fluffylvr
06-06-2011, 11:17 AM
Hello, I am new here although I have been reading posts for months now. I prefer not to say what state I live in as our laws prohibit keeping squirrels as "pets". April 11th I was walking my dog on a very windy day when I came up to a ball of gray fur. First thought field mouse, but as i approached I noticed the tail. My daughter "14yrs" and I inspected the area, a nest was approx 12 feet up in the small tree and pieces of it on the ground. No mama in sight. We waited and listened from a distance to see if she was near or calling for it, she never came back. We gently picked it up, and inspected the surrounding area again searching for siblings we could not find any. as we walked down the road further we seen a larger squirrel sadly dead in the road condition looked as if it had been recent. i immediately got on the phone. I was told to put it back outside and let nature take it's course. :( I am an animal lover and it brought tears to my eyes knowing I could not help him and could not keep him. My daughter was very upset as we have an abundance of raccoons, possums, cats in the area. I decided for the first time in my life to not listen and rehab it I was not going to teach this inhumane act to my daughter, as a human being I could not bring myself to letting it die. I began research, within an hour found out he was a boy, dehydrated, what kind of emergency milk, fluids to give him. instantly got to work. We named him Rocky because he is a fighter. The first night he stayed in an old guinea pig cage atop a heating pad followed all protocol for bedding feeding etc. Rocky the rockstar is now a rambunctious young man. Today is his release day. He has been ready for a week and a half however the weather did not allow it. I am a bit worried because Rocky is very attached to me. I have read on the forum some say their fluffys bite. Rocky will run from one side atop his cage to my arm and wrestle my hand nibbling, not biting. however he has bitten my son and my daughter. he also jumped on my dogs head to warn her away when she accidentally got passed my son and came to close to his cage. I hope this does not mean he will have a hard time on his own. I did not see an area for singles on the forum. He has had a small toy animal with him as I read this will help singles not be so lonely. He still wrestles with it :) too cute! He eats nuts, fruits veggies, feed corn his faves are grapes (no skin was offered until 2 weeks ago, he carefully peals them himself now) I tried offering him the same fruit and veggies we have growing in our yard. We have accepted that this years harvest will not be big because we are welcoming him into the garden to eat as needed and his nest box is near our grapevines. I wanted to join the forum because I am worried and hope that if he will not get the hang of the wild I will find help here as I've found some not being a member. Sorry for the long hello, just tried getting the last 2 months in a paragraph :)