I love the wildlife in my garden, and living ten minutes from Manchester city centre, that's no mean feat... to have wildlife that is, not to love living in Manchester. The foxes get crunchy bones fresh from the local butchers, the goldfinches get niger seeds, my varied and cheeky tits get all the seeds they can manage, and the squirrels got peanuts. Any problem there you can see? No, me neither. Until my favourite squirrel, an old girl who pops into the kitchen on occasion when she fancies a cashew, suddenly went bald. Big stripes, utterly hairless, awful. Last year we had a fox with mange who lost all his hair, and I'd to treat him using homeopathic medicines every night for 3 weeks (pills tucked in burgers and drops on jam sandwiches - no mean feat in the manchester rain)> So was that the option? Well, after trawling the net to find something on squirrel hair loss (no I couldn't quite believe I was doing it either), I found the amazing Clarissa Summers, the queen of rescuing baby sqidgies and hand rearing them.
And she tells me.......... it's the bloody peanuts!!!!! Excessive peanut eating can give squirrels alopecia. How guilty did I feel? She had gorged on the peanut feeder none stop. So it was swiftly moved, well out of the way, and I followed Clarissa's advice of feeding my squidgie walnuts, hazelnuts and cashews, which she'll take from my hand. And low and behold, all the fur is growing back two weeks later. I know most people don't really like them, but her site is a revelation, squirrels don't get fleas or bite humans, and well, I think Clarissa is a superstar. World No1 expert!!!!
Contact her on: jbsum@hal-pc.org
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