Chippy101
01-09-2025, 01:30 PM
I hope it's the right place to ask this question -
I have a pet (non releasable) eastern grey squirrel raised up from a baby thanks to all the advice and resources on this board (very grateful!). She is six years old now. I am planning to visit family in Europe for 2-3 weeks and would like some thoughts on how to handle her care while I'm away. I live in Florida and she typically spends the day in an outside cage that's about 237 sq ft. and then I bring her inside for the night where I spend some time with her and she sleeps in a smaller Critter Nation type cage.
I've left her with family before in a quad-Critter Nation cage setup, but they had trouble cleaning it and it gets smelly so quickly. And it's difficult in general for them to watch her. I want to do something different this time.
What are some thoughts on leaving her in her outside cage 24/7 for 3 weeks with someone coming by to feed and change water once or twice a day?
- Will she think I abandoned her out there and not like me when I get back? She does not like strangers, but I do hold and play with her every day (and she seems to like me!), so that interaction would be lacking while I'm gone.
- Is outside that long too stressful for her? She's only spent the night out there less than 10 times over the years. She seemed perfectly fine afterwards but it was only one night at a time. We have raccoons, opossums, foxes, hawks, owls, cats in our area, although they don't seem to hang around the cage area based on my wildlife cam, mostly they just pass through other parts of the yard. The hawks are out in the daytime and haven't messed with the cage yet.
- The temperature should be ok - March in Florida is typically pretty pleasant. But anything else I should think about there?
- She eats Henry's Healthy Blocks plus veggies and stuff so someone would need to come by each day to get those meals out of the fridge/freezer.
Some info about the outside cage:
It's an old dog kennel and run (237 sq ft) so has metal poles, chainlink with chicken wire attached to it on the inside, chicken wire along the top, the concrete bottom is covered in several inches of dirt/leaves/sand which she digs in and buries things. I'm working to upgrade the chicken wire to 1/2" wire mesh. She has a cover over where her nest box is to keep it dry from the rain and the rest is open to rain or whatever else falls in, plus lots of branches. Curious wild squirrels come up to the cage all through the day, so she has some sort of external stimulation even though she usually ignores them. It's very shaded but does get sunlight through the trees. I'd probably make her another nest box so she has 2 to choose from. And set up a camera.
If this isn't a stupid idea to leave her out there, I would make something where food can be placed in the cage and water refreshed without needing to open anything where she could slip out.
So yeah, any thoughts or suggestions? Is this a disaster waiting to happen or could be something doable?
I have a pet (non releasable) eastern grey squirrel raised up from a baby thanks to all the advice and resources on this board (very grateful!). She is six years old now. I am planning to visit family in Europe for 2-3 weeks and would like some thoughts on how to handle her care while I'm away. I live in Florida and she typically spends the day in an outside cage that's about 237 sq ft. and then I bring her inside for the night where I spend some time with her and she sleeps in a smaller Critter Nation type cage.
I've left her with family before in a quad-Critter Nation cage setup, but they had trouble cleaning it and it gets smelly so quickly. And it's difficult in general for them to watch her. I want to do something different this time.
What are some thoughts on leaving her in her outside cage 24/7 for 3 weeks with someone coming by to feed and change water once or twice a day?
- Will she think I abandoned her out there and not like me when I get back? She does not like strangers, but I do hold and play with her every day (and she seems to like me!), so that interaction would be lacking while I'm gone.
- Is outside that long too stressful for her? She's only spent the night out there less than 10 times over the years. She seemed perfectly fine afterwards but it was only one night at a time. We have raccoons, opossums, foxes, hawks, owls, cats in our area, although they don't seem to hang around the cage area based on my wildlife cam, mostly they just pass through other parts of the yard. The hawks are out in the daytime and haven't messed with the cage yet.
- The temperature should be ok - March in Florida is typically pretty pleasant. But anything else I should think about there?
- She eats Henry's Healthy Blocks plus veggies and stuff so someone would need to come by each day to get those meals out of the fridge/freezer.
Some info about the outside cage:
It's an old dog kennel and run (237 sq ft) so has metal poles, chainlink with chicken wire attached to it on the inside, chicken wire along the top, the concrete bottom is covered in several inches of dirt/leaves/sand which she digs in and buries things. I'm working to upgrade the chicken wire to 1/2" wire mesh. She has a cover over where her nest box is to keep it dry from the rain and the rest is open to rain or whatever else falls in, plus lots of branches. Curious wild squirrels come up to the cage all through the day, so she has some sort of external stimulation even though she usually ignores them. It's very shaded but does get sunlight through the trees. I'd probably make her another nest box so she has 2 to choose from. And set up a camera.
If this isn't a stupid idea to leave her out there, I would make something where food can be placed in the cage and water refreshed without needing to open anything where she could slip out.
So yeah, any thoughts or suggestions? Is this a disaster waiting to happen or could be something doable?