Release Questions

[Lisa]

Hi there!
I'm wondering when/if I should be thinking about releasing Lucky the squirrel into the wild. Our best guess is he's about 8 weeks old. (He opened his eyes four weeks ago) My boyfriend thinks that we should be moving him outside sometime soon to get him used to it, but I think that we should probably be overwintering him. We're in Massachusetts, where the winters are really cold. Our squirrel still is BIG on formula and aside from rodent blocks and peeled grapes, he has no interest in food. He doesn't touch kale or broccoli or carrots. I think we still have quite some time before he's going to start weaning himself. He still spends a bit of time sleeping in his cage and is just beginning to show signs of restlessness, but only on occasion and only for short bursts. I think that we should hold onto him for winter, especially because he is the only squirrel we have and therefore will have a harder time adjusting to the big world outside without someone to snuggle with and keep company. But we have also read conflicting information saying that he will be fine as long as we slowly release him and provide him with food and water all winter. I'm just not sure what we should do. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

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[Sara in NW MS]

His best chance at survival would be a soft release in the spring. I would overwinter him inside and wait until things start blooming and there's plenty of food out there for him. He's still a baby and would be with his momma until spring.

He sure is a cute little guy! :serene

[gardenjewel]

Yes, you should overwinter him. Slim or no chance of survival if you release in the near future in Massachusetts. He should be at least 16 weeks old before you start a slow release. Keep him inside with lots of out of cage time and lots of love.
Julia

[Lisa]

Okay, so we are definitely going to keep him over winter. I had expected that but had to convince the bf of it, and with your help that was easily accomplished.

Next step, we are hoping to build a larger enclosure for our little Lucky. His current cage is 3 feet tall, probably 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep.

Here is a picture of it currently:
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That was a picture before it was completely finished. As you can see it's built right onto that shelving unit because we wanted it somewhat elevated to keep him away from the cat. Which is an entirely different concern with this whole wintering thing. Our house is sort of "studio" style, there's no doors except to the bathroom. Our bedroom has an archway into the living room which has an archway into our kitchen/multipurpose room, where the squirrel is. There's really no ways to keep the cat away from the squirrel except for locking him in the bathroom. For the most part, the cat just watches the squirrel; he's not too interested and the squirrel is still VERY afraid of the cat, which we are trying our hardest to keep that way. Anyway, we are having a hard time coming up with a way for him to have real out of cage play time. Right now he doesn't get off of us, so it's easy while he's just interested in running around and hiding behind my hair. But soon that will end and he will want to explore. Any suggestions?
My idea right now is to build a huge cage. Like a cage that I can stand up inside. The bf is very crafty and would have no trouble building something, but some guidelines/suggestions would be GREAT... (maybe we should just build a huge cat cage and let the squirrel do as he pleases... :grin3)

[lennysmom]

Hi Lisa, welcome to TSB.:wave123 Thank you for saving little Lucky and caring enough to put the time and work into keeping him over winter.

My first suggestion would be to lock the cat in the bathroom during any out of cage play time, if you don't already. It would be just awful if a tradgic accident happened with cat coming in contact with the squirrel. Or, you could have the Lucky's playtime in the bathroom for now. The first squirrel I ever overwintered had most of his out of cage playtime in the bathroom for the first few months. Of course, our bathroom is pretty good sized and so it worked great as a safe, easily squirrel proofed area. (not to mention easy to clean :grin)

You also want to make sure he has a good sized cage, especially if you are not able to give him a lot of out of cage time. My husband builds my cages and they are usually around 6ft tall, 3ft wide, and 5ft long. If your space is limited, you may not be able to make a cage that big, but the bigger the better for an overwinter IMHO.

The cat having frequent contact with the squirrel is a concern since you plan to release. You don't want Lucky used to cats. Perhaps you could make his cage a bit shorter so you are able to sit it up on something. :thinking Or find a way to block the cat from the immediate area where the cage is.
Hope you are able to find a good workable solution for your little guy.

[Lisa]

Thanks for the response. Right now we kind of stay in front of the cage (the whole front swings down) and he runs between us and the cage jumping back and forth and he will wrestle with our hands or this little stuffed lamb that is a tad bigger than he is. And eventually he just decides he's done playing and will run back into his nest and won't come out for anything. :grin2
Our bathroom is really small, although I don't mind him playing in there for his out of cage time, there's just really not much to play with. :dono I don't really think it's enough room for playing, he would easily be bored with our bathroom. His cage offers more excitement than our bathroom does haha
Do you have any pictures of your cages? The boyfriend is going to be building the new cage sometime soon, though right now the cage Lucky is in seems to be fine, as he's not terribly active yet. We have enough room to make a large cage, just trying to figure out where the cat can't get to is the tricky part. Any thoughts on if we were to build a big cage (6 ft or so) in height and have the bottom two feet or so made out of wood instead of wire that way the cat can't be like right there. The cat right now sits on the ground and watches the squirrel, but the squirrel really hasn't had any contact with the cat and is still scared of the cat which is perfect. The cage is up high, and so they are never on the same level with each other.

[Lisa]

Oh, and I just put my notice into my job so I will have more time for my "school" work... aka hanging out with my squirrel. :rolf

So Lucky and I will have lots of play time as soon as I figure out the solution for this. I don't mind locking the cat in the bathroom, but I also don't want to give the squirrel the run of the house either. Our house is too large, imo, to let him loose. Maybe I will have to convince the boyfriend to install a door... so much for the open concept, but anything for our little Lucky!

[lennysmom]

Well, maybe he could install a pocket door - that way whenever you didn't need to use it you could just slide it into the wall and it wouldn't even be seen. :) Ah, The compromises we make for our critters. :grin2 I will see if I can find a couple of pictures of our cages.

[Lisa]

Well, maybe he could install a pocket door - that way whenever you didn't need to use it you could just slide it into the wall and it wouldn't even be seen. :) Ah, The compromises we make for our critters. :grin2 I will see if I can find a couple of pictures of our cages.

Pocket door! That's brilliant! YOU'RE BRILLIANT! I was thinking of maybe a sliding barn door but pocket door makes much more sense.

Thanks a ton! I'm so glad I found this little guy. He's amazing, and really makes me want to do this kind of thing regularly now. How does one become a licensed rehabber anyway? That would be be my dream. Of course I'll have to convince boyfriend that I'm going to be a stay at home critter-mom. :glomp

[lennysmom]

Here are a couple of pics I found on one of my threads - in the first pic, you see half of the cage - my hubby made it to detachable so that it would be easier to maneuver and to clean. We learned a lesson from the first cage that he built that was not detachable and it was a little more complicated to move around and clean.
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The Second picture gives you an idea of what the cage looks like when the two pieces are joined together to form his cage.
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Just be VERY careful if you do decide to make it into pieces that the two pieces are very fitly joined together. My little angel got his paw caught in a very small crack between the two parts and ended up almost ripping his nail off!! Otherwise, it's a great design that has worked well for us.

As far as becoming a licensed Rehabilitator, the stipulations are different in every state. You can hop on Google and do a little bit of research to find out what is required in your state.

[kcassidy]

PM LaurelLynn, she has GREAT instructions on cages and she builds them herself. She has some for inside and some for outside.

If you don't hear from her let me know and I'll send her this way as well.

I am releasing most of my kids and I live in NY. I'm doing a soft release though, if they want to stay they can, I have a squirrel doggy door so they can go from inside to out as they choose. Most move out by the end of October. If you can pull that off, then I would go that route,

If you can't then I'd overwinter.

[LaurelLynn]

PM LaurelLynn, she has GREAT instructions on cages and she builds them herself. She has some for inside and some for outside.

If you don't hear from her let me know and I'll send her this way as well.

I am releasing most of my kids and I live in NY. I'm doing a soft release though, if they want to stay they can, I have a squirrel doggy door so they can go from inside to out as they choose. Most move out by the end of October. If you can pull that off, then I would go that route,

If you can't then I'd overwinter.

Haha! Thanks kim :-) I'm 'working' on writing the final improved plans up but with babies it hasn't yet happened lol

Here's the growing collection of cages so far. ....

[kcassidy]

You rock Sista :) Come one 35 babies isn't a big deal, you lazy butt ;) Get crackalackin.

[SammysMom]

Oh for God sake...I'm at "only" 32 squirrels and I can't even clean cages, let alone build them...:rofl4
LL, I would love whatever you have for directions now. I am desperate to get a good release cage built.

[LaurelLynn]

There's 41 total counting squirrels in prerelease lol! But 32 babies inside on formula :grin3

I'm thinking this is capacity for me Bahahaha!

I'll post the plans tomorrow between feedings and medications time :-)

[LaurelLynn]

Oh for God sake...I'm at "only" 32 squirrels and I can't even clean cages, let alone build them...:rofl4
LL, I would love whatever you have for directions now. I am desperate to get a good release cage built.

I was mid way through building two more when I got busy. ... which is why there's been half finished panels on my porch for over a month lol. Not much building (or ANYTHING) is getting done currently except babies :laugh2

[LaurelLynn]

http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?51859-Prerelease-Enclosure-Plans-8x8-ft&p=1120385#post1120385

Sammysmom and kim I posted a thread with some plans. I apologize if it's not very detailed, I'll add more between babies

[pjjere]

Hi Lisa, thanks for helping little Lucky. He is a cutie! We raised our first squirrel in 2013 and since then it has been raining squirrels on us. They just seem to find us somehow. We are currently raising 3 and have raised and released 5 others. (BTW we are not rehabbers).

We have 4 cages (2 home made and 2 store bought) and what we have done is to make rectangular wooden tunnels that we use to connect the cages together. We leave a small slot in the top of each tunnel so if we have to isolate a squirrel in a cage we just slip a piece of wood in the slot. We can actually join all 4 cages together which gives the squirrels plenty of run around room. We usually keep one of the wood cages outside in our release area and when the littles are ready for a soft release we just roll one of the store bought cages outside and connect it via the wood tunnel. Good luck with Lucky! :)

[kcassidy]

http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?51859-Prerelease-Enclosure-Plans-8x8-ft&p=1120385#post1120385

Sammysmom and kim I posted a thread with some plans. I apologize if it's not very detailed, I'll add more between babies

YAY J, good job, I know how busy you are!!!