Looking for Advice on introducing squirrels 4 week apart in age. First Post

[The Love of Foamy]

I work in the pet industry so many times customers bring in young wildlife and are unsure of what to do. Most years its a matter of bringing a baby to a wild life center but at times the centers are inundated with babies and can not take in anymore. When this happens I will raise the little ones until they are off the bottle (so to speak) and off to the center they go for their next step. This year none of the shelters are taking anything no matter the age. I received a 3 week old Eastern Gray Squirrel back at the beginning of March (whom my family and I named Foamy) He is a healthy Big boy and spent over a month preparing for his successful soft release. Just last week we finally opened his outside cage to watch our beautiful Boy climb his first tree. He has to our complete joy adapted well to our squirrel group already on our property and has no interest interacting with us and prefers his new squirrel group (bitter sweet).
Now on to our next adventure as I have two 6 week old girls (who were in really bad shape when I got them at two weeks of age) they were covered in maggots and one had a nasty infected bite wound from what looked like an adult squirrel. The girls (Betty and Boop) are doing great and last night I received another young 3 week old male who's eyes should open any day. In my Core I feel all wild animals should return to the wild, and such is my goal for all of them. This is the first time I have done a soft release myself and am so happy with my first results with our Foamy and want to insure our new group will do just as well. I have so many questions of over wintering, mixing different age squirrels and more. I have been looking for a group of individuals who has the same passion for these little clowns yet also wants to see them be free and successful in the end, and if not able to release insuring the best life possible. Any and all advice welcome

[Chirps]

Hi, and welcome! There are lots of great folks here who can advise you. Also there are many threads with details of individual experiences of the process of soft release, timing, etc. Everyone will cheerlead for you and your babies and share your hopes and fears. You definitely came to the right place!

If your boy is only 3 weeks he won't open his eyes for another 2 weeks. Are you sure he's that young if his eyes are about to open? Also the girls are a good bit ahead of him developmentally, but the experts will be able to tell you how much of a gap is too much.

Cheers!

[The Love of Foamy]

Thank you so much. And yes, I was informed on proper age thanks to this group so my Boy is 5 weeks and the girls are 11 weeks. I would love to see them go as a group eventually. Here in IL I am assuming I have to over winter them as they can not be released by the end of September? I Want what’s best for them and would love to see them not spend the winter in confinement but will do what’s best.
Thanks again🥰