Releasing 7 month old Singleton

[Negerto30]

Hi, I have a 7 month old eastern gray squirrel that I am interested in releasing. I have had him since before his eyes were open. I always planned on releasing him if he wanted to leave. He is on a screened in patio and lately he has been pacing. I recently received a 7 week old girl that I thought maybe could be released with Henry, but she does not like Henry and I do not know if they will ever get used to each other. Henry was scared of her at first, but after a couple of weeks he chases her around. She used be aggressive towards him, but now runs away. My question is if I should wait till after winter. I was going to start building an outdoor release cage for him this week. I have two places I could release him. He now 215341215342lives at my boyfriends, but I want to release him at my parents. There are more squirrels at my parents, less busy streets, less dogs, and less hawks. At my boyfriends I see hawks constantly and really only see juvenile squirrels around. At my parents I see older squirrels so I figured that was the better place to release him. I read that if released before winter they have less of a chance of survival? I want to give him the best chance I can. He does not know he is a squirrel. I will feed or keep him forever if he wants, but I'm scared he'll get chased away and not have enough food stored to survive.

[farrelli]

Overwintering is optimal. I think at this point territories have been largely established and everyone is filling their pantries for the winter. He's have a lot of catching up to do. Can you try to make his life more stimulating? More play time or something?

[Sweet Simon's Mommy]

NO NO not in NJ, you need to find some else who is over wintering and put him with them so he can learn to be a squirrel.
JMO

[Negerto30]

I think there is too much going outside that he can see that makes him pace. Later in the day he'll turn all his attention to me, but before 4pm he just wants to pace around. This started after I got the other squirrel. Before that he just wanted to play with me, run around and play on his toys, and look out the screens. If I put him in the cage during the early day he's calm and lays there, but if he has the run of the patio he cannot sit still.

NO NO not in NJ
What does that mean? I'd definitely be ok with giving him to someone to let go. He does not know that he is a squirrel. Do you think there is a chance that over the winter he and the 8 week old squirrel can get a long and be released together? I just started calling rehabbers to find a place for her. There is a huge wildlife refuge but they get a lot of squirrels and may not be the optimal place to take her because she'll probably get released so young. I guess I could ask them about releasing Henry but I would guess that he is too old for them and they would not have any other squirrels his age to release him with.

[farrelli]

Have seen it where a pacing squirrel who no longer has access to patio or huge window time settles back down. Can you just bring him in and not put on the patio?

[Negerto30]

Yea but not till about a month. If he'll eventually get along with the 8 wk old squirrel then should I keep her?

[farrelli]

You might start swapping some bedding so that they can get used to each others smells. Take a little from one nest, put in the other, and vice versa. Perhaps that will help them get acclimated to each other.

Btw, I don't understand your post. Do you mean that you will be able to bring him inside (off the patio), but not for a month?

[Negerto30]

Yea I'm moving into my own place in about a month where he can have free reign inside. As of now dogs take up the house.

[Negerto30]

At first Henry was curious and wanted to play with her tail but the baby would scream and lung at him. Now he chases her and wants her to go away. The baby is funny and screams at him if he even goes near her space. She took over where he pees and built a nest. He stays away from that now that she claimed it. I have a toy they both play with and when it's turned on they do look like they are tempted to play with each other so hopefully they will get along. What happens if I overwinter him and he becomes depressed? Do u just have to let him suffer through it?

[farrelli]

He should be fine during the winter. Just keep him occupied. If he;s got a problem, tell us and we'l help.

[Negerto30]

Ok. Thank you guys so much.

[Stephsquirrel]

Please don't release him without proper preparation. I released my Singleton male Critter and it was a long process as he did not know he was a squirrel but had outside and inside time. It took weeks and work to introduce him to other squirrels. He is still around at my home and comes to visit every day and eat. I currently took a female squirrel from someone who posted here who need to also release a singleton female and she is in my outdoor cage and learning to climb, eat what she will find outside, hide when she hears the sounds of hawks and deal with weather. She is given nesting materials she will find in the real outdoors and we are breaking human contact. My released squirrel (Critter)comes every morning and climbs around the outside of the cage and she has gone from scared to happy and playful with him. This is a long process of to give her the best chance and in South Florida we don't get terribly cold winters. Because she is so tame and lived in a small cage I believe I will have her another 3 weeks or so but she is making steady progress. It is almost like when they can see outdoors they get stir crazy and want to go there and if they never know it exists they are happy indoors but they have to have a lot to do or watch out they will pace and bite.

Just my opinion but she will be my 6 release. Only one I raised from a tiny baby and the other I took from indoors to outdoor release cages and then released.

[Negerto30]

I will definitely do whatever I can to give him the best chance at survival and plan on doing a soft release. The past couple days he has had a lot more cage time and his behavior is different. I do not know if it is because its later in the day that he's out opposed to all day. He usually stopped pacing at around four even when he was out all day. He and the young squirrel are not getting along any better. Henry chases her around a lot now. Today I started stopping him and saying no. He looks at me and chatters his teeth at me. I really pray they get used to each other and can be released together as friends. Once she is off formula I will be them in cages side by side each other. It is sad because they both want to play with me but henry is the boss. The young one just sits and watches.

[Negerto30]

215938

Henry definitely does not know he is a squirrel.

[Duckman]

Her reaction is actually quite normal. Because he is an older squirrel, she is trying to frighten him away so he doesn't harm her. Once they get closer in size, my bet is she will stop being so aggressive. I would definitely start getting them scent friendly by taking part of her/his bedding and introduce it to the other, so they start accepting the others smell. Do rush it though, until she can hold her own with him (same size or close to the same size). My babies all react the same way to my Eastern Grey Rex. Rex is a permanent member of our family because he has seizures and while he isn't mean to the little ones, they all explode on him because they are trying to chase him away (I read once that adult males will sometimes kill an unfamiliar baby, trying to get the mother back in heat. Not sure if this is true, but I know other wild animals do this). Keep trying to introduce them and don't give up. Just make sure that the little girl doesn't get injured. Playing squirrels can be VERY aggressive, even if they are the same size.