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View Full Version : Looks like Hunny as made her choice



macytree
10-09-2007, 06:06 PM
to my uneducated eyes it appears she definitely wants to be a wild squirrel and not a pet. She hates being in her cage except to sleep and when I take her out now she is a nut. She runs in crazy squirrel circles, jumps on everything, is starting to nip at my fingers, and doesn't want to interact with me as much. She'll still run on me but she's using me as a tree and not as a source of comfort. She also realized that my dogs are a threat and will scream and hide when they come in her room. Until a couple of days ago she was completely indifferent to them and that had me worried.

She's just about 9 weeks now and we're working on weening off of formula. She gets two formula feedings of about 10ccs a day and the rest of her diet is solids. I need to work on getting her eating natural foods, as there just aren't a lot of cheerios hanging around in trees.

We've taken really good care of her so far and she seems to be in perfect physical and mental health. I'm actually quite proud of us. We're really starting to worry about release though. What should we be doing to make sure she's ready? We live in an apartment so I can't put her in a release cage, I sure wish we could. There's no hurry to release her as we're in Florida, but I'm guessing she is not going to be happy inside for much longer. So what should I be doing?

Just to let you know, we have absolutely loved this experience. We've decided not to do it again until we're older and have a house with a yard, though. As soon as those two things happen we're going to get our rehabbers license so we can help as many squirrels as possible. We just aren't set up for it now.

pamela lee
10-09-2007, 07:30 PM
Since you don't have anywhere to release Hunny, I would definitely check into finding a rehabber close to you. If you don't have any near you maybe you have a friend with a nice yard where a cage can be setup outside.

TexanSquirrel
10-09-2007, 07:43 PM
Good luck with her! You've done a great job!

thundersquirrel
10-10-2007, 12:37 AM
that's so wonderful that you want to get licensed! bless you! :bowdown

i agree with the consensus so far- find another rehabber with a squirrel her age. it'd probably be best. even if you can't find one with another squirrel her age, hopefully you'd find one with a pre-release cage and some land outdoors.

good luck with this one. :thankyou for letting her choose! she will be so much happier for it. :)

Mrs. Jack
10-11-2007, 05:57 PM
I'm actually quite proud of us.

and so you should be :thumbsup

macytree
10-12-2007, 02:27 AM
I hadn't told my husband about this thread because I really didn't want to give her to a rehabber, I was going to but I didn't want to think about it or say it out loud yet. He brought it up after work tonight though. Apparently one of his coworkers is really into rescue and one of her friends is a licensed rehabber who always has squirrels. They're going to talk more about it tomorrow and figure out if she's the right person to take hunny and when we should turn her over. It sounds good but I still don't want to do it! She's such a pain in the heiney now though that I know I have to. I guess I should be happy that she's going to someone we sort of know and that we'll be able to get updates on her and stuff.

Thanks for all of the help. I'm sure I'll be here crying when we hand her over, even if it is the right thing to do.