Playtime?

[JiffyNutSquirrel]

Jiffy is about 3.5 months old. I'm reading all sorts of things on here saying that the baby should get plenty of uncaged play time. Since he has been old enough to really jump and zoom around, I havent let him out. I am a little skeptical about letting the guy loose in my house. There are plenty of teensy spaces he can go to to hide and I wouldnt be able to get him back. How do I start introducing him to the outside of his cage? Also, the last time that I DID let him out he crawled all over my body, which I dont mind really. But then he perches on the back of my shoulders behind my head and pees on me. How do I stop that??? That is quite annoying. :\ lol

[astra]

Jiffy is about 3.5 months old. I'm reading all sorts of things on here saying that the baby should get plenty of uncaged play time. Since he has been old enough to really jump and zoom around, I havent let him out. I am a little skeptical about letting the guy loose in my house. There are plenty of teensy spaces he can go to to hide and I wouldnt be able to get him back. How do I start introducing him to the outside of his cage? Also, the last time that I DID let him out he crawled all over my body, which I dont mind really. But then he perches on the back of my shoulders behind my head and pees on me. How do I stop that??? That is quite annoying. :\ lol
:D you can't stop that - that's part of the "game", of being owned. In fact, it's a sign of honour, too.
There is a member here - Jake - whose squirrels routinely climb on top of his head and relieve themselves there;)
Jiffy owns you and knows that, too

On another note, yes, before you let him out, you need to squirrel-proof your room: block all those scary spots, cracks, nooks etc where he might get stuck and injure himself;
cover ALL cords - too many tragedies happened when a squirrel bit a cord;
different people use different things for protecting cords - you can ask this question as a separate thread to get more specific and faster answers.

Remove ALL house plants - most house plants are poisonous.

Remove/cover everything you do not want to be broken or chewed on

Make sure there is nothing else that can hurt him if he starts playing with it or chewing (like sharp objects, potentially toxic stuff etc).

Hide all pills, supplements, vitamins, lotions etc etc - so that if he chews through accidentally, he won't ingest any of that.

Make sure ALL toilet lids are closed. People use a ladder that they put in the toilet bowl - just in case a squirrel falls in it, it will be able to climb out. Here is the link: http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30728

Be EXTRA careful when closing and opening doors: they can sneak behind, or get on the door or something and you might accidentally jam him.

Can't think of anything else in terms of proofing, but i am sure ppl will share their experience.

If you have an old rug or something, you can hang it on the door - they like jumping and climbing on it.

[JiffyNutSquirrel]

oh boy...:owned heheheh

[madtowntom]

You do really need to be careful with cracks and crevices in a room if you let your squirrels run. I have been over-wintering squirrels in my 3 season porch for a few years now and they have the run of the place without a problem. I have an old frig in there that is not plugged in - I am just using it for storage for animal supplies. I thought I had taped over all of the possible entry ports behind it and underneath, but this morning I go out to feed the 4 greys I have for the winter and I hear scratching coming from what seemed to be inside the frig. As it turns out one little girl had somehow found an opening and had climbed up inside the motor casing and gotten stuck. I had to tip it over, take off the bottom and a couple of motor supports to get to where she was. Luckily she was fine, but I have no idea why or how she got in there. The frig is now gone from the porch.:rotfl

[JiffyNutSquirrel]

At the moment I only plan on lettin him loose in my front room. It has minimal furniture in it that sits very low. I can completely shut it off from the rest of the house. I think I will try starting off with once a day letting him out in the room and hanging out with him...gotta have supervision :D ... Id love to get reacquainted with him. I guess now I know to make sure to wear clothes I dont mind getting "owned" on lol. This is going to be a very exciting development to my relationship with Jiffy.


How does a squirrel play with a person anyway? I thought Jiffy may have been actually trying to bite me while I had my arm in his camper tidying up...but I think now these may have been attempts to play with me? Are they supposed to be love nibbles? :dono What do I do if he bites just a little too hard? Is there a squirrel "nono" that you can translate to him somehow? lol Questions!

How do I get the squirrely to go back to his cage when playtime is over for the moment? He doesnt seem too keen on being held, he squeaks at me when I have to pick him up. Will he trust me more eventually so that I can pick him up?

[shellyb1018]

From my personal experience so far, the more you have Jiffy out, the more calm he will get. There is really nothing you can do when he wants to run crazy all around except make sure he is safe and always supervised. My son and I take our Skeeter out every day, 2 to 5 times a day depending on our schedules. Sometimes she plays nice and others she is just plain outright crazy. Its all apart of it. Seems she always pees on my son but never on me, hahaha:rotfl
The more you have time with Jiffy, the more you will love him and the more he will trust you and you will do it as often as you can. I can only tell ya, I fall more in love with my girl every minute of the day. She really consumes my mind most of the day.
She also give "love" nibbles and licks our hands a lot, thats when i pull out the tooth brush and brush her fur, she seems to like it.
When she bites a little too hard, I just tell her, be nice, and sometimes she calms down and sometimes she doesnt. It all depends on her, we work around her...she is the princess and she makes the rules. We just go with it. hahaha
To get her back in her cage, we usually lure her back with a rodent block or a nut, depending on what time it is. She thinks we are giving her a nut every time so she goes back in. :rotfl