“Unless you find a mother lode of the things, there is not enough meat on them to replace the energy you expend in hunting, prepping, and cooking them.”
While its true you can starve to death on just rabbit they make a great addition to the diet. Squirrels are about the same. If you’re expending that much energy hunting them then you are doing it wrong.
An 8 ounce squirrel is about 125 kcal of food. If you spent one hour getting to your spot and hunting, then another hour prepping and cooking the squirrels, 10 of them would result in a net gain of about 250 calories for your effort. That’s half of a light lunch.