I've been taking care of a very healthy 11 week old female singleton for about 7 weeks now. She has been fully weaned for about a week. She has been outside for over 2 weeks (1st in her smaller cage, on my deck and now outside away from my house in a wooded area (where she was found) in a large soft release cage I built to withstand the apocalypse. I built her a red oak nest box with a predator door and multiple levels which she uses a lot. I had planned to attach her nesting box to a tree next to the soft release cage at the end of October. My contact with her on weekdays is morning and evening feedings. On weekends a little more frequently. I plan to look after her all winter with daily food and water delivered to her door with pulleys and cables...

So yesterday I had my Gear 360 camera on top of her cage to see what her interactions were like with other squirrels that come and eat the sunflower seed/corn mix I've started leaving out on top of her cage. Watching the playback, there was about a 4 minute segment where she was doing the mommy call. So now I'm worried that she's lonely and maybe I should release her sooner. She's very attentive to sounds from other squirrels and is mostly interested in me because I'm the guy with the food; although sometimes when I'm putting food in her cage, she wants to play like we use to before she move into the soft release cage.

So, what's the protocol here? Keep the sad singleton incarcerated for 2 more weeks, or add a small predator door to the soft release cage and open in morning and close at night and then permanently move her box in 2 weeks, or put her nesting box in a tree now and shut down the soft release cage. Obviously, counter arguement to releasing sooner is she hasn't sufficiently developed survival skills and so may not be ready.

I'm in the St. Louis area and we don't usually get a hard multi day freeze until late December. Still, after Thanksgiving it is cold, frequently wet and dreary. So she's got some time to make some friends and fatten up a bit more before the days get short and the squirrels hunker down. Appreciate your suggestions.

Thanks,

Baby Mij's Dad