Releasing Chopper... A few questions....

[Jamee13]

Hi all,
Last night while I was sleeping (when I do my best thinking) I thought of a few questions.

1. Chopper (who is now 15-16 weeks old) has been outside in his release cage for 2 weeks now. Should I start opening the door in the morning and closing it at night when he comes back to sleep?

2. He seems awful dependent on me (or maybe this is just my wishful thinking), ie: still loves to tackle me and wrestle my hands (he does not and has not ever bitten me) when I feed him weather it be his blocks, veggies, fruit or wild foods. Still loves snuggles, love and attention from me. If he does not accept the fact that he should run and be free, would it be ok to build a very large permanent outdoor enclosure for him?

3. What happens if the other squirrels in the yard do not accept him or he does not accept them? Squirrel fights?? What do I do then?

Yes I worry about this little man day and night. He is like one of my children that I am sending off to college!! Just sitting here asking these questions, I am teary eyed!!

Thanks for any suggestions in advance!!

[Scooterzmom]

:bump

[island rehabber]

Sounds like Chopper is a typical singleton -- squirrel raised alone without other babies around him. He looks to you as his sibling, companion, AND mom. Releasing a single is always more challenging than two or more, for this reason. He may very well hang around the yard for a long time, or even try to get back in the house :shakehead

Some of the ways we avoid this happening is to stop handling the squirrel at a relatively young age (I start feeding through the bars of the cage at 7-8 weeks old). Another thing you can do for a week or so is to put all his fresh food in the cage at night, when he is sleeping, and NOT interact with him at all during the day. You may want to try this and see if he gets a bit wilder.

That said, he's already pretty set in his personality at 4 months old and he's ready to venture outside. I would start letting him out during the day to explore. No way of knowing if he will get roughed up by the locals, to be honest. I have released growling, snarling little hellions from my home who cower in fear once they are out in the woods; by the same token I had a few who had been pets for over a year, watching TV with their families on the sofa, and they were hell on earth when they got to the trees! You just never know. :grin2

[pjjere]

Hi Jamee13, we have recently released our first squirrel rehab. If you look in the non life threatening help section we describe our release process. Unfortunately I can't do much to allay your fears as we are in the same boat. I think everyone has to make a decision based on their situation and then do the best job of either caring for the squirrel or preparing it for release. There were several reasons that we decided to release Nutkin.
1. She seems very healthy and has always seemed wild. (her snuggling days quit at about 10 weeks)
2. The area behind our house is an ideal habitat for squirrels with plenty of healthy wilds around.
3. My wife and I both work and would be unable to devote the time that Nutkin deserves if we were to keep her.
4. We all feel that Nutkin was longing to run the treetops and would not have been happy in a cage.

To sum it up we would have been OK with keeping her if we had any doubts about her health or ability to adapt to life as a wild squirrel. We are terrified that something may happen to her and the fact is something bad could happen to her. Our fears are our problem and I think it is unfair to keep a perfectly healthy squirrel caged because we love her and are afraid for her. That seems selfish to me.

I hope you will let us know what you have decided to do. It really is amazing how these little critters grab your heart. I hope some of the more experienced rehabbers will weigh in regarding a singleton male release. Perhaps it would be better to wait until the secondary mating season is over as I would guess that males can be territorial especially during mating season. Good luck and keep us posted!