releasing rehabbed babies?

[astrll]

only pichi and pochi stayed the night! i was hoping a few more would come back so i was worried as heck all night haha this is really hard!

i’m glad pichi came back — she didn’t have her head tilt this morning. we locked her in last night so she couldn’t leave right away because we wanted to give her some HHB’s and formula. she took 4 cc’s and had about two blocks and then she started getting antsy.

pochi had 4 cc’s too and then left. i saw her meet up with bunki! bunki looked really energetic which is a relief. i was worried about her leaving so late in the day but i think she found her sibs right away.

other than those three i haven’t seen anyone else. we left HHB’s out and kept the door open in case they come back.

ouff i really miss them. we said our goodbyes properly the day before release but the silence they left behind makes me sad. this was a really special couple of months. it’s so weird to have my morning back! i don’t know what to do with myself haha i feel like i should be giving someone their formula and blocks

i hope we made muchi proud and she guides them to where they need to be, even if that’s not our home. and i’m really proud of all eight of them! they took off to the trees and went free so naturally. i’m also really happy for them — they were in enclosures for five months and now have the whole world to play in. i hope they know how much we love them and i REALLY hope they still come by today and forever

and of course thank you all for being here and making this infinitely easier! i’m so glad i found this corner of the internet

[astrll]

here are some more photos from
yesterday!

pichi right after she jumped


moo also right after she jumped


bochi and pochi

[Charley Chuckles]

What a great job you did 👏
I know how hard it is we invest our time and mostly our hearts 💕
Kids come back now and then so your mommy knows your fine just having fun checking out your world 🙏

[scoopysnack]

thank you so so so so much! it has been so meaningful to rely on all of your expertise, experience, and own stories to help us get through each new scenario and learning moment and all of the emotions that go with helping these little beauties lead a bouncy happy squirrel life. i was so hopeful our time with them would be a little longer but it makes my heart so warm yet achey to see them running free and exploring where muchi lived and raised them. the pain of losing muchi is still very much with me but she was so amazing to hold down such a large territory and bring 6 (+2) beautiful kids here. i secretly hope her kids surprise us and take on the role of protecting this place but i also know how much work that was for muchi and hope they find a good spot to grow up in


thank you all again so very much, i have endless gratitude for you all and the work you do!

[supersquirrelgirl]

May Muchi and the Squirrel Gods give you both a special gift when you least expect it. Real fun to read this diary!

Yes, Muchi would be very proud. She knew "you got this !"

Really good success story from attic rescue to release with all 6 then +2.

Some will stay around and some will go far. But they will always remember where home is!

[scoopysnack]

pichi came back to us tonight again and astrll saw from our squirrel cams that she used the stairs up to our balcony and it looked like she was limping again a little bit. by the time i got to her, i found her in her squirrel box with her head and eye tick looking a bit rough again. here is a video: https://youtu.be/k2h1H5_Axz0?si=2T0yvbpFdEsm1eeU

we dosed her 0.04cc of the ibuprofen for her limp and she had 2.5cc of milk as well as a couple HHBs after she finished her shelled pecan (which is what she’s working on in the video). after all that, she went right to sleep with some pets and gave us a little grooming and licks as well but she was still ticking in her sleep again. this is both nights out that she’s come back with her ticking and we’re still not sure what is causing it – too much excitement and running around or another fall or weather? it was a high of 26°c and a low of 9°c today and still quite warm around the time she came back. it’s frustrating we can’t fix it but i am really glad she knows she can come here to get a little support and protection, so proud of this little one but i wish she didn’t have to struggle at all.

pochi did also stop by while we were tending to pichi but she just wanted some nuts and left soon after, she didn’t want any milk but did take and eat 1 HHB (i watched her hide the 2nd haha). i think she’s opting to sleep with her siblings (likely bunki and muko) now that she knows they’re all sleeping out in the trees and since she and pichi still don’t get along.

today we didn’t have any sign of daisy, moo, or bochi and still no sign of mooki i feel very lucky to still see half and to get to still hold and feel pichi and see her at night but i miss my other 2 boys and girls so much.

[astrll]

thank you all! today was very… emotional but restful. i’ve never exactly been a caregiver — i don’t have kids nor any pets — so this “empty nest” feeling took me by surprise. i didn’t know how to process the emotion but some rest has been helpful. i’m glad we both took the day off because my sister and i haven’t had a chance to hang out without having an obligation.

like scoopysnack said, pichi is locked in her enclosure tonight (we’ve been calling it pichi’s palace and the other enclosure daisy dome). the daisy dome’s portal is open but the middle door is locked so pichi doesn’t get any visitors.

whenever she did come by our balcony today (twice) she would always drink a lot of water. is the head tilt/tic possibly because of the heat and dehydration? though when she got the tilt/tic while in the enclosure, it wasn’t because she was hot or dehydrated.

she consistently only gets the issue at night after she’s been playing a little. in the enclosure, if we saw it we got her to slow down for a minute and the tilt/tic would go away. sometimes it would only last up to 10 seconds. other times it would only go away after she got some sleep.

i really wish we could take her to a vet to diagnose the problem. it’s such an inconsistent issue that i don’t know how to deal with it. with our neuro wilds, they seemed to adapt and we supported them with water, henry’s vitamin supplements, and HHB’s. yogurt is the only one we’ve seen make a full recovery.

tomorrow and saturday will be very hot again. should we let her go out again or keep her in? we have the enclosure covered right now so she can’t see the trees when she wakes up. i think seeing the other wilds and the trees made her antsy to leave this morning so we let her go.

she’s sleeping nice and soundly now

[astrll]

she consistently only gets the issue at night after she’s been playing a little. in the enclosure, if we saw it we got her to slow down for a minute and the tilt/tic would go away. sometimes it would only last up to 10 seconds. other times it would only go away after she got some sleep.

she just woke up to have some water and the tilt is gone. i’d say it took about 4-5 hours for it to disappear this time

[olorin19]

i really wish we could take her to a vet to diagnose the problem. it’s such an inconsistent issue that i don’t know how to deal with it. with our neuro wilds, they seemed to adapt and we supported them with water, henry’s vitamin supplements, and HHB’s. yogurt is the only one we’ve seen make a full recovery.

tomorrow and saturday will be very hot again. should we let her go out again or keep her in? we have the enclosure covered right now so she can’t see the trees when she wakes up. i think seeing the other wilds and the trees made her antsy to leave this morning so we let her go.

At any point in this process, have you exchanged any PMs (private messages) with any of the Admin / experts here at TSB? If so, perhaps you might circle back to them to see if they have any opinion on Pichi.

If she is keen to get out and explore, and has been able to go then return, then perhaps let her continue to do so.

Is the limp from an injury? It is really common for newly released squirrels to get injured (bites and scratches) from other squirrels. This has certainly happened to many of my releases. If the injury is significant enough to effect their mobility or require antibiotics, I confine them to their release cage to give them time to heal up before releasing them again.

Since she lets you handle her, I would suggest checking her out all over for wounds or tenderness (sprains, etc.) to get a sense of whether or not she is okay to go out.

[astrll]

At any point in this process, have you exchanged any PMs (private messages) with any of the Admin / experts here at TSB? If so, perhaps you might circle back to them to see if they have any opinion on Pichi.

oh, i haven’t! i’m not sure how to do that — who do i pm?

If she is keen to get out and explore, and has been able to go then return, then perhaps let her continue to do so.

she made the decision herself! the portals have a screw to lock them closed and i hand screwed it last night. when scoopysnack went outside she saw pichi had just forced the door open to leave. limp and tilt/tic were gone so we didn’t try to guide her back in. she had .005 cc’s of formulas, half a block, and she was off! i just saw her eating some bark and leaves waaaaaay up in the trees.

Is the limp from an injury? It is really common for newly released squirrels to get injured (bites and scratches) from other squirrels.

that makes sense! it’s her left foot again — it looks like she triggered the old injury again since the limp was the same and i couldn’t find any signs of a bite/scratch. are there muscles in their feet that can get pulled?

she seems to know to come home if she needs to rest so i’m going to try to trust her today and worry less!

[astrll]

pochi also came home morning! she wanted blocks and some formula. i gave her .005 cc’s of formula when she realized i have blocks in my other hand haha

bunki and muko are in the trees but haven’t stopped by. i think they found an old nest nearby to use.

no sign of mooki at all and we haven’t seen daisy, moo, or bochi either. i have a feeling moo and bochi are together and daisy must be off exploring to his heart’s content. mooki i’m not sure about — i really thought he would stick around. i hope he’s doing okay and keeping warm at night. hopefully he’s with moo and bochi

EDIT: just saw moo on the cams!

[olorin19]

What I meant on sending a PM or private message is that if there was an Admin that you had already had some contact with via PM, then perhaps you could reach back out to them with another PM using the Private Messages link at top left.

[astrll]

bochi came by this morning to hide every single we gave her in the squirrel dirt box (it has diatomaceous earth mixed in the mulch). she was happily coming up for hand feeding too!

pichi came home for a nap at 5pm i think because of the heat. she had a ton of water, 3 cc’s of formula, and two HHB’s.

and daisy came back!!!! he jumped on us so familiar and i gave his rump a big kiss he took 5 cc’s of formula and an HHB. pichi started barking at him but he didn’t pay attention to her. i haven’t seen him chase her today but i’ve seen bochi chase her like crazy.

it’s funny to see the babies interact with our long time wilds. it’s like they don’t know who has dominance

here is daisy!

[astrll]

pichi didn’t come home when she left after her nap. i hope she’s okay. she usually gets her tilt/tick in the evening but when she left after her nap she looked okay. i really hope she comes by in the morning

[Charley Chuckles]

pichi it's check in time girlfriend 👍
I know your having so much fun exploring but please stop by to see your mommy

[astrll]

pichi just came by and her tilt/tic is really bad but she didn’t want to come down. i gave her an HHB and tried to grab her but she bit me really hard (she probably thought i wanted to take the block) so we backed off to see if she’ll come by herself.

she entered the enclosure through the daisy dome so we let her into her enclosure from there and locked her in. she didn’t seem to want us near her but once she was in her box she let us come near. she’s had a couple HHB’s and fell asleep before we could try formula

right now she’s resting in her box and scoopysnack is giving her formula. she’s also having a lot of water again. every time we see her she’s incredibly thirsty.

her tilt/tic faded after over an hour this time.

this is the first time i’ve seen her tilt/tic in the morning and it’s pretty bad. her head is jerky and her right eye moves rapidly. her steps seemed a little hesitant i guess because she’s off balance

ouff i feel sick with worry. i’ll compile all the vids we have of her tilt/tic and pm island rehabber i think — i hope it’s okay to bother

[astrll]

she’s awake now and i think she wants to leave. should i let her?

[astrll]

she seemed stable and kept sniffing the portal so i let her go

this girl is gonna give me grey hairs

[scoopysnack]

hello again! currently our muchi’s moomoo enclosure has pichi, pochi, and daisy in for the night. it was so sweet to see pochi climb in and daisy come wandering in and using me as transportation to get to the portal and snuggle with pochi <3

so far pichi has always returned with her tic so we’re gonna reach out to some folks for opinions and to see if any of them have a vet friend who could advise anything so pichi can have a better chance in her wilding fun.

day 1: pichi left around 9am and returned around 7pm with a little bit of a tic, she had a little milk, water, and HHB blocks

day 2: pichi took some milk and HHB in the morning and no longer had a tic so she was antsy to get out early again and didn’t come back till 6pm with a slight limp and ticking again so we gave her a little ibuprofen, milk, water, and HHB but she was still ticking in her sleep a bit for about 4-5 hours.

day 3: pichi got out herself by pushing the portal door open around 6-7am and she didn’t come home for the night.

day 4: pichi came by around 8am and her tic was rough and she wouldn’t let us near her for a bit until she got into the enclosure herself. she took milk, plenty water, and HHB before sleeping for an hour and getting antsy again to leave but she seemed stable again and she did not return for the night.

day 5 (today): it got up to 30°c today. pichi did not show up until around 3-4pm and she looked completely fine, good energy and spent her time on the balcony just hiding some nuts.

i saw the tilt starting gradually with zero trigger — she was literally just sitting. astrll thinks maybe the tilt/tic is triggered by tiredness?

she hadn’t had much water at that point and she did go into the enclosure after i tossed some nuts in. then when she immediately found her box to rest in, i saw the tic and rapid eye movement start.

it felt hot in the enclosure so i put some fans on her. she had less than 5 syringes of milk, only 1 HHB, didn’t want teklad or veggies so i put some henry’s vitamin supplement on an almond and gave that to her.

i found that she was leaning into my hand to rest and maybe slept more easily with some pets? in doing so though, i could tell that her right eye was moving right to left repeatedly and somewhat fast whereas her left eye didn’t feel like it was moving or twitching. when she rested against me, her head wasn’t ticking anymore.

she also had been blinking a lot more which is new, i thought it was the fan in her face but even when i moved that away she kept blinking.

it took about 1.5 hours for it all to stop while she was sleeping. we’ve got her locked in for the night now. she’s sleeping like a rock. we’re going to see how she is in the morning but we’re thinking of keeping her in the enclosure until we can get some more answers on if there’s anything we can do to help her through her tilt/tic.

i hate knowing she’d be out in the wild struggling but i also know many of our wilds with neuro issues have survived so far and do well for the most part. hopefully she isn’t too upset with us for keeping her in the enclosure.

here is a compilation of her tics and rapid eye movement. astrll is going to pm some admin to see if we can get some advice.
https://youtu.be/2dbJ_3l6nFo?si=UoEK-G1tw_mN3aqd

[astrll]

quick update! pichi, daisy, pochi, bochi, bunki, and moo are all doing great!!! mooki and muko left immediately on the day of release and we haven’t seen them since.

daisy, mooki, and muko were our only boys so is it possible they left because daisy stayed? do boys usually leave their drey’s territory?

pichi, daisy, and pochi still come to use the enclosure from time to time. we have a few stories!

owl spotted —
a couple weeks ago we were cleaning up for the night and saw daisy making his way to us and he quickly jumped inside the enclosure and immediately went into his box. we thought that was strange that he went in the box so quick and then noticed an owl had landed on our balcony!!!! i think the owl was hunting daisy? they wouldn’t leave no matter how much noise we made so we ended shoo’ing the owl off the balcony with a broom but they stayed in the trees watching the portal daisy went through.

eventually the owl left and we stayed outside for a few hours afterwards to make sure they didn’t come back! the next day all our regulars were accounted for — thankfully we haven’t seen the owl since.

yesterday we saw a hawk land downstairs! i don’t know what is attracting them — in the almost three years since we started “squirrelling”, we’ve never seen birds of prey come so close to the house. the only thing that has changed is of course the release of the babies — but we always have new babies visiting so it seems weird.

thankfully we have stellar jay visitors that go absolutely nuts when there is a predator around. there are also crows but they rarely come near our house. the day the owl came by, the crows had been doing warning calls all day so we knew something was wrong. pichi, daisy, and pochi were also huddling down in the enclosure which is out of character — turns out it was that sneaky owl!



bunki after release —
seeing how everyone’s behaviours has change outside the enclosure has been really cool!

bunki was very shy in the enclosure — we only got to know her through watching her on the enclosure cameras. now she’s much more approachable! still wary but she will come up to us for a treat. it’s so nice to get to know her

daisy after release —
daisy and pochi are the funniest attitude change — especially daisy! if possible he’s become MORE familiar 😂 he’ll still play with us and jump on us in greeting but he’s also started strolling into our actual house like he owns the place! i have no idea how he learned that — the first time it happened he walked in with such utter confidence that he knew exactly where he was going. maybe because he sees us inside? it’s always so funny to watch him navigate where he’s going haha

pochi after release —
pochi has also become more familiar — not to the extent daisy is but she definitely trusts us more. she still comes home regularly for HHB’s! she has also taken to exploring the area inside our house right where the balcony doors are. our wilds do this too so it was less surprising than how daisy struts in. he’s even made it downstairs 😂

pichi after release —
pichi’s behaviour is by far the most different! before release, she loved to play and cuddle with us. she was really curious about us and liked to hang out on our shoulders. we definitely gave her extra attention because of her neuro issues so we bonded more quickly with her too.

after release, she is absolutely ignoring us! she’ll let us approach her and move around her just fine but when we hold out our arm for her to jump on, she literally turns around to ignore us 😂

she’s also not interested in our old games anymore — she liked when we played with a blanket with her or with a dinosaur stuffy that she really liked. she also liked when we play fought her with our hands or scratched behind her ears (she REALLY loved head scratches). now if she sees our hands inching towards her for pets she’ll take a few steps away from us haha but even if she ignores us, i saw her building a nest right by our balcony <3

during the first few days, daisy was still adamant on chasing pichi down but she was always able to get away. eventually daisy lost interest and they’re pretty tame when they’re near each other now. pichi did get her first ear nick a few days ago — it’s very small. she’s a big girl now!!! 😂

she’s still got her neuro issues — we’ve been talking to TubeDriver (who has been an enormous help!) and concluded that the “ticking” is most likely seizures. we upped her calcium intake to see if that would help but it only made a marginal difference. we tried keeping her in the enclosure but she seemed really upset about that.

if we had the means, i would keep her since the seizures don’t make her a good candidate for release. but we sadly don’t have the means to do it and i also think she would hate it. she absolutely adores the trees and it would break my heart to take that away from her. for now we’ve decided to keep offering her vitamin supplements and be a safe place she can always return to. it’s not the best solution but it’s the best we can do

rainy days —
today is the first big rainfall since release and pichi, daisy, pochi, and moo are all hunkering down in the enclosure. pochi has claimed one of the boxes and will only share with daisy, so moo has to use one of the other boxes. it was really strange to see pochi crying about moo — they used to cuddle all the time!

since they were in and sleepy, i mixed up some formula to see if they wanted any. pichi and daisy gobbled it up before turning away to sleep and pochi just wanted one of her old toys (a wooden block). moo wouldn’t let me near.

here’s pichi today —


daisy today —


it really fills my heart with how happy they seem in the wild. muchi would be so happy to know that they’re bouncing around, getting muddy, and being squirrels!