Peanut will be 5 months old in a week or so

[Sabache]

We are still struggling with her diet. She doesn't like any veggies but she will eat her Henry's blocks and any fruit she can get her paws on. I find her pinecones and mulberry branches.

She will not take the bottle but will drink a whole saucer in the late evening or early morning when I give it to her.

She's very quiet today and I'm worried, could she be sick? Is it time for her heat? Maybe she inhaled some milk?

Is this normal?

[Mel1959]

She’s borderline too young to be in estrus. I doubt she would have inhaled milk on her own.

As for her diet, continue offering a wide variety of greens. She might surprise you and eat something unusual. I’d also continue the formula in a saucer for as long as she wants it.

Is your plan to release her in the spring? I’d continue to monitor her to see if she stops eating altogether. That’s a very big flag for concern.

[Sabache]

Yes, I am going to start acclimating her to outside as soon as it is not freezing at night outside.

I'll move her cage outside during the day, in at night. Then eventually leave it out there, and then open the door. I have huge trees in the front and back yard.

Hopefully she'll find one she likes. I'll keep putting food out in her cage as long as she eats it.

[Chirps]

Any chance of getting a nest box or two and hanging them? I'm assuming the cage isn't big enough to put one in so she could get familiar with it and get her scent on it. Just thinking that if that was a possibility, when you get to the stage of opening the door, she'd have a ready-built shelter, and one the other squirrels will likely figure is occupied. Maybe if you can get a box but it doesn't fit in the cage you could put some of whatever nesting material she's using inside so she and the "neighbors" both get the idea that it's hers?

[Sabache]

Yes, my husband is building a nest box from a pattern he found online. Her cage is big enough to accommodate it, her cage is 4' x 2' x 2'. Now she sleeps in her hammock.