Life in Squirreldom

Squirrel Watch: The Homecoming

Last Thursday I brought my first set of squirrels back home from the Wildlife Center and released them. Yay!

I actually got a bonus squirrel out of the deal. I had been down at the center a couple of days earlier. When I checked out the enclosure, I was quite surprised to see a black squirrel running around with my guys. What probably happened was that s/he escaped from one of the other enclosures and whoever caught him/her didn't know which one s/he came out of. Oh well, no such thing as too many squirrels in my mind! :)

My volunteer colleague Carla came with me to the center, where the gang had already been caught and placed in two small release cages. We brought them straight back to my house and placed the cages on the lawn, facing some trees and a bowl of water. I also spread some food out for them so they wouldn't have to go too far afield at first to find some.

Then I lifted the front panels to let them take their time to come out on their own. Well, four of the six ran out almost immediately, but one in each cage wasn't quite ready, so I had to do a little coaxing.

Here's a short video of the experience.

So everything was going along just fine, until... I was taking the t-shirts into the garage to put them in the laundry, when I was startled by something jumping right in front of me. Yep, at some point, a couple of the squirrels must have noticed the inviting interior and decided to check it out. Which would have been fine with me until I suddenly remembered I had some set mouse traps up in the rafters from a problem I was having a couple of years ago. Yikes!

I was glad I had Carla with me because, between the two of us, we were able to handle the situation. First of all, I got a broom so I could block the squirrels from the traps and then used the handle to trip them. Then I remembered my pool skimmer, which we could use as a net to try to catch the little rascals. Unfortunately, they were still too fast for us to actually trap them, but our efforts managed to get them to run back out into the yard. And that's when I started breathing again... :)

So the release turned out to be a little bit more of an adventure than I had been expecting, but once everything was settled down, I could enjoy watching the squirrels start to get to know their new home. Yay!

Squirrel Watch: Transfer Day

I finally have a chance to report on how the transfer to the enclosure at the wildlife center went last Monday.

The first challenge was just transferring them from their cage to the cat carrier. Three of them went easily; the other two, not so much. But eventually I managed to snag all five of them. I put some of their bedding in the carrier with them so they'd have familiar scents around them during the trip.

Here's a picture of their new home:

It's 4' x 6' x 8', which gives them a heckuva lot more room for running and climbing than the little cage in my spare room. Before I moved them in, I did a little prep work. I had taken the nest material from their hammock at home with me and filled up their new hammock with it, and spread some food around the ground to give them an incentive to come out of the carrier.

I then put the carrier in the cage and left it open, then left the enclosure to watch them. After about five minutes, the biggest guy decided to check out the situation.

It didn't take him too long to start exploring his new surroundings.

It took about another ten minutes before a second one ventured out, but she wasn't quite ready to completely leave the carrier yet.

The last three weren't quite so forthcoming. After waiting another 20 minutes or so, I pulled the t-shirts out of the carrier and placed them in front of the door, hoping that would encourage them. Nope. Then I tried tipping the cage to let gravity provide a little assistance. That worked for one of them, but the other two really dug their claws into the side of the carrier. So I stepped outside again to give them a little more time and space.

Well, after another 20 minutes or so, I decided I was going to have to play “bad cop.” I picked up the carrier and just dumped 'em! They scurried out pretty quickly and immediately made their way to the back wall, where they plastered themselves and remained virtually immobile until I finally had to leave, about half an hour later.

By that point, the other three had all been inside the hammock and the nest box, so I figure the other two would eventually make their way to those safe places as well. They had moved a little while I waited, so it wasn't like they were totally paralyzed with fear (although I definitely felt pangs of guilt watching them cling to the wall like their lives depended on it...)

All in all, I was there for about three hours. It was hard leaving them, but I knew it was the right thing to do. When I got home, that spare room sure seemed empty though!

P.S. The exposures in these pics are all over the place because the enclosure had areas of bright sunshine right beside total shadow, so I had to keep changing the setting to compensate for the difference. And since these guys weren't exactly standing still for me (except for the last two :), I didn't have a lot of time to experiment...

Squirrel Watch: Day 42

More pics. My little charges will be heading back to the Wildlife Center tomorrow to spend a few weeks in a large outdoor enclosure until they're ready to be released. So I'm posting a bunch more photos so we won't forget them while they're gone. :) The good news is that they will be back, as the plan is to release them in my own backyard. I already have a few eastern grey squirrels here, so we know it will be a suitable environment for them. Until then, though...

Squirrel Watch: Day 41

Another video. I shot these clips by holding the camera, rather than using the tripod, so they may be a little shakier than usual. But it was easier for me to follow the action this way.

These were taken when they've been going to town on the solid food after their formula feeding. I had tried avocado when they were younger and they didn't seem to go for it. But as you'll see in the last shot, that's not the case anymore. One of the things I find really funny about these guys is when one of them is eating something, like a grape or a dandelion leaf, and another one tries to eat it at the same time, even though there are plenty more of the same thing in the cage.

I don't have a shot of this, but one of the girls was able to crack open a walnut yesterday. Previously, they could only get into them if they were partially cracked already, but she definitely got this one started all on her own.

On another note... I've mentioned a few times about the wonders of Pedialyte for taking care of the squirrels' various health problems. Today, I ran across this article about some athletes swearing by it as well:

> Three Yards and a Drink That Tastes Like Dust

Squirrel Watch: Day 38

Again, a routine day today. In fact, unless something unusual happens in the next few days, or I get some particularly great pics or video footage of the gang, I may not post about them again until Monday. They'll be fully weaned by then, so I'll be taking them all back to the center to be housed in a large outdoor enclosure for a few weeks. There, they'll be able to run and climb a lot more and also get used to being outside, while still being in a safe environment. After that, they'll be ready for release.

Sigh. They grow up so fast. :)

Squirrel Watch: Day 37

Nothing special to report today, so I'll just post a few new pics. I was able to take these through the open door of the cage, so you can actually SEE the squirrels here... :)

I love this first one, with the little guy just peeking his face out from the hammock.

The rest of these are of my biggest guy, who's often awake while the others are having a snooze.

Squirrel Watch: Day 36

I was finally able to get my little guy out of the cage today—twice! In the morning, he only drank 3cc of formula, but my bigger goal was to weigh him, since I hadn't been able to for a couple of days. Well, easier said than done... When I put him in the shoebox on the scale, he wouldn't pause for the second it takes for the scale to register the correct weight. Instead, it kept rotating through a list of numbers, ranging from about 180g to 290g! Not too helpful. But I was able to weigh him this evening, and he seems to still be gaining weight, so that's good.

He was acting a little funny today, though. When the four others were running and jumping around the cage, he was either staying in the hammock or hiding under the shoebox. I can't see any signs of anything wrong with him health-wise, so I'm not sure why his behaviour has changed (he used to run around as much as the others). Maybe he's just been eating more solid food to make up for the lack of formula, and that's making him a little less frantic? I'll be keeping a closer eye on him tomorrow, though, just to make sure everything's okay. He did take in 12cc of formula at this evening's feeding, so I don't know if that will make a difference or not.

I'll be reducing their feedings to once a day starting tomorrow. They're all large enough now for this final step before moving to an outdoor enclosure. However, I wasn't comfortable just going straight from twice a day to once a day (seems like a pretty dramatic change), so tonight I fed them about half the amount of normal, and I gave it to them a little earlier so they'd go a little longer overnight without feeding. That way I hope that going a whole 24 hours between feedings won't be quite so shocking to their systems.

Squirrel Watch: Day 35

Today was a fun day. I turned the squirrels' cage into a bit of a jungle gym, by putting some dead branches from my oleander trees through the wires and using some binder clips on each end to prevent them from slipping back inside the cage. Watch a couple of the guys checking them out:

One of the gang seems to have weaned himself, which would be fine except that he's the smallest of the bunch. For both feedings, he retreated to the back wall of the cage where I couldn't reach him. This was the same guy who was climbing the wire front of the cat carrier before his eyes were open, and who then opened his eyes when he was still quite small, so it's possible he was the runt of his litter and is underweight relative to his age and level of development. I've been putting the leftover formula from a feeding session into a shallow container and placing it in the cage so he can drink from that if it's just a matter of him not wanting to be hand-fed. I did see one of the squirrels drinking from the bowl, but it wasn't him, so I don't know if he's taking advantage of the option or not. Oh, well, I'm sure if he was hungry enough, he'd come forward. It certainloy doesn't seem like he's suffering from any loss of energy...

Squirrel Watch: Day 34

A couple of new developments today:

• The squirrels have started to build a nest in their hammock. I was re-reading the manual and I saw a note that dried corn husks make good nesting material. At first I was disappointed, because my friends and I ate a lot of corn last week, but I didn't think to save the husks. But then I had a brainstorm. I had grown some corn in my garden earlier this year and a few of the cobs overripened while I was out of town. So I had just left them on the stalks, which meant that I had a bunch of already dried husks I could harvest. And the manual was right—those are primarily what they're using for the nest.
• I introduced some walnuts in the shells to the mix. I partially cracked a few of them to get the squirrels started, and boy did they! They were going nuts for them! (Pun intended. :) No one's managed to crack one of the whole ones yet, but I'm sure it won't be long.

Not much else to report. Everyone's eating well and jumping around the cage like crazy. It's nice to not have to worry so much about their health as I did when they were smaller. Basically, I'm now just working towards weaning them over the next week or two, so they can be transferred to an outdoor enclosure for a few weeks before they're released. Boy, the time sure has flown...

Squirrel Watch: Day 33

And, we're back.

I actually picked the gang back up on Tuesday, but haven't had a chance to post again since then. They're all doing really well and are MUCH bigger than when I sent them off to the babysitters—they're all over 200g now and my biggest crossed the 300g threshold this morning!

The first day back was a bit difficult, because they weren't as trusting of me as before when I tried to pick them up. And we have a new, bigger cage, to give them more room to climb, but it doesn't have the best door setup for getting them in and out. And I can't just put them in a shoebox after they feed anymore, because they can open it. It took me a while to figure out another option. I didn't want to just put them in my cat carrier, because they will go right to the back of it, making them hard to reach (and making it easier for one to escape while I work on taking out another). So I put a couple of boxes in the back of the carrier and pressed towels in the gaps, so it's not so deep. After a couple of shaky feeding sessions, it seems to be working out well now.

They're all sleeping in the hammock now (when they're not all running around like maniacs, which is quite a bit of the time!). At first I had it set up too close to the door of the cage, so it was really hard to get the squirrels out. But I moved it back a bit, and now that's actually the easiest way to grab them. In fact, it's funny. A couple of times, a couple of the squirrels have been scurrying around the cage but, when they saw me taking the others out to feed them, they crawled into the hammock to wait their turn!

On the other hand, one of them has figured out that if he doesn't want to be caught, he just has to crawl up the back wall, where there's no way I can reach him. I'm not worried about it, though, because I figure he must not be hungry when he does that.

When I got them back, they were down to three feedings a day, which I kept up until yesterday, but today I reduced them to twice a day. Almost all of them were refusing to eat for at least one of the feedings each day, so they should be fine on the new schedule. They're definitely enjoying the solid food and natural items in the cage. When my friends were here, we went for a hike one day and I was able to gather a few pine cones, which they like to gnaw on. And I've been putting in branches from trees in my backyard that have seed pods on them, and they're really going to town on those.

Here's a video of three of them having a grand ol' time!