Help! How do I put my squirrel on a diet? Why is he sleeping so much?

[Shewhosweptforest]

[squirrellove89]

i am just now tuning in to this post and when he was gone i was crying i was so happy to see that he came home

[The Betel Nut]

Thank you! Aw! I love to hear that Maple came back home to say hello. They are such amazing little creatures. Warms my heart . Thank you for sharing!

So glad to hear Betel made an appearance. I released 3 this year and one hangs around daily for treats and the other two hit the woods and weren't seen until yesterday when Maple showed up and bummed treats and skritches. So glad to see her and she "whispered" in my ear right before she headed back to the woods. I hope she keeps coming back for visits but I am happy she's adjusting to being an outside squirrel too.

[The Betel Nut]

The Betel wanted me to thank everyone for the wonderful prayers and the awesome welcome home messages. Seeing all the posts brought a huge smile to my face the love we've felt from everyone has been so wonderful.
It's very neat because since the Betel has come home he has been so lovey and following me every where. He's a very funny little thing he started to try and build another nest with the fake plant leaves above one of my cabinets. He has built a nest like that before in my old apartment (before I moved to my current house). Back than, I felt guilty because I couldn't release him properly since we weren't living in an area where he would be safe to be free. I figured when I moved I could bring him outside and he could build a nest with real trees and leaves. Interestingly enough the Betel spent 12 days outside for hours at a time playing and exploring before he finally decided to leave by himself for 6 days to explore alone only to end up back home and build a nest inside! The Betel will be free to be back outside again (if he chooses) and with the help of another awesome squirrel friend (I met here on TSB) we will be putting up a squirrel box. So hopefully the Betel can stay close. As of right now, I am just looking forward to waking up tomorrow and seeing my best little buddy sitting on top of the kitchen fridge (where he made his first little nest- btw he doesn't live in a cage) ready to greet me in the morning. Hopefully, I'll figure out how to upload some video soon so I can show everyone the Betel building his nest.
Well good night and sweet dreams to everyone and their little squirrel kids. Thank you all again! P.S. I am learning that The Betel may not be a HE in fact The Betel may be a She. So stay tuned...

[The Betel Nut]

I haven't posted in a little bit but I have a lot to share so I will most likely be starting a new thread, "Adventures of Betel Nut." I did want to say thanks to the help of all the wonderful loving people on the SquirrelBoard, I have (slowly) grown to be a much more patient (relaxed) squirrel mommy.

Thanks to my dear friend Patti (HRT4SQRLS) I met on SB Betel I have learned that Betel Nut is in fact a GIRL! Yes, a GIRL. She has also been so kind to get the Betel a nest box for outside. Betel is still coming home every night; Which I will explain later the "adventures" AND challenges of learning to adjust to her habits (the constant worry when she will be home).

In the meantime, she has her nest box above the fridge where her other nest is. She hasn't quite mastered the idea of how it works yet. We want to get her acclimated to it first before putting it outside. So in the meantime she sits on top of it eating her NEW PICKY BLOCK FORMULA -HENRY'S HEALTHY PETS that she loves very much. Thanks to the suggestion (once again) from the lovely people on squirrel board who recommended it.

Well, I am keeping an eye on my little rascal right now has she climbs some trees. I will be posting a new thread later on to share with everyone the challenges of owning, rather being "owned" (as HRT4SQRLS once gently put it) an indoor/outdoor squirrel.

Here's the Betel eating her new little "Picky" blocks and sitting on top of her nest box.

[farrelli]

So cute. I'll be looking for the other thread.

[HRT4SQRLS]

TheBetelNut
It was nice to meet you Betel's Mom.
As you probably have already figured out squirrels love to sit up as high as possible and survey the world below them. I'm not surprised at all that Betel loves the view from the top of the nest box. Silly girl. As long as she gets the idea that she can go inside it, when she is outside hopefully she will claim it as her 'outdoor chalet' or vacation cottage. That's our plan of course ... I hope it's hers as well. From the way this is shaping up she may never spend another night outdoors if she decides to follow the Fluffer route. I'm sure that you would be completely agreeable to that.

You can start a new thread OR if you would prefer, this thread can be re-titled and moved to the GreySquirrel Forum. If you want to do that, PM one of the Admins and they can do that.

I look forward to reading about the adventures of Betel. This could get very exciting if she decides to return daily and eventually has babies ... maybe on top of the refrigerator.

Let me know when you want to hang the nest box in the tree and we'll get it up.

[Karen]

My 8 month old squirrel that we rehabilitated from the time he was 4 weeks old has now been going outside on his own. It is an incredible thing. He sleeps inside every night and in the morning he goes outside to play and shows back up on my porch about 5-6 hours later and comes inside and naps. He usually wakes back up and plays. Most recently though he has been sleeping all day when he comes back in. I am concerned because he no longer eats his rodent blocks and is only eating acorns from outside. I noticed his urine has been dark (reddish color) which I believe to be caused by the acorns. However, he is a little plump. My concern is his diet. Getting him to eat rodent blocks again because I don't believe he is getting the proper nutrition outside yet, since he is just learning how to be some-what of a "out-door" squirrel. I also don't know if he is sleeping more because he is exhausted from playing outside or if he is sick. When he is up he acts perfectly fine but he just seems to sleep a lot more too. He recently just started going outside 10 days ago so his body may be adjusting. I would just like to know if anyone else has experienced anything else like this. Thank you.

My ChunkyMonkey comes back a year after I released him & his brother, Lucky. They were released 2springs ago. They were around a year and a half old. I first put their cage out for 2 weeks, w/them in it. Left it out for about 1month, after We let them go.Chunk came back during that time. He has a big ole oak tree, behind the barn. Then, I didn't see him for about a week. Then, there he was again. Have faith that he's being a squirrel, doing what squirrels do.
Now I have a new baby, Toby. I'm kinda new TSB. Good people, who have great advice.
TobysMom