fuzzytail
07-12-2016, 11:23 AM
Hi folks...first time I've posted here but the forum has been a great help. I will do my best to keep this brief, but I assume that details will help.
October 2015...a baby squirrel was outside my garage (west central Florida) and started chasing me. Literally. First experience with that. We saw no evidence of a adult squirrel nearby - this little girl (we believe it's female based upon other male squirrels we have around) was apparently abandoned. We put her in a box, kept her warm, and fed her (with the help of info found on this forum)
A few weeks later...the squirrel was big enough to get out of the box and chew on things in my garage...so we built a 'squirrel palace'....a 32 sq ft box of welded wire with multiple levels and toys to play with. By this time my wife was fully attached.
A few months later...the squirrel seemed to be full grown and content in the cage, but I convinced my wife that it was best to let it be free in the wild rather than trapped in the cage. NOTE - to this point, we did not handle the squirrel other than to feed it through the cage and sit there talking to it for hours on end. My understanding was that since we planned to release the squirrel, it was best not to handle it too much. We put the cage outside for a few weeks and let the squirrel get used to the surroundings.
Finally the day came...we opened the door. The squirrel very hesitantly made its way out, hung around briefly, then disappeared. My wife cried. To her delight, the squirrel has since come back almost daily. She comes right up to us and will eat from our hands before running off into freedom (we still we do not handle her otherwise). This has been going on for a few months now.
Finally to my question...we are moving to a few wooded, rural acres about an hour away with many, many squirrels . My wife wants to bring the squirrel with us to the new house. We still have the 'squirrel palace' in the same place and often the squirrel goes inside to check out her old stomping grounds, so I think it would be fairly easy to get her back in there. Then carefully take her for a ride and put her cage outside at our new home for a few weeks until we open the door again. Assuming she's not pregnant (which we don't think she is...but we certainly don't want to separate her from babies), will this work? What are the chances that she will adapt to the new location? Any additional steps or precautions you'd recommend....or do we have no other choice but to say goodbye and leave her behind...and hope the next homeowners don't mind a very friendly squirrel.
Thank you
October 2015...a baby squirrel was outside my garage (west central Florida) and started chasing me. Literally. First experience with that. We saw no evidence of a adult squirrel nearby - this little girl (we believe it's female based upon other male squirrels we have around) was apparently abandoned. We put her in a box, kept her warm, and fed her (with the help of info found on this forum)
A few weeks later...the squirrel was big enough to get out of the box and chew on things in my garage...so we built a 'squirrel palace'....a 32 sq ft box of welded wire with multiple levels and toys to play with. By this time my wife was fully attached.
A few months later...the squirrel seemed to be full grown and content in the cage, but I convinced my wife that it was best to let it be free in the wild rather than trapped in the cage. NOTE - to this point, we did not handle the squirrel other than to feed it through the cage and sit there talking to it for hours on end. My understanding was that since we planned to release the squirrel, it was best not to handle it too much. We put the cage outside for a few weeks and let the squirrel get used to the surroundings.
Finally the day came...we opened the door. The squirrel very hesitantly made its way out, hung around briefly, then disappeared. My wife cried. To her delight, the squirrel has since come back almost daily. She comes right up to us and will eat from our hands before running off into freedom (we still we do not handle her otherwise). This has been going on for a few months now.
Finally to my question...we are moving to a few wooded, rural acres about an hour away with many, many squirrels . My wife wants to bring the squirrel with us to the new house. We still have the 'squirrel palace' in the same place and often the squirrel goes inside to check out her old stomping grounds, so I think it would be fairly easy to get her back in there. Then carefully take her for a ride and put her cage outside at our new home for a few weeks until we open the door again. Assuming she's not pregnant (which we don't think she is...but we certainly don't want to separate her from babies), will this work? What are the chances that she will adapt to the new location? Any additional steps or precautions you'd recommend....or do we have no other choice but to say goodbye and leave her behind...and hope the next homeowners don't mind a very friendly squirrel.
Thank you