Originally Posted by
CritterMom
I hope your little guys are okay. Three squirrels curled up together is sort of like three space heaters. They really can generate some heat. When my indoor squirrel decides to curl up in my lap for a nap, it isn't long before I am sweating bullets!
I live in Maine so get to see my share of below zero temps - the coldest I have seen is 20 below. And the next day I have my normal giant herd of squirrels hitting my Squirrel Cafe. As long as they band together, which yours do, they have the ability to weather these temps okay.
Don't put ANYTHING in the nest yourself - you run the risk of them abandoning their nest and trying to make it in the cold without the benefit of their protected nest. If you want to try giving them additional things to insulate with, place them in a box or something and just put it on the deck so they can find it. We have found that while natural nests built of natural materials and insulated with dry leaves tend to stay remarkably parasite-free, while nests filled with fleece or other man-made insulation quickly become overrun. I suspect that the leaves have insect repellant properties. In the fall when I am doing my leaf blowing, I make sure there are a fair number of leaves blown under my back deck, which is about 16 inches off the ground. When we get lots of snow I make sure there is at least one place that is dug out enough so they can access that area. There are days where the leaves under the deck are getting more action than the food in the Cafe! In the spring, when mamas are reinforcing their nests, it is The Place To Go for leaves, since all the others are buried under snow.
The other day I was reading an article about what to do if you wind up without electricity for long periods in very cold temps, which basically involved building indoor "igloos" out of mattresses and sofa cushions and filling it with insulation material. I was amazed to see that they were using squirrel nests as a basic guide because they are so efficient at this!