Treecat
10-20-2016, 04:05 PM
HELP! We got ourselves into a real predicament!
Don't know whether to post this under life-threatening or not.
About 2 years ago, my Mother & I raised 2 orphan baby Fox Squirrels from different litters, who loved each other since they were babies & we named them Velcra (girl) & Bullet (boy).
They eventually both escaped at different times and found each other (Fairytale Romance!) & have been having babies here at our 2-acre wooded paradise in the middle of a concrete/asphalt world of highways & parking lots.
It's wonderful & magical to see them.
Now the problem comes in: Our neighbor doesn't like the squirrels because they eat the fruit off their Papaya tree and threatened to shoot them if we don't trap them & get rid of them. They think of them as rats. :tap
The first litter we know of was 2, one got run over in the street behind our house & we caught & re-homed the other one at a beautiful place after we found out it was eating their papayas & they threatened to shoot it.
Now, on Oct. 5th, we found out there is another one here, that the neighbors saw eat on their papaya again-from the Spring litter. So we've been setting the Havahart traps to re-home now again.
Now, Sunday, a 2.5 − 3 month old little boy squirrel fell out of our palm tree & we found out there's a litter of 4 babies in the palm tree. I caught him & put him in our 10 x 10 x10 cage with lots of food & water.
When Velcra, the mama, found out we had her baby, she was DESPERATE for it, and stayed with it all day on the cage wire. I was worried about the other babies who were looking out of the palm tree at us but she went back with them at night. The next morning, Velcra was in the trap we'd set for the young one from the spring litter that ate our neighbors papaya. So we put her with her baby in the cage. Yesterday, we caught a 2nd baby in a trap, who was trying to get to the mother, so now we have the mother & 2 babies. Today I saw a 3rd baby out climbing trees, but he hasn't gone to see the mother & siblings yet in the cage & hasn't got caught. It's a worry. I don't know where the 4th one is, and the 3rd one is out where it can't get any milk, but it looked good & lively when I saw it. I put a long pole with food on it up to the palm Tuesday night, and more again last night but don't see the baby.
Looks like the only way we can avoid continued problems over the squirrels, with the neighbors is to re-home the whole family. Or at least the mother & babies. Don't know how we will catch poor dear Bullet...
We thought we would keep the mother & babies another month before releasing them to make sure the babies will be ok on their own if the mother abandons them at a new location. mother wants to keep Velcra longer & try to trap Bullet with her when she comes into heat again. I don't know what to do. Am not even sure how to catch them in their 10 x 10 x 10 cage when we want to release them again, unless we can close the nest boxes with them in them the night before.
Does anyone have any advice or suggestions/experience with how to trap, & re-home an entire family of Fox squirrels? It's horrible to see the family split up as we're catching them one by one, but if we don't we're going to keep having to catch & re-home babies & deal with neighbors who are putting out poison, traps & threatening to shoot. Poor Babies. We love them all. Such a beautiful & special little family.
Don't know whether to post this under life-threatening or not.
About 2 years ago, my Mother & I raised 2 orphan baby Fox Squirrels from different litters, who loved each other since they were babies & we named them Velcra (girl) & Bullet (boy).
They eventually both escaped at different times and found each other (Fairytale Romance!) & have been having babies here at our 2-acre wooded paradise in the middle of a concrete/asphalt world of highways & parking lots.
It's wonderful & magical to see them.
Now the problem comes in: Our neighbor doesn't like the squirrels because they eat the fruit off their Papaya tree and threatened to shoot them if we don't trap them & get rid of them. They think of them as rats. :tap
The first litter we know of was 2, one got run over in the street behind our house & we caught & re-homed the other one at a beautiful place after we found out it was eating their papayas & they threatened to shoot it.
Now, on Oct. 5th, we found out there is another one here, that the neighbors saw eat on their papaya again-from the Spring litter. So we've been setting the Havahart traps to re-home now again.
Now, Sunday, a 2.5 − 3 month old little boy squirrel fell out of our palm tree & we found out there's a litter of 4 babies in the palm tree. I caught him & put him in our 10 x 10 x10 cage with lots of food & water.
When Velcra, the mama, found out we had her baby, she was DESPERATE for it, and stayed with it all day on the cage wire. I was worried about the other babies who were looking out of the palm tree at us but she went back with them at night. The next morning, Velcra was in the trap we'd set for the young one from the spring litter that ate our neighbors papaya. So we put her with her baby in the cage. Yesterday, we caught a 2nd baby in a trap, who was trying to get to the mother, so now we have the mother & 2 babies. Today I saw a 3rd baby out climbing trees, but he hasn't gone to see the mother & siblings yet in the cage & hasn't got caught. It's a worry. I don't know where the 4th one is, and the 3rd one is out where it can't get any milk, but it looked good & lively when I saw it. I put a long pole with food on it up to the palm Tuesday night, and more again last night but don't see the baby.
Looks like the only way we can avoid continued problems over the squirrels, with the neighbors is to re-home the whole family. Or at least the mother & babies. Don't know how we will catch poor dear Bullet...
We thought we would keep the mother & babies another month before releasing them to make sure the babies will be ok on their own if the mother abandons them at a new location. mother wants to keep Velcra longer & try to trap Bullet with her when she comes into heat again. I don't know what to do. Am not even sure how to catch them in their 10 x 10 x 10 cage when we want to release them again, unless we can close the nest boxes with them in them the night before.
Does anyone have any advice or suggestions/experience with how to trap, & re-home an entire family of Fox squirrels? It's horrible to see the family split up as we're catching them one by one, but if we don't we're going to keep having to catch & re-home babies & deal with neighbors who are putting out poison, traps & threatening to shoot. Poor Babies. We love them all. Such a beautiful & special little family.