8-9 week old in August

[PDXErik]

She sounds like an overwinter to me. Does this sound right to you?

I'm sorry I can't answer many questions, I seem to ask so many.

[PDXErik]

I have read, and it sounds like it to me, I would just like second opinions because I don't really know what I'm doing.

(I hate double posting, but I guess it's OK here, I tried to edit)

[CritterMom]

Where do you live? You don't have to be specific - but what state?

[PDXErik]

Where do you live? You don't have to be specific - but what state?

Oregon.

It stays fairly temperate, but some winters can be pretty tough, freezing rain, snow, etc.

Maybe it'll be a "Keep the back porch stocked with goodies" winter and it can practice being on its own.

[spykitten01]

I live in MN and Im wondering the same thing - my wittew wons are currently about 6 weeks old or so ATM

Id also like some input on possible overwintering?

[PDXErik]

I live in MN and Im wondering the same thing - my wittew wons are currently about 6 weeks old or so ATM

Id also like some input on possible overwintering?

If mine wants to be wild, I figure, I'll stock all kinds of goodies on the porch, but in MN, that's probably an overwinter, I'd think.

[spykitten01]

I was thinking that too - probably going to have to overwinter - but Ill still take the opinions of people who are way more experienced than I am.

As for the "wilding up" - I know my girls are a little bit younger, but they seem to be pretty attached to me. If I walk by their tank and theyre awake, theyll walk over, stand up and start pawing the glass. As soon as I put my hand inside, they eagerly crawl into it. They give me kisses all the time and love to sleep on me (on my shoulder/under my hair, inside my shirt/bra) etc.

Im sure theyll get wilder as they grow older - but it sounds like yours was much more independent when she was the same age as my girls. Im guessing theyre so attached because they were only 3-4 days old when I found them?

[PDXErik]

If I walk by their tank and theyre awake, theyll walk over, stand up and start pawing the glass.


Not mine. Like every other girl in my life, she runs and hides. C'est la vie.

[island rehabber]

:jump:jump

Let me tell you both that regardless of whether your baby clings to you now like Velcro or dives under the blankies when you appear, they WILL wild up and their behavior at release time is totally unpredictable. I am still laughing about a squirrel I raised with three siblings who was so horrible to his sibs that in the last 2 wks before release I had to separate him from them! I never approached him without gloves on my hands. Come release day, the cage was open and his siblings burst forth to meet the world. Alvie the Impaler, on the other hand, cowered in the nest box for THREE DAYS before sticking his toe out, the little wimp :rotfl

[spykitten01]

haha what a stinker! whats your opinion on overwintering, IR?

[squirrelsrule&bunniestoo]

I have some babies here in Northeast Ohio (not the worst winters, but we definetely get snow!) that just opened their eyes in the last week and I am planning to release them this year if everything goes according to plan. They are about 6 weeks old, so if they are released at 14-15 weeks old, which is the normal time, that is the 15-24th of October, which is a fine time to release squirrels here in Ohio.

I have some smaller babies with their eyes still closed (2 2 week olds and 2 3-4 week olds) and they will most likely need to be overwintered.

I just play it by ear in the fall. If the babies are big and healthy and wild and ready to go and the leaves are still on the trees and the weather halfway decent, then they go free. If they don't do quite so well (with all the formula issues last year I had to overwinter 12! :sanp3 because they just weren't growing right) then they stay for the winter. It all depends on the weather and the squirrels.

[spykitten01]

thanks s&bt - im also worried just because Willow has been so sick twice now so shes behind her sister growth-wise and not nearly as big and hearty - and if I overwinter one, I need to do both

[mugzeezma]

I have some babies here in Northeast Ohio (not the worst winters, but we definetely get snow!) that just opened their eyes in the last week and I am planning to release them this year if everything goes according to plan. They are about 6 weeks old, so if they are released at 14-15 weeks old, which is the normal time, that is the 15-24th of October, which is a fine time to release squirrels here in Ohio.

I have some smaller babies with their eyes still closed (2 2 week olds and 2 3-4 week olds) and they will most likely need to be overwintered.

I just play it by ear in the fall. If the babies are big and healthy and wild and ready to go and the leaves are still on the trees and the weather halfway decent, then they go free. If they don't do quite so well (with all the formula issues last year I had to overwinter 12! :sanp3 because they just weren't growing right) then they stay for the winter. It all depends on the weather and the squirrels.
Mine are the same age as yours then SRB2 and the winters here can be really rough....tough decision and playing by ear...or squirrel as it were.

[spykitten01]

mine are about 6 weeks as well - new pics up in my "im a big kid now" post

[PDXErik]

Thanks for the comfort.

Mine is pretty fiesty. I've been gifted with a very hardy squirrel. Some noob gets here, googles some, and what do you know, she's getting a full tail and I've no problems so far.

She's trying to play and loves to have her head held in my closed hand (wat???).

I think she's giong to be a bad ass backyard pet lol.

[lelliott]

Mine is about 6.5 weeks right now and I fully plan to overwinter. We often have snow at the end of October, so I just don't think it would be fair to let him go in this climate. I expect overwintering to be a challenge, but there doesn't seem to be an alternative.