Cesta
11-23-2016, 10:30 AM
Hi again guys!
Squirrel #2! She came to me through a fellow member to finish raising/ release. Her name is Baby Girl.
Baby Girl was raised as a pet. She'd never really been in a cage until she came to our house. My best guess is she arrived at about 12 weeks old. She's now about 11-12 months.
She loves people, too much. I've been trying to ignore her for the last couple months, she's been in our patio cage. But, she never started to 'wild up'. I think I could take a nut out of her mouth and she'd let me. No territorial instincts. Absolutely no fear of anyone, just curious and (of course) trying to get attention. I put more squirrels on the patio right next to her cage, hoping she'd pick up some squirrel behavior from them. It didn't work, she just tried to play with them through the cages. Finally, she started to show major signs that she wanted release. (Pacing, running in circles, jumping in circles, etc.)
She went into the release cage two weeks ago. She's had squirrels climbing all over her cage-- again, not frightened or intimidated, just went about her business. I had a good stretch of time a couple days this week to let her out of the cage under supervision.
I forgot to mention she's a spaz. When she is out of the cage she jumps around like a maniac, like there's a fire under her butt. Her self-preservation instincts are all wrong. When she's frightened she runs down instead of up. She doesn't have much interest in climbing the tree. She goes right back in the cage, into her box, as soon as I leave her alone.
I'm worried she's never going to leave the RC. She'd love to come out and play a couple times a day and then go back in. She's going to get eaten by something if she won't go up the tree! Yesterday she got spooked by one of the other squirrels and she ran and hid IN MY GOLDEN RETRIEVER'S FUR! Thank God Emma is a sweet, lazy old dog who wouldn't purposely hurt anything. She likes to hang out under the squirrel cages and eat everything they drop. In fact, she tried to lick Baby Girl. This is behavior I'd expect from a very young orphaned squirrel, not one a year old. Right??
Unfortunately, I have other dogs and cats who would chase, catch and hurt her. :eek
Another problem is the dominant females in my yard are chasing her. They all got along fine at the feeding area on Day one, but on subsequent days they ran her off.
Advice, please? I've never had one who wouldn't even explore when let out of the RC cage. I don't knw what to do with her. :dono
Squirrel #2! She came to me through a fellow member to finish raising/ release. Her name is Baby Girl.
Baby Girl was raised as a pet. She'd never really been in a cage until she came to our house. My best guess is she arrived at about 12 weeks old. She's now about 11-12 months.
She loves people, too much. I've been trying to ignore her for the last couple months, she's been in our patio cage. But, she never started to 'wild up'. I think I could take a nut out of her mouth and she'd let me. No territorial instincts. Absolutely no fear of anyone, just curious and (of course) trying to get attention. I put more squirrels on the patio right next to her cage, hoping she'd pick up some squirrel behavior from them. It didn't work, she just tried to play with them through the cages. Finally, she started to show major signs that she wanted release. (Pacing, running in circles, jumping in circles, etc.)
She went into the release cage two weeks ago. She's had squirrels climbing all over her cage-- again, not frightened or intimidated, just went about her business. I had a good stretch of time a couple days this week to let her out of the cage under supervision.
I forgot to mention she's a spaz. When she is out of the cage she jumps around like a maniac, like there's a fire under her butt. Her self-preservation instincts are all wrong. When she's frightened she runs down instead of up. She doesn't have much interest in climbing the tree. She goes right back in the cage, into her box, as soon as I leave her alone.
I'm worried she's never going to leave the RC. She'd love to come out and play a couple times a day and then go back in. She's going to get eaten by something if she won't go up the tree! Yesterday she got spooked by one of the other squirrels and she ran and hid IN MY GOLDEN RETRIEVER'S FUR! Thank God Emma is a sweet, lazy old dog who wouldn't purposely hurt anything. She likes to hang out under the squirrel cages and eat everything they drop. In fact, she tried to lick Baby Girl. This is behavior I'd expect from a very young orphaned squirrel, not one a year old. Right??
Unfortunately, I have other dogs and cats who would chase, catch and hurt her. :eek
Another problem is the dominant females in my yard are chasing her. They all got along fine at the feeding area on Day one, but on subsequent days they ran her off.
Advice, please? I've never had one who wouldn't even explore when let out of the RC cage. I don't knw what to do with her. :dono