Hello all, I'm still relatively new to all this, I just received my apprenticeship license about 7 weeks ago. I am torn because I have 2 orphaned squirrels that are 14 weeks old, I got them when they were 7 weeks old and malnourished. The female (Rozey)was 115 grams, the male (Lemmy) was 136 grams. They both thrived with me. Please bear with me, I want to give you a back story in case it matters. Three days ago Rozey started going back and forth from one side of the cage to another (cage is 32" tall, 22" wide and 16" deep). She wasn't as interested in food but did stop for a few nibbles once in a while and go right back to the side to side thing. She also stopped playing with her brother and he tried really hard to wrestle and play with her. My husband had ordered a larger cage but it wasn't due here until the weekend and her behavior concerned me. I had the rehabber come and observe and she thought they should both go to a larger cage asap at her house. The next day I took them over there in a carrier. Her room had 3 other very large cages with 2 to 4 squirrels in each, it was very noisy. She thought we should put them in one of the cages with another male and female, I was concerned she told me it would be alright... my male innocently went into the cage, was chased and attacked, he flew back into the carrier which I had open by the cage door. Rozey was still in there and did not venture out. We then took them to a slightly smaller cage (it had one squirrel in there but we took her out and put her in another one) and Rozey went in no problem. Lemmy took a while. Anyway once Lemmy got in there Rozey (the back and forth girl) clung to the very top corner in the back of the cage with her nose to the corner, she didn't blink or move for the 45 minutes I was there...she was frozen! I petted her (which she always backed away from, just not very affectionate like Lemmy was) and she let me which was highly unusual, she wanted none of her favorite foods. The rehabber told me "she feels your stress" so I went home. When I got home she texted me and said she gently pulled Rozey off the cage and put her in her hammock (which I brought from home). She also later sent me a video of Rozey walking around the cage. This morning around 11:30 she told me that Rozey had not come down from her hammock. I decided to go over there and I was able to coax her out and get her to eat some. My rehabber said she feels like Rozey may have some neurological issues and may be unreleasable. She is very timid. I did notice that it was loud over there and every time a door opened or closed it would sound a voice alarm and scare her, the scraping of a chair on the floor scared her, as did other squirrel noises. I think she is extremely noise sensitive. My husband and I are very quiet people so it wasn't loud when she was with us. Lemmy doesn't seem to mind and is doing well. My questions are: if Rozey can't be released and has to come back home with me (to a larger cage of course) without Lemmy will she die of loneliness? Won't Lemmy be lonely without her in his cage when that happens? Will he be ok out in the wild not have his sister to be with? I have to go out of town for a week this coming weekend so I wasn't able to bring Rozey home with me. I'm afraid she will die of stress before I come back and am able to pick her up and bring her back with me...is that a possibility? I don't know how susceptible squirrels are to their emotions. Thank you so much for anyone's help and suggestions....I am sotorn up over this.