lfoster
11-17-2011, 09:06 AM
Hi all!
I posted a while ago about our babe that got out of her "condo" (our screen porch that was converted to squirrel condo with cage, nest box, feeders. limbs and her own oak tree!)... was worried to death but she is around all the time!
She comes from the trees when we call her, jumps on our back and rides around with us, eats from our hands and searches my hubbys pockets for her nuts. She loves to wrestle with my husband, hides nuts anywhere she can in his coat and even lets him hold her upside down while she eats!
We leave the porch door cracked and she comes and goes as she pleases and if we open the back door she calmly enters the house and goes to her bowl to get one of her beloved nuts - some she eats but most she takes outside and hides..... often in the most ridiculous places!
We have been, before dusk, closing the door once in the porch for two reasons. to make sure she is safe at night and to condition her to know that she has a warm (with heating pad!) nest box to come to every night. Once when we were not home to get her in before dark we were both saddened to know that she did not come in her next box on her own.
My question is this? Are we doing the right thing? she seems to love her warm nest box - last night was about 28 here in Chicago...she lingered in the box this morning as opposed to jumping all about her cage at daybreak.
We are hoping she realizes that she has this warm box and she knows she can come and go as she pleases, which is why we were surprised to find her not in her box the couple of nights we didnt "catch" her.
Should we just let her do as she pleases at night and not house her? Or is it OK? If we do continue to house her with a warm box and she doesnt come back one night or we are not here to catch her is that worse for her as to her getting accustomed to the cold?
As a mom I want her home and warm at night but some days we are not able to be here by dusk.....I am thinking that once it gets pretty cold out she may get it...yesterday it was so cold here too that when I gave her a peanut she grabbed it and wanted to eat it but when she put her little hands to the nut you could tell they were cold and she quickly went between trying to hold the nut and rubbing her hands on her chest for warmth --- ahhh!
Soory for the long post -
thanks all
Laura, mom to Petey Petunia :tilt
I posted a while ago about our babe that got out of her "condo" (our screen porch that was converted to squirrel condo with cage, nest box, feeders. limbs and her own oak tree!)... was worried to death but she is around all the time!
She comes from the trees when we call her, jumps on our back and rides around with us, eats from our hands and searches my hubbys pockets for her nuts. She loves to wrestle with my husband, hides nuts anywhere she can in his coat and even lets him hold her upside down while she eats!
We leave the porch door cracked and she comes and goes as she pleases and if we open the back door she calmly enters the house and goes to her bowl to get one of her beloved nuts - some she eats but most she takes outside and hides..... often in the most ridiculous places!
We have been, before dusk, closing the door once in the porch for two reasons. to make sure she is safe at night and to condition her to know that she has a warm (with heating pad!) nest box to come to every night. Once when we were not home to get her in before dark we were both saddened to know that she did not come in her next box on her own.
My question is this? Are we doing the right thing? she seems to love her warm nest box - last night was about 28 here in Chicago...she lingered in the box this morning as opposed to jumping all about her cage at daybreak.
We are hoping she realizes that she has this warm box and she knows she can come and go as she pleases, which is why we were surprised to find her not in her box the couple of nights we didnt "catch" her.
Should we just let her do as she pleases at night and not house her? Or is it OK? If we do continue to house her with a warm box and she doesnt come back one night or we are not here to catch her is that worse for her as to her getting accustomed to the cold?
As a mom I want her home and warm at night but some days we are not able to be here by dusk.....I am thinking that once it gets pretty cold out she may get it...yesterday it was so cold here too that when I gave her a peanut she grabbed it and wanted to eat it but when she put her little hands to the nut you could tell they were cold and she quickly went between trying to hold the nut and rubbing her hands on her chest for warmth --- ahhh!
Soory for the long post -
thanks all
Laura, mom to Petey Petunia :tilt