Nukedpenguin
01-20-2015, 12:21 PM
On the morning of july 20th, 2014, there was a baby squirrel on top of the tarp we use to keep our chickens dry, he had a couple of manageable cuts one on his side, and one on his elbow. The tarp cushioned his fall and kept the chickens away from him. In the first 30 seconds I wasn't sure what kind of rodent he was but it only made sense that he was a squirrel. So I have my mom call my aunt who is a wildlife rehabber and all she said was to leave him out in a box with a cloth close to where I found him, for 2-3 days, in case the mom comes back for him. I follow those instructions, and keep him in a well furnished car over night. I was very hesitant to call my aunt back since she never said to call her if that doesn't work. I don't know why but I just never called her back. After the 2nd day of mom having a no show, I assume she will never come back. I then do loads of research and find out puppy esbilac is a viable thing to use (I didn't hear about fox farms until he was about to ween unfortunately).
He was 1 day old when I found him based on his appearance. I follow all instructions on raising a squirrel, I cross reference many different care guides to make sure my information is correct. After he started chewing on the syringe is when I stopped giving him esbilac, but he was already eating avocado, sweet potato and chopped pecans and such. Now it was time for him to live outside in his new cage I built with my dad, he has plenty of stuff, like a hollowed log, some long branches to climb and several tiers to explore. I made sure he always had fresh fruit/vegetables, and nuts and water. Somewhere along the way when he was cage bound, I read that I was supposed to make him fear me by squirting him with water while saying "No!", which really made me upset because I had never heard that before and I loved him so much and he loved me. I tried this form of fear for about a week, and only directly squirted him once the whole time. All of the other times I squirted really close time him but not directly, while still firmly saying no. I would only do this if I was about to open his cage to put in new stuff or take old stuff out, to deter him from umping on me. The way he reacted to this form of punishment was to run around his cage dodging the squirts, not running into hiding as planned... ever. He started marking me and my family from inside the cage, and realized he probably thinks I'm a territorial squirrel, so I stopped because it was only that one source that said to use the squirt method. From there on out we were friends again, and so when the time was near release, within a week or so, I would take him out of the cage and let him be on my back while he can get closer to his surroundings and other squirrels.
His presence made another squirrel comfortable enough to run over to me and smell my shoe. One day while attempting to teach him to bury peanuts, he made a run for it through the fence, and I really panicked about it and called his name all day, and thought I saw him but they were all different squirrels. I stayed outside the entire day calling his name, and it wasn't until nightfall that he came back and I pretty much cried as soon as I saw him. The next day my dad helped me build a really nice squirrel box from blueprints online, and we kept it inside his cage for a week before we truly released him. I moved his box into a nearby tree in my neighbors yard since we feed the squirrels in our yard we thought that it was reasonable to not keep him so close to the food source. He lived in his box in the tree for a week before other squirrels showed interest in his nice home. I would make sure pretzel was not anywhere near the box before pounding a long pole onto the bottom of his nest, those conniving squirrels bolted out of there on the first pound. Pretzel still used his box for a week after those squirrels tried to move in but as time progressed it was harder and harder to keep the other squirrels out, so eventually he stopped going to bed in his box even though no one was in it (They pissed on his party). and so he moved back into his cage for a couple days, and I closed the cage at night, but he didn't really find that ideal, so in the next few days I saw him taking some leaves into one of my garage rafters, I didn't stop him because he seemed like he was doing it out of necessity. I told my dad about his new home and showed him. We brainstormed about it and made a panel with a squirrel hole cut out and attached to the front of the rafter opening. My dad put the panel close to his house while he was in it at night and pretzel quickly jumped down and bit his finger and shook really fast, he bled a bit, but hes ok now, but still kind of holds a grudge. We didn't attach it until the next day when he wasn't in his house (front right garage rafter). Pretzel has found more than 1 place in the garage to sleep depending on how cold it is.
He acquired mange a couple weeks ago but at first I thought it was a cowlic, and that was the same time he started to move from the font rafter to the back rafter. When I saw eggs on his back was when I knew it wasn't a cowlic. So I looked up squirrel skin parasites a couple weeks ago and voila, he has mange, but not very bad. I use a couple sprinkles on his back daily using food grade diatomaceous earth, and he has no signs of worsening, but the scar will probably take a while to heal. Sorry for the long backstory but all of that is important I believe.
Now that we are pretty much up to date, here is the deal, my dad, my mom and I are going to be moving in the next month, and pretzel seems to be doing really good here, but will my departure cause him to harass people rather than forage? If I take him to my aunts to have him rehabbed to the complete wild will he be safe? My grandma will still be living here but she doesn't feed the squirrels. I am concerned about his future and I hope that where I move will be able to accommodate him, but in the case that I cannot, should he stay here or go to my aunts where he is unfamiliar? His best constant in his life that makes him comfortable right now at his 6 month old age is me. I'm asking the community for the best course of action.
He was 1 day old when I found him based on his appearance. I follow all instructions on raising a squirrel, I cross reference many different care guides to make sure my information is correct. After he started chewing on the syringe is when I stopped giving him esbilac, but he was already eating avocado, sweet potato and chopped pecans and such. Now it was time for him to live outside in his new cage I built with my dad, he has plenty of stuff, like a hollowed log, some long branches to climb and several tiers to explore. I made sure he always had fresh fruit/vegetables, and nuts and water. Somewhere along the way when he was cage bound, I read that I was supposed to make him fear me by squirting him with water while saying "No!", which really made me upset because I had never heard that before and I loved him so much and he loved me. I tried this form of fear for about a week, and only directly squirted him once the whole time. All of the other times I squirted really close time him but not directly, while still firmly saying no. I would only do this if I was about to open his cage to put in new stuff or take old stuff out, to deter him from umping on me. The way he reacted to this form of punishment was to run around his cage dodging the squirts, not running into hiding as planned... ever. He started marking me and my family from inside the cage, and realized he probably thinks I'm a territorial squirrel, so I stopped because it was only that one source that said to use the squirt method. From there on out we were friends again, and so when the time was near release, within a week or so, I would take him out of the cage and let him be on my back while he can get closer to his surroundings and other squirrels.
His presence made another squirrel comfortable enough to run over to me and smell my shoe. One day while attempting to teach him to bury peanuts, he made a run for it through the fence, and I really panicked about it and called his name all day, and thought I saw him but they were all different squirrels. I stayed outside the entire day calling his name, and it wasn't until nightfall that he came back and I pretty much cried as soon as I saw him. The next day my dad helped me build a really nice squirrel box from blueprints online, and we kept it inside his cage for a week before we truly released him. I moved his box into a nearby tree in my neighbors yard since we feed the squirrels in our yard we thought that it was reasonable to not keep him so close to the food source. He lived in his box in the tree for a week before other squirrels showed interest in his nice home. I would make sure pretzel was not anywhere near the box before pounding a long pole onto the bottom of his nest, those conniving squirrels bolted out of there on the first pound. Pretzel still used his box for a week after those squirrels tried to move in but as time progressed it was harder and harder to keep the other squirrels out, so eventually he stopped going to bed in his box even though no one was in it (They pissed on his party). and so he moved back into his cage for a couple days, and I closed the cage at night, but he didn't really find that ideal, so in the next few days I saw him taking some leaves into one of my garage rafters, I didn't stop him because he seemed like he was doing it out of necessity. I told my dad about his new home and showed him. We brainstormed about it and made a panel with a squirrel hole cut out and attached to the front of the rafter opening. My dad put the panel close to his house while he was in it at night and pretzel quickly jumped down and bit his finger and shook really fast, he bled a bit, but hes ok now, but still kind of holds a grudge. We didn't attach it until the next day when he wasn't in his house (front right garage rafter). Pretzel has found more than 1 place in the garage to sleep depending on how cold it is.
He acquired mange a couple weeks ago but at first I thought it was a cowlic, and that was the same time he started to move from the font rafter to the back rafter. When I saw eggs on his back was when I knew it wasn't a cowlic. So I looked up squirrel skin parasites a couple weeks ago and voila, he has mange, but not very bad. I use a couple sprinkles on his back daily using food grade diatomaceous earth, and he has no signs of worsening, but the scar will probably take a while to heal. Sorry for the long backstory but all of that is important I believe.
Now that we are pretty much up to date, here is the deal, my dad, my mom and I are going to be moving in the next month, and pretzel seems to be doing really good here, but will my departure cause him to harass people rather than forage? If I take him to my aunts to have him rehabbed to the complete wild will he be safe? My grandma will still be living here but she doesn't feed the squirrels. I am concerned about his future and I hope that where I move will be able to accommodate him, but in the case that I cannot, should he stay here or go to my aunts where he is unfamiliar? His best constant in his life that makes him comfortable right now at his 6 month old age is me. I'm asking the community for the best course of action.