Rocki's successful release

[GinT]

It has been a while since I posted, but I've been reading :-) I think Rocki's release has been a success! She was our first squirrel and as a fall baby we were concerned about her successful release.
When looking into the requirements for a suitable outside release cage, we realized that while it was only temporary, making it secure and quality would be a significant investment in time and materials. So, since I have been wanting chickens for fresh eggs for about 10 years, we found plans for a nice chicken coop, that would make a great release cage for a squirrel if we didn't finish out the hen house!
My husband built the chicken coop (minus the hen house) and we moved Rocki with her inside cage into it 2 weeks ago. Video of that move here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2JZvc7x55I
After 4 days in that release cage, we were having a difficult time getting food into the cage for her without her attacking our hands, so hubby cut a 3" hole in the outside wall and we made a "bridge" from it to the nearby grove of oak trees. It didn't take her long to find it and start exploring. She tasted EVERYTHING. What she didn't like, she'd throw, everything else she ate! That first night, she followed me into the release cage as it started to get dark. The next morning, shortly after the sun came up, she was out exploring. She came down from the trees to get a snack or two, but ran right back up into the trees. Good girl!
The second night, she did not go back into the release cage. I was a little worried when I couldn't find her in the morning. The work day was very long wondering where she was and if she was OK. When I got home from work, she was in one of the trees by the release cage waiting and came down to grab a snack from me. A huge relief for me!
Every day this week has been the same. She isn't up yet in the morning before I go to work at 6:30, but is waiting when I get home from work at 5:00.
She isn't using her release cage, because she has taken over an old squirrel nest in a tree by the release cage. It is definitely a 'fixer upper', but she is becoming independent, so we are very happy.
Hubby was working on the hen house yesterday afternoon, with Rocki 'helping'. Today, we've run into a bit of a problem with that. A doe left an adorable little one between our house and the release cage overnight.
We've been waiting 6 hours for mom to come feed him/her (she is a no show so far) so haven't been able to work on the hen house at all :-(
We miss her snuffling at us and begging for snacks or to come out for playtime, but are relieved and thankful that she is doing so well outside.

Gayle in Texas

[TimDolbear]

Awesome! Its hard letting them go but at the same time its good. I hope she hopefully will be around for a while. Our boy is off and about because of mating season, so god only knows how far he wonders but we still see him every day or two and it is a relief.

[Dano]

Good to see you are having some success.I have 2 squirrels that I have raised since they were about 2 weeks old,1 male & 1 female, It is time to release them but I am torn as to release them in my backyard or about 1/8 of a mile from where I found them, I went over to the place I found them and there were at least 4 adult squirrels running around. I need to know if the other suirrels would be good for them(to show them around or if they would try to harm these younger ones? I feel like if they were in my backyard that I could keep an eye on them better, but should they be with the other squirrels? Please help!!

[Rhapsody]

Enjoy your moments of visitations........ they are the BEST. :Love_Icon :Love_Icon :Love_Icon

[Pierre]

Good to see you are having some success.I have 2 squirrels that I have raised since they were about 2 weeks old,1 male & 1 female, It is time to release them but I am torn as to release them in my backyard or about 1/8 of a mile from where I found them, I went over to the place I found them and there were at least 4 adult squirrels running around. I need to know if the other suirrels would be good for them(to show them around or if they would try to harm these younger ones? I feel like if they were in my backyard that I could keep an eye on them better, but should they be with the other squirrels? Please help!!

What's your backyard like? Do you have a lot of trees? Are there any squirrels in your yard? What are your roads like---busy or tiny sleepy? These are things to consider. You ideally need to place them in an outdoor release cage for awhile before you open the door. Feed them there etc. Could you do that at the other location?
This would be best for you to start a new thread with this question to get a lot of responses. It will get lost here. :grouphug

[squirrelking]

you guys are rediculous you should never release a squirrel raised in captivity if u cant keep it than dont rescue it you probally set him up 4 his death unless u taught him to hunt and avoid predators it makes me sooooo mad!!!!!!:soapbox

[SammysMom]

When people don't know what they are talking about they should just shut up. What a wonderful life for Rocki!!

[Pierre]

you guys are rediculous you should never release a squirrel raised in captivity if u cant keep it than dont rescue it you probally set him up 4 his death unless u taught him to hunt and avoid predators it makes me sooooo mad!!!!!!:soapbox

Squirrels don't hunt.

[Skul]

you guys are rediculous you should never release a squirrel raised in captivity if u cant keep it than dont rescue it you probally set him up 4 his death unless u taught him to hunt and avoid predators it makes me sooooo mad!!!!!!:soapbox
Jack, your stupidity is wearing thin.
Be a nice lad, and go away.
Atta boy..

GinT, I hope you don't take that idiots baseless rant to heart.

[Rescue04]

rocki will be okay. great job!! i have released many squirrels myself. good thing i live in florida. i can pretty much release all year around!!

[Rescue04]

Squirrels don't hunt.

you just made me giggle.

[Pierre]

you just made me giggle.

:jump

[Kelly Brady]

Hi Gayle,

What a great story.:thumbsup It sounds like Rocki is doing perfectly. I still have releases coming to visit from as far as two years ago. Clearance has a specific scar on his ear and he still comes by for snacks.

I just released three that went out to the release cage and one built her own nest right away. I think Rocki's adventure right in to a nest shows you did a great job!!! Independence is a good thing. Congrats and good luck with the hen house.

Keep us posted on Rocki ok?

[Rescue04]

Jack, your stupidity is wearing thin.
Be a nice lad, and go away.
Atta boy..

GinT, I hope you don't take that idiots baseless rant to heart.

not to mention he needs to hit spell check a little more often. my head hurts from reading it.

[Skul]

not to mention he needs to hit spell check a little more often. my head hurts from reading it.
Yes, rather sad he resorts to this type of thing.
You did right GinT, don't let an idiot tell you otherwise.

[MomOf2squirrels]

I really enjoyed your videos of Rocki's life with you and her release. It looks like you did an excellent job in raising her to be a wild squirrel. My baby I have had for 2 years and she comes and goes but mostly stays in the house. Her baby left this spring successfully. I didn't go through all the stuff you two did. But didn't handle him much and left him alone with his mother. Who seems to be very happy that he's gone. More food for her. I thought she would be more of nurturing mother than she was. But it seemed that when he started eating solid foods it was every squirrel for itself and she would even snatch his food. It got so I would have to take her out of the cage and feed him so he could get his nutrition. Keep the videos coming and hope that little baby deer is doing fine and his momma came back.

[GinT]

A follow up. Rocki is doing good, in spite of our horrible drought :-( I give her snacks every morning before work and every evening after work. There have been a couple weekends where we have gone camping for 3-4 days, but the Memorial Weekend Camping was 40 minutes away, so we drove back every day to feed Rocki. Last weekend we were farther away, so couldn't drive home, but our 21 year old son (who Rocki does NOT like) left snacks in the tree for her each day.

We have a bird bath for her out by the trees and between Rocki and the deer, they empty it over night and again during the day. We don't do large buckets because the one time we tried it, we found drowned birds :-(.

Rocki has tested out all three abandoned squirrel nests in the back yard over the last 6 weeks, but has not gone back into the chicken coop, so the day old chickens are scheduled to ship July 5th.

Rocki loves avacado, apple, grapes, rat blocks and tomato. She gets a pecan or walnut or acorn every day also. Next to avacado, she loves her seeds. I get a package of "Extreme Select Seeds" from PetSmart that has pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, cantaloupe seeds and squash seeds. If she knows I have these, she won't eat anything else, so those come out only after work and only after she has eaten other snacks.

She also seems to miss being petted. She would much rather eat her snacks while sitting on me or Jim, than sitting in the tree. She also "rubs" around my neck and shoulders.

I was concerned about her seeming to need attention as I am pretty sure any of our neighbors would totally freak if she ran up to them, but she is wary of strangers. She'll 'bark' at other people, cats and the deer.

We have 4 baby deer in the back acre and 2 in the front. Mamas are taking care of them, but one mama is frustrating me because she leaves her twins for 16 hours at a time! To me, that is about 10 hours too long!

I'm hoping that the fruit and veggies she loves is helping to keep her from getting dehydrated in out extreme heat. I do a "pinch" test on her every day to make sure she doesn't seem dehydrated and so far, so good.

A couple pictures:


And to the red text idiot, squirrels are wild animals. Wild animals are NOT pets. I will supplement her diet as long as she eats it, but able bodied squirrels do not belong in a cage. Put your @$$ in a cage and see how happy you are for the rest of your life.

To everyone else, sorry for the outburst :-)

Gayle

[Pierre]

What a beautiful and wonderful story!! I am about to release my squirrel in my yard too, and I am so sad about never touching him again. Your story is enlightening and I pray my boy is as happy to visit with me as is Rocki with you! Rocki is just adorable. :Love_Icon

[GinT]

Rocki is still hanging out, but her personality and eating habits have changed in the last 2 weeks. I'm not sure if it is because of the extreme heat/drought here, or if it is because it is that time of year?!?!

She is more skittish of birds and deer in the back yard. The birds and deer will occasionally steal her snacks, but I've never seen any go after Rocki. I thought she'd be more acclimated to them by now. She has also started to 'stash' food a lot. We'd been breaking nuts open for her, because she'd eat the open ones instead of burying them, but not anymore. She'll take a couple bites of walnut or pecan or hazel net, then bury the rest. She is also stashing her seeds. Up until 2 weeks ago, she'd eat every seed (10-15 or so). Now, she may eat one and then either buries them in the dirt, or wedges them in the bark and Y's of trees. It will be interesting to have watermelons, squash and pumpkins growing in the oak trees!

She's also put on a little weight around the mid section, so I'm wondering if she is preggers? Do they get more skittish and stash food more when they get pregnant?

Gayle

[Pierre]

Oh yes they do! She probably is pregnant! How fun---she'll probably bring the babies around once they're bigger.:Love_Icon
You should look up the thread by Kelly Brady called "Paco's in Heat...". It's about one of her released females... You will love it. :Love_Icon

Glad to hear Rocki's doing well! Keep us updated. :grouphug

[GinT]

Well, pretty sure Rocki isn't preggers, so think her behavioral changes were the extreme heat! She still visits almost every day for snacks and petting. We had one of the smaller (only 6400 acres) fires very close on Monday and the neighborhood started evacuation. The smoke was very noticeable. We were worried about her, but she doesn't usually come when called, so chances of being able to pack her up were slim to none :-( Luckily the wind changed direction within 2 hours and we got to stay. Tuesday though she was quite clingy :-)
Thought I'd share her 'carrot wrestling' video from a couple weeks ago. The day after we found her, I bought her a stuffed carrot to snuggle. It was one of the only pet toys I could find that didn't have terry type loops that would catch little toes or catnip in it. It was her snuggle buddy and play friend 6 months until moving outside in May. I brought it out about a month ago, but never saw her play with it, but it did move several feet every now and then, so thought she had been playing with it. A couple weeks ago she was in a 'hanging out with mom & dad" mood and we did get to watch her playing with her carrot. We were even able to go in and get the video camera and capture it for you tube :-)
http://www.youtube.com/txbauscher#p/a/u/2/I1TVBCahIO0

Gayle

[GinT]

I figured it was about time for an update on our rescue, Rocki. She is a hoot! We still see her almost daily. She gets her favorite snacks (avacado, corn on the cob, nuts in the shell and Extreme seeds) daily. We have found nuts.com and order her nuts in the shell from there as the stores around here only seem to carry them during Thanksgiving- Xmas. We have also resorted to ordering her Extreme Seeds online because Petsmart doesn't always have them when we need them. I never imagined having to stock up on nuts and seeds!

She had two baby girls in the fall. She was acting really odd. she kept gabbing my husband's and my hands trying to take us somewhere every time we visited with her. She even chewed a piece out of my shirt and took it into one of the nest boxes we built her. we opened it up and she pulled Jim's hand into the box! We took both babies out and they were very dehydrated, so we brought them in for a few minutes to give them some water and that seemed to help them out significantly. Rocki never brought them around, but we see them occasionally eating from a snack bowl we set up for Rocki.

A couple months ago, we had a few days of below freezing and Rocki moved into our attic! We tried blocking the entrance vent with wood, and it only took her a couple days to chew through a 5/8th inch thick board to get back in. Second attempt was a piece of BBQ grate we had. Unfortunately, she found some other way in, and this blocked her way out. It is rather interesting having to take the light fixture above your kitchen sink down, so you can get your squirrel out of your ceiling :-). So, until we can find all the entrances in, we removed the grate so she can get out.

We are pretty sure she has babies in the attic right now as it is evident that she is nursing. Thank goodness squirrels are not nocturnal!

She is very much a 'daddy's girl' and loves my husband. Rocki and I had a little incident several weeks ago where I saw her in the back yard, so walked out and called her as is usual. She came running up and onto my shoulder like normal, then ran down my arm and attacked the #€££ out of my thumb! Trying to pry her off sent blood all over the back of the house and when I finally got her off and opened the door to come back in the house to do something about the bleeding, she went after my hand again while reaching for paper towels. I had to yell for my husband to get her off me! I think it was because I had just showered and my hair was wet, so she freaked when she got up close?!? I still love her and give her snacks, but definitely will not go outside with wet hair ever again!

Rocki is still our baby girl and we look forward to seeing her every day. If it is wet and cold out and we don't see her for a day or two, we worry. It is crazy being a squirrel parent, but we'd do it again in a heartbeat!

This short video was taken earlier today. She loves her Avacodo and it is so cute how she cleans her feet and face after each piece. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOhajc34whc

If y'all are interested, we have a number of videos of her on YouTube. http://youtube.com/results?q=txbauscher%20rocki
http://youtube.com/results?q=txbauscher%20squirrel
Can you tell she is just a little spoiled? :-)

Gayle

[SammysMom]

Oh Rocki is beautiful! Thank-you for sharing that great video!
So sorry about your thumb...:shakehead Imagine that we can love them even when they try to kill us...:rotfl
(nice to another Gayle around here...we have a few of us!:thumbsup )