Normal for female releases to not return?

[virginia_arce2280]

Just a curious question, I have released 4 squirrels this fall, (3 females and 1 male)it's been about 2 months now, (well 1 squirrel released herself:osnap )
Well three of them hung around for several weeks-2 girls and a boy and one girl was even coming back to the cage to sleep at night for more than a week, but then one day about the same time, both girls just vanished and haven't returned.
The boy, the one I thought would high-tail it and never return has set up house in a pine full of vines covering it- a real mess of a tree near by where there were a bunch of old nests(I am assuming he is using one of them) and he hangs around and comes about 3-4 times a week to take a nut or piece of vegetable or fruit out of my hand and then scurry up the tree. He won't let me touch him, but he will come down and I always know it's him around because all the wilds will scatter at the sight of me and he just sits there in the tree so if I call him and he sees food in my hand he usually comes down. I also have several stations set up around the house where I place blocks and veggies and fruit and he visits everyone of them.

My question is, the girls have never returned. Is this normal for the females?
And one which is the oldest and we had for over a year before we released her. When she hung around for those couple of weeks, whenever she saw me, she would run to me and jump on me for a ride, but then one day she was gone. I would like to think that both females found a nice place with other females but I don't know.
What is your experience with male and female releases?

[pappy1264]

Its hard to say. I have had both males and females stay and leave. I think alot depends on the individual and how many squirrels are in the general area, as they can be territorial and if you have alot of squirrels there already, they may have either moved on their own (or been chased off). But many leave for a while then just show up out of seemingly nowhere, so don't give up hope! Keep putting food out for them. Hopefully they will pop by soon to say 'hi'.

[virginia_arce2280]

That's encouraging.
I keep hoping that they will return at least to say Hi, just so I know they're okay. Especially the oldest one. She was my very first rehab, and it was hard to let her go, but she seemed so happy when she discovered trees.

Here are some pictures of the first day of release. We did a soft release. It was a Saturday and we stayed outside all day long with them while they played and explored. They all went back in the cage to sleep that night and did that for about a week and then one of them got a little too far from the house, went up a tree and that was the end of that. That was the boy, and the girls soon followed and just seemed to really love it out there. We live in very rural area on 4 acres of woods with lots of pines and oak trees with acorns. It was peak acorn season and they had a ball with all those acorns.

[bobby taylor]

My experience is that females will stay and males will leave. You never know for sure what happens to them. This spring I released 6, 4 boyz and 2 girlz and the boyz were the first to go awol. One of my females stayed around all summer and into the fall. Every day around 5pm she would meet me in the back yard for her evening nut. Then one day she was not there and I called and called her. I did this for a week or so. They just dont leave especially when she had 3 nest in my back yard. This gives me mixed feelings on releasing my buddies. I guess it depends on your location. I live in a heavily wooded area with bob cats, owls, and hawks.

[virginia_arce2280]

My experience is that females will stay and males will leave. You never know for sure what happens to them. This spring I released 6, 4 boyz and 2 girlz and the boyz were the first to go awol. One of my females stayed around all summer and into the fall. Every day around 5pm she would meet me in the back yard for her evening nut. Then one day she was not there and I called and called her. I did this for a week or so. They just dont leave especially when she had 3 nest in my back yard. This gives me mixed feelings on releasing my buddies. I guess it depends on your location. I live in a heavily wooded area with bob cats, owls, and hawks.

Yes, we also have hawks and owls (and bobcats, even though they are rare to see) My fear too was predators, but it's hard to say. I would like to think that nothing bad happened to them, but in the wild I guess you never know. I too have mixed feelings and my children ( I have 4) say, "Oh mommy, I wished we hadn't let them go", so sometimes I second guess myself on what was the right choice. The male seems so happy and he's been there for about 2 or 2 1/2 months now so I guess it's right to at least give them a chance at freedom and not in a cage for the rest of their life. I tell my children, that if something bad happened to them, then at least we can have comfort in knowing that we gave them 10 months or a year (or however long we had them) of life when they surely would have died as babies otherwise. I hope that gives them comfort, and maybe it will to me too.... some day:Love_Icon
thanks for sharing your experience.

[Fivefootsix]

I also did a soft release over the course of 3-4 months (August-November). When I finally opened the cage for good, my Ozzy (2 years old) stayed in the yard, ate treats out of my hand, and returned to cage & nesting box every night for a month. I have 2-4 wilds that hang around the yard and made sure everyone had enough food & water. Well, I haven't seen my Ozzy in over a week, but the wilds still come every day. It's so sad when I look at the cage and peek in the nesting box and see nothing :shakehead I took great care of my sweet Ozzy for 2 years and I thought the release went extremely well. Now I have my doubts because I believe Ozzy was bullied out of the yard by the wilds. I stopped putting food out the past few days thinking that if the wilds don't have easy access to food, they will go elsewhere and maybe my Ozzy will return. :dono I do find comfort in knowing my Ozzy had 2 absolutely wonderful years with me, along with at least one month of experiencing the freedom of being a real squirrel. I remain hopeful that we will both see our "babies" again soon. Be well :tilt

[pappy1264]

Do not get discouraged. My Bean disappeared for a month and two days. I live on the woods, but she was here every day, so after a while, I just 'knew' she was gone. I stopped looking, stopped calling...it was just too hard on me. Then one day, out of nowhere, my daughter says 'mom, I think that is Bean.' She looked different, her face got darker, she was bigger. I walked towards and called 'Bean', and sure enough she turned her face to me and ran as fast as she could to me! She is still here (although on a few occassions she went awol for weeks at a time with no sight of her.) Btw, she just finished raising her second set of babies, who all still come every day to get treats to! I have had others stay a while, and then just leave one day. There is alot of woods out there, so I will always believe they are living their life, I did my job correctly. Some were males, some were females. Don't give up, but even if you don't see them again, that does not mean they are gone (as in passed on). They are squirrels and are doing what squirrels do!!

[virginia_arce2280]

Do not get discouraged. My Bean disappeared for a month and two days. I live on the woods, but she was here every day, so after a while, I just 'knew' she was gone. I stopped looking, stopped calling...it was just too hard on me. Then one day, out of nowhere, my daughter says 'mom, I think that is Bean.' She looked different, her face got darker, she was bigger. I walked towards and called 'Bean', and sure enough she turned her face to me and ran as fast as she could to me! She is still here (although on a few occassions she went awol for weeks at a time with no sight of her.) Btw, she just finished raising her second set of babies, who all still come every day to get treats to! I have had others stay a while, and then just leave one day. There is alot of woods out there, so I will always believe they are living their life, I did my job correctly. Some were males, some were females. Don't give up, but even if you don't see them again, that does not mean they are gone (as in passed on). They are squirrels and are doing what squirrels do!!

Thanks Mary,
That makes me feel much better and more hopeful. I do hope that we will have that kind of story too. I know in my house she (Carmelita-the oldest)always tried to build a nest out of grocery bags and whatever she could find likes scarfs and such on top of my kitchen cabinets. So I feel confident that she knew what to do when she got outside and is doing what squirrels do, like you said.
Thanks again to all who responded! It helps to know others' stories.mjs

[pappy1264]

I just called Bean and took her pic for you. She lives upstairs over the screen porch (she actually goes right into my attic to sleep, raised her babies up there too). Hubby cut a little 'door' in the screen so she (and all the others) come right into the screen porch. Her babies now jump up onto the screen too (but will jump down and I throw a nut to them. Bean has always done this!!! lol) We call it the 'squirrel drive through'...lol I just took these pics one minute ago (it is raining out).

[virginia_arce2280]

She is so cute! Thanks for sharing!
Yes, it's raining here too.:) :)
I put my 2 remaining squirrels in their cages out closer to the trees. One is a NR named Goliath and the other is Davey (that Anne helped me out with when I went out of town back in the summertime) I put them out there because we have all our animal cages out there and we're going to put a big roof over everything so everyone is under the same roof.
As soon as I put them out there, Federico (the released boy comes to check them out and has been coming out there for the past few days, so it's easier to feed him now) And he comes down while I'm covering the cages for the rain and it's almost like he calls me and asks me "what have you got for me today" and I hold out a block for him (I keep them in my pocket when I go outside-just in case) and he eagerly runs down and grabs it then runs back up and starts munching on a branch. He came down and got another one later on. It was so nice. I'm glad he's still around.

Thanks again for sharing the pictures!:jump