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Thread: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

  1. #1
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    Default Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

    After surreptitiously chewing her way to self release, Helen returned for the second time this morning, two days running. I think she may have been out all night. I don’t where or how much she slept.

    I think I was finally able to secure that hidden opening today. (Sorry for the previous long version. I am just super worried.)

    I was thrilled to see her. She ate and then went to sleep this morning and is currently still asleep.

    I am worried because she never sleeps during the daylight when we are in the same room. She will pancake for 30 seconds to a minute, then get moving again. She does not close her eyes in my daytime presence.

    Hopefully, she is just exhausted having not slept at all last night. I don’t know. If she did mate that scramble alone can be exhausting. Temperature got down to 35 for much of the night.

    The worst case scenario would be that she has gotten into something toxic: anti-freeze, rat poison, chemicals, who knows.

    What should I be watching out for?

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    Buddy (01-21-2021)

  3. #2
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    Default Re: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

    How old us she? How long has she been out? You have recaptured her at this point?

    The first couple days can be absolutely exhausting for new releases, so some tiredness is not that unusual. She may have been bullied by some local wilds. If there are no other symptoms, I would think she is just exhausted from her adventures.


    Quote Originally Posted by Rock Monkey View Post
    After surreptitiously chewing her way to self release, Helen returned for the second time this morning, two days running. I think she may have been out all night. I don’t where or how much she slept.

    I think I was finally able to secure that hidden opening today. (Sorry for the previous long version. I am just super worried.)

    I was thrilled to see her. She ate and then went to sleep this morning and is currently still asleep.

    I am worried because she never sleeps during the daylight when we are in the same room. She will pancake for 30 seconds to a minute, then get moving again. She does not close her eyes in my daytime presence.

    Hopefully, she is just exhausted having not slept at all last night. I don’t know. If she did mate that scramble alone can be exhausting. Temperature got down to 35 for much of the night.

    The worst case scenario would be that she has gotten into something toxic: anti-freeze, rat poison, chemicals, who knows.

    What should I be watching out for?
    See my wild squirrel adventures in the thread "Squirtle's yard!":
    https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/...quirtle-s-Yard!

    Loving dad to Sir Max, 2017-2018. There is no foot so small that it cannot leave an imprint on this world.

    "Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right."
    -Grateful Dead

  4. #3
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    Default Re: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

    Quote Originally Posted by TubeDriver View Post
    How old us she? How long has she been out? You have recaptured her at this point?
    She is 10+ months old. I have raised her since she was a pirate. [She had one eye open.]

    [Very early on in my care she made it clear that she would not be confined to a box or cage, hurling herself at her enclosure at full RPM and crying and carrying on. This pattern continued to repeat day after day and I genuinely worried that she would stroke out if these struggles continued, because she wasn't going to stop.] She has never lived in a cage as a result.

    I realized that this would complicate my life tremendously, but I decided that I wasn't going to torture her. My top goal has always been that she would leave my care alive. At the time I thought this was a modest goal.

    She has been out of the house at least twice, returning twice, on consecutive days, in the past couple of days, before I figured out how she was self releasing. During those occasions, when she left and when she returned is unknown. [Well, I know she last left yesterday afternoon.] She could have gone out more times than that before I noticed this week and each time returned of her own accord.

    She is currently in the house. [I am pretty certain.] She returned both times of her own accord.

    Shortly, after writing the above post she got up and started to move about again. One of the first things she then checked out is the location of her previously secret exit. I ending up covering a wall section with a 4x8 by one inch thick sheet. She explored it from all angles, smelling the new situation. So I am now pretty confident that was how she got out.

    However, if she is really determined, she will make another opening. Now that she has had a taste, I am pretty sure she will want more.

  5. #4
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    Default Re: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

    So happy to hear that Helen chose to come back, However, like you said, she might want to go out again...

    At least she knows that she can rely on coming back home; so hopefully, even if manages to get out, she won't go far and stay out for long.

    And hopefully she hasn't eaten anything she is not supposed and she is just really tired from her adventures.

    Sending lots of good luck for you and Helen!
    Animals are magical....Thank you everyone who tries to help them, save them tirelessly...

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    Default Re: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

    Helen is missing again this morning. Her morning nut that was placed last night before I went to bed is also missing.

    She is not in her nest. She does not come when I rattle her nut box. She might be in the house unconscious somewhere, many place to be out of site.

    I think she got out again. I think she has another way out.

    Yesterday, around 4:30 pm, she did awake from her day-long sleep. She ate a little more and I went out and washed dishes and went to watch to see where she would go. She went where he secret exit used to be, smelling and climbing up the wall, looking for another way in.

    I have put out food and water and made it easier for her to get back in.

    Yesterday, after waking up, she kept jumping to me, something like five times. She usually does this when she wants to come with me, to go through doors and be with me. However, I wanted to be able to put finishing touches on her house and get a good night's sleep because I got very little and terrible sleep the night before. So I encouraged her to go off on her own.

    Nonetheless, even if she spent the night in my room, I think she would have found her way again, sooner rather than later.

    All I can do is hope and pray that she stays safe and comes back.

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    Default Re: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

    It seems like you’re playing Russian roulette here. It’s obvious she’s not going to stay in your house, so I think you need to decide what you’re going to do long term. She may continue the in and out of the house routine for awhile, but I think one day she just won’t return.

    If you don’t want to release her in your yard then I think you need to find a way to contain her in a cage. That’s why I suggested moving forward and put her in a large release cage outside. If you do want to release her in your yard, that’s ok too, because that’s where she’ll be when she doesn’t return home some night.

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  10. #7
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    Default Re: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

    I hope she comes back safe and sound. I do think also that you need to think long term and make a decision...

    Is it possible to try to contain her in one room? I know you said that she hates being in a cage (I think most do!). But I think a room is acceptable; especially if you put lots of toys, branches, stuff animals, anything that she likes...

    Again, hope she comes back very soon! Lots of luck with all...

    PS: When she comes back; you might want to dedicate a day (or a few days) to follow her around to figure out where she is going and secure any possible areas that she is using to get out.
    Animals are magical....Thank you everyone who tries to help them, save them tirelessly...

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    Default Re: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

    If she can get out when she wants, I would let her opening be, don't close it up. This is a somewhat unorthodox "soft release" where your entire home is the release cage. It is winter so up here we would over winter but in NC it might be mild enough that this does not present a big issue? I agree with Mel, one day she will not return, she will have her own drey/nest outside somewhere and be a wild squirrel.
    See my wild squirrel adventures in the thread "Squirtle's yard!":
    https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/...quirtle-s-Yard!

    Loving dad to Sir Max, 2017-2018. There is no foot so small that it cannot leave an imprint on this world.

    "Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right."
    -Grateful Dead

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  13. #9
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    Default Re: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

    Quote Originally Posted by Buddy View Post
    Is it possible to try to contain her in one room? I know you said that she hates being in a cage (I think most do!). But I think a room is acceptable; especially if you put lots of toys, branches, stuff animals, anything that she likes...

    PS: When she comes back; you might want to dedicate a day (or a few days) to follow her around to figure out where she is going and secure any possible areas that she is using to get out.
    She used to live in just one room for the first few months of her life but eventually she realized that there were other places as she would accompany me out of the room, leaping onto me. Eventually she became more and more reluctant to come back into my room, especially in the afternoons. She started becoming destructive in my room. The house has a very open design plan. My construction efforts came to a halt due the power tools, loves to chew on cords, and other hazards that would create. When I am working a project I going in and out of the house all day and in out of the attic.

    The effort to remediate hazards in the rest of the house was a massive, ongoing undertaking. I brought her into the room on a couple of occasions because I couldn't figure out solutions to the trouble she was getting into. My attic is now loaded with hazardous materials and electronics and furniture.

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    Default Re: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

    Quote Originally Posted by TubeDriver View Post
    If she can get out when she wants, I would let her opening be, don't close it up. This is a somewhat unorthodox "soft release" where your entire home is the release cage. It is winter so up here we would over winter but in NC it might be mild enough that this does not present a big issue? I agree with Mel, one day she will not return, she will have her own drey/nest outside somewhere and be a wild squirrel.
    After she got out again today somehow that is the conclusion that I came to. I thought I had her contained yesterday evening.
    Today I created three ways for her to get back in and I hope she finds one of them. I may even reopen her secret escape route, though that will be a lot of work. I have been out calling her name. I had food out during the day.

    I became worried that she might hurt herself squeezing out a small, concealed opening or getting stuck or leaping from the second floor.

    I am working as hard as I can to finish her house and prep to transport to a wild, remote, already scouted release site, miles from the nearest house.

    There few leaves on any tree, thus won't likely be able construct a drey, might be able to share someone else's. She may remember the south facing hollow in a huge pecan tree that she was raised in in my back yard, I hope.

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    Default Re: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

    Any update on Helen?
    Animals are magical....Thank you everyone who tries to help them, save them tirelessly...

  17. #12
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    Default Re: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

    Quote Originally Posted by Buddy View Post
    Any update on Helen?
    When I walked into the kitchen I noticed that the nut had been taken and some of yesterday's food, which I had left out on the table, had been eaten. After I rattled around in the kitchen for a few minutes at 9 AM she appeared from here primary nest. I made us both some breakfast and took it to my room, which is her home base, the place she has spent the most time. After eating some more and running around and running through some of the "Dont's" (which I think is her current way of trying to get out of the room. That is the pattern I have seen.) Then she tried her previous "go to" signal that she sits on my shoulder then reaches out towards my nose and mouth, claws extended, but not too vigourously, but enough to do some damage.

    Eventually, with me not relenting and her being tired, she climbed into my bed, but instead of falling deeply asleep she was warily listening. When I opened the file cabinet she heard this and climbed out of bed, fearing that I would leave her in the room trapped and alone. This I believe is why she never naps in my presence in the day because of this worry. When she slept in my room I would wake up a half hour before sunrise and slip out of the room and go outside and get some work done and return between 10 and 11 AM. So, she isn't wrong.

    I waited an hour then I quietly slipped out and went to work on closing off more ways that I thought she might be escaping.

    I think she is returning in the early morning light. As Mel said, the fact that she is sleeping all day suggests she was outside during the night and probably not that warm and not feeling that secure, so probably not sleeping much. Why she isn't returning around sunset, I don't know.

    Last night I really, badly burnt a pot of beans. Totally forgot about it. I thought, "I should set a timer." Then I remembered that I had unplugged that so there wouldn't be a live cord she could chew on. Smoke filled the house. I left two windows totally open all night. The smell is still here. I don't think she likes it all. This really isn't going to help with keeping her in the house for the next couple of days.

    Her primary nest is right above the kitchen. Tonight she briefly entered the primary, started to arrange things then left. I thought she might be trying to sneak out again so I followed her around, but I think it was the smell that had her upset. It must be very powerful to her sensitive nose.

    She went to her number two nest. I guess I will find out if she still has ways out in the morning.

    Given my schedule and the weather, the earliest I will be able to get her to her release site is Wednesday. I believe that the time between now and then will be quite stressful.

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    Default Re: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

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    These pictures of Helen were taken today.

    I should include today's paper in each photo like they do in kidnappings, or maybe a mugshot number.

    In order, sitting in front of her house, on the run, and getting some calories back in the system.

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    Default Re: Sleeping in the Daytime after Self Release

    Oh, so happy to hear she is home, safe & sound!

    So super cute!! You can tell, she is full of character!
    Animals are magical....Thank you everyone who tries to help them, save them tirelessly...

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