I don't think my pet knows how to build a nest

[RockySweetums]

I have a pet squirrel that is roughly 6 months old and I raised it from age 3 weeks old when its eyes were closed. His name is Rocky Sweetums. Rocky Sweetums grew up and one day bit the crap out of my finger and also my father's finger without much warning for the first time (I think it was triggered because he was scared of my father being around and he isn't accustomed to strangers). I got upset at Rocky, and put Rocky outside for a while. Rocky Sweetums had only been outside for a couple hours a few times, but this time I let him outside like the whole day. I guess I thought he might just run away and never come back, because maybe he was wilding up, and I figured maybe that was okay because I did not really want to be bitten again and maybe he just wanted to be free, but he came back eventually that very same night. In fact, when it started getting dark I was surprised to see that he started knocking on the back windows and peaking into the windows of the house.

At first I told him to go away because I was still upset about his biting me, but after a while, when he came back again to knock at the window, looking at me like he was begging me to have mercy upon him (he was giving me this cute look, like, "Please let me in, I am sorry for biting you, but it is cold and dark and scary out here, just please let me in!"), so I had a quick change of heart and softened and invited him inside to sleep in his cage.

I realized pretty fast that I had to because he had nowhere to go, no home nest built in preparation.

Anyway, so fast forward until now.....You see, for the past three weeks, he and I have this unspoken but understood deal that he goes outside every morning, roams around all day outside and is free like a regular squirrel, but at night he can have the privilege to knock on the window to signal me to let him inside to go to sleep at night and be warm indoors and also eat and drink in his cage. He has come home to sleep at night every night for the past three weeks. Seems like a good deal for a squirrel to me.

He returns at night, and in the morning around 7:30am, I let him back out again. Like clockwork, he comes home between 4:30 and 6pm. It is a pattern we have. He leaves in the morning, comes back at night. It is like he works a 9 to 5 job, and I welcome him back home to his warm cage with some dinner on the table in his cage.

My question is this: since Rocky Sweetums was raised solo, he probably doesn't know how to build a nest. I am willing to overwinter him as it gets colder and colder, but will he ever learn to make a nest? Being raised solo, can he still learn this skill eventually?

Will he get angry and frustrated with me when it gets cold outside and he can't go outside to play anymore?

[RockySweetums]

I would also like to add that there are plenty of other squirrels in this neighborhood and plenty of nice trees, although Rocky Sweetums originally came from a neighborhood 9 blocks away, so his original family lives in a different neighborhood. I found Rocky as a baby on the ground. He had fallen out of a tree that had very thin branches, no thick branches anywhere so I could not see where to put him back. I could not locate a nest around and didn't want to leave him crying on the ground.

Fast forward: He is a big squirrel now. I am trying to understand him now that he is a baby no more. I think we have at least a temporary understanding of each other. I only handle him with gloves now, though. He lost much of my trust ever since he bit me deeply and my finger was throbbing and bleeding everywhere. I am happy that he seems to be fending for himself just fine during the day and that he seems to have maybe grown up to at least be a mostly streetwise squirrel, but I worry about his abilities to someday build a nest.

[pjjere]

My suggestion to you is to bring Rocky back inside for the winter and plan on a spring release. He will have a much better chance of survival when the trees are budding new leaves. His biting and aggression are quite normal although hard on the heart. He is just becoming a healthy adult squirrel. You may need to limit your interactions with him and be careful with people he is not familiar with. I worry about a squirrel being released so late in the year.

[RockySweetums]

My suggestion to you is to bring Rocky back inside for the winter and plan on a spring release. He will have a much better chance of survival when the trees are budding new leaves. His biting and aggression are quite normal although hard on the heart. He is just becoming a healthy adult squirrel. You may need to limit your interactions with him and be careful with people he is not familiar with. I worry about a squirrel being released so late in the year.

Well, I guess I'm not exactly releasing him, right? This isn't the same as releasing him, I don't think? I just let him outside when he wants to go, as long as it is above 32 degrees outside and the temperature isn't projected to drop during the day. He goes out all day and returns when it gets late afternoon. He returns every day (he has returned every day for almost four weeks straight). And he can return anytime he wants to, of course, and DOES return every time it gets later into the afternoon for the familiarity and warmth of being inside the house and for water and squirrely num nums and to sleep overnight in his squirrel bed (same squirrel bed he was raised in as a baby).

Today, I couldn't let him out right away because it was only 32 degrees this morning, but he was antsy and was raring to go out of his cage, so I let him roam around the larger bathroom with the door shut (and toilet bowl shut) because that is the only squirrel proof room without any wires. Later, I went to open the door when I felt the weather had warmed up enough for him to go outside. He rushed out and climbed all over me and was so fast at climbing all about me because he has so much energy in the morning. Anyway, I made a wrong move step because he moved so fast and I accidentally stepped on his foot a little bit.

He freaked out and went teeth chattery and catatonic and possessed looking and attacked my hands three times really quickly, but luckily, I had the thick leather gloves on. I kept saying "sorry, sorry, sorry for stepping on your foot Rocky Sweetums!" He still looked really angry like he wanted to kill me and continued chattering his teeth. I was really worried he was going to attack my face (which hasn't happened yet, but is one of my worst fears), so I shut myself in the bathroom, like it was a panic shelter room, until I felt like he had calmed down and then I promptly put him outside. All is fine now, and he has since returned from outside after being out most of the day. I guess he has forgiven me now because his demons seem exorcised.

This morning, I thought to myself.....why? why did I raise this squirrel? He is such a problem and I have enough problems! It is a little like what I imagine having a temperamental problem foster child to worry about might be like!

But he returned home later from his outside job of being a squirrel and was nice again, so I guess this is a journey, a different kind of journey than I considered, and I will keep staying the course for as long as he doesn't attack my face, and for as long as he needs me.

Having a grown up squirrel is definitely not easy!