of freeloaders. Toronto has a large black and grey
squirrel population. A good number of them show up in our backyard,
because in the winter I toss out sunflower seeds. I figure that like
Mooch, these little survivors deserve a break. It's gratifying to look
out the kitchen window and see as many 9 or 10 squirrels munching and
arguing among themselves. A lot of people feed the birds, but if you
also have squirrels in your area I suggest you help them survive by
following suit.

Having a large pecan tree outside the patio door, my gang know all
about squirrels. In fact, squirrel (well actually 'squirrelly', is one
of the hoomin words in their vocabulary
--
Steve Touchstone
Little Bit, Sammy, Spotty, Princess, Furby
and Rocky (RB)
Pix at http://tinyurl.com/22pfn8
Vids at http://tinyurl.com/4yb6nj

On Feb 22, 11:07*pm, Steve Touchstone
wrote:

Having a large pecan tree outside the patio door, my gang know all
about squirrels. In fact, squirrel (well actually 'squirrelly', is one
of the hoomin words in their vocabulary
Steve Touchstone

Indeed, Steve, squirrels are fascinating critters. I've gotten to know
two of them especially well; I called them Nutsy and Earl the
Squirrel. Nutsy came first - a black female. She was so unafraid of me
she'd lie on the picnic table while I'd hand-feed her peanuts - and
even let me stroke her back, which she didn't mind.
The other squirrel was little Earl. A neighbour knew I'm a sucker for
critters, so she brought me a baby squirrel in a cardboard box who'd
fallen from his nest. He was so young that for months I had to hand-
feed him baby formula from an eye dropper - my friend Audrey Tournay,
founder of the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary advised me not to give
him cow's milk. This continued until he started demanding solid food,
so for awhile I shelled peanuts for him. Finally in the spring when
he'd grown big and strong enough to fend for himself, I released Earl
into the backyard, where he joined the other squirrels in mooching
food from me. I miss them both - Earl and Nutsy.

On Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:19:12 -0800 (PST), Bobcat
wrote:

I've often written in RPCA about dear little Mooch, our long-time
resident stray who scarfs down as many as seven meals a day on our
veranda, and sleeps in his own bed-chair equipped in the winter with
heating pads. At the same time, at the rear of our house we assist
another group of freeloaders. Toronto has a large black and grey
squirrel population. A good number of them show up in our backyard,
because in the winter I toss out sunflower seeds. I figure that like
Mooch, these little survivors deserve a break. It's gratifying to look
out the kitchen window and see as many 9 or 10 squirrels munching and
arguing among themselves. A lot of people feed the birds, but if you
also have squirrels in your area I suggest you help them survive by
following suit.

I love squirrels! They're so cute...