Re: 3 little grays
Sorry for no updating, now 2 1/2 years later. Dealing with possible lung or pneumonia issues with the runt. Her name is Rupert after Rupert The Great, the movie squirrel. First treatment is done for Rupert, I will follow up in that thread.
I ended up with 4 squirrel houses in the trees near our house and the two bigger squirrels were there for a few months. Others came and went and at times all 3 houses were occupied. All our regulars hang around the kitchen window and back porch waiting for food. No idea if our good boy is among them, but there is one that comes running wherever he is and is ready to get in your hand for food. We think it could be good boy, the friendly male that was released.
We kept rupert in the house foranother month or so, probably 16-20 weeks. I would take her cage out on the porch and she wouldn't come out of her box, even when others climbed up on it. After a week or so she finally came out. I opened the door and after a few days she ventured out 10-20 feet. At nite she stayed in the cage. Around day 4 of this she wandered around the house and was gone. 2-3 days later my wife told me she was back and she was setting on a chair on the porch. I sat down and she crawled right up like always. I took her to a tree and she climbed up in the box and made it her home. Every morning I would call her name when I put out food and she would come down the tree and jump on me. In the evening, I would always find her by the fish pond around the base of her tree. I would mess with her and then take her to the tree and up she would go to the house. This lasted about 4 weeks.
I took her to the tree on evening and when she started to go in, another squirrel knocked her off. She fell about18 feet and landed on big rocks. SHe had trouble walking, but finally was able to move a bit. I took her to another tree and she made her way up to that box. Again every morn she came out when I called and would mess around on the porch and come to us when we were out. About a week later I went out and all the tissue in her house was laying on the ground and she was nowhere to be found. That evening I could her under some bushes in the yard. About 1/2 of her tail was chewed off and the reast was red and bloody. I figured no treatment was probably best. She did go back up her tree and to her house, I put in new stuffing.
Forward another 5 days or so and the story is repeated. I found her again under some bushes with more tail gone and barely able to walk, but she came right to me and was maybe near death. I took her in the house and told my wife she was coming in for good. She is still only 3/4 the size of an Indiana gray. Can't really jump anymore. When she came back in I put her in a small cage where she couldn't climb much. Hoping that would help to heal her back/legs. I finally thought she was climbing around good enough to be safe so I went back to tall cage. She did get good enough to live inside, but no way she could survive outside. She only has about 1/3 of a tail. The last month, she has finally been able to set on her back legs and eat. She hasn't been able to do that for over a year.
She has a 5 foot tall cage in our family room with box, and some tree limbs from top to bottom. A tunnel made of wood and an access hole to the cage top, which is covered with plywood and has a fake tree about 2 foot tall on it. She can climb thru the hole to the top and climb that tree which puts her at 7-8 foot and higher than anything in the room. The plywood extends 6 inches over the sides, so she can jump or climb down.
Downstairs I have aroom that can be closed off and I have a 6 foot combination of limbs in a bucket with a house at the top. Most days I take her down there for a few hours so she can climb, hunt around the room and investigate everything.
Her diet is a mixture of nuts, any kind of wild stuff I can pick up. Exotic nutrition mix, fresh corn, her favorite, romaine lettuce, Tasty Blocks, fortified rat and mouse food pellets,which she has quit eating the last few days. I had a deer antler which she chewed on for a while but quit and I gave it to the outside squirrels. I will get more now that hunting season is open. My SIL provides all I need. This year I've got a ton of acorns and walnuts. I break them with a hammer and give her a handful every few days. She loves chips, but we only give her a small piece every day or two, kind of like peanuts, just a treat every now and then. It is good way to give any kind of med, though. I just try to vary food from everything available and that I can find.
I never wanted a squirrel as a house pet and thought when I found the 3 babies I would get them to a re-habber and be done with it. Well it didn't work out that way. This little runt has been a real gift. 2 1/2 years old now and I hope we get years more.
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