Hi team,

Thanks for all the help recently. Nutrition all sorted. My kids still are slow to take to vegetables but are chowing down on HHB like champions and trying more veggies every day.

If you've seen my posts, my boy and girl moved to a 8x4 cage on 4-16. They were found on 3-16 at I think 5-6 weeks old (both teeth, moving, eyes open, not sitting up). If they were six weeks, that would put them at about 12 weeks today. I originally thought that 13 weeks was the release age when you have siblings but now see that 15 is much preferred. Unfortunately I have two obligations out of town for medical reasons. Given this, I'm wondering if you could provide guidance on the following:

Question 1.
First, is the process where you open the release cage and then let them come in and out for 10-14 days kicked off at 15 weeks, or finalized at 15 weeks? I assume the latter.

Question 2.
  • Window 1: I will be home for the next ten days, at which point I am then gone for 7 days (during the window I am home they will be hitting 13-13.5 weeks, seasonally this is the start of May).
  • Window 2: I then am home for a 12 days and gone for 7-10 days (during the window I am home they will be 15.5 week, seasonally this is the end of May).
  • Window 3: I am then back for 2.5 weeks and gone for 7 days (during the window I'm home they will be 17-19 weeks old, seasonally it's early through mid-June). After that I wil be home for a month (all of July).

Knowing that I should be available to help provide food and water after their release hole has been made, and knowing I have someone who can feed the babies when I'm gone, with the age assumptions I've made above, can anyone let me know which, if any, of these windows could work for release?

Question 3:
For when I release, I purchased them both squirrel boxes I plan on putting in my yard but they both stay together in one now. I don't have too many tall trees, is it okay if I put both boxes in the same tree a couple feet apart (it's a palm tree so I can only go up) - or is that not advised?

For context, I'm in LA and I would like to get them out a few weeks before the fourth of July of course, so they can be settled (I've been told that's important) but I would also add right now it's still spring with lots of trees blooming and buds and fruit and it is not yet sweltering during the day. It's a nice 75. This will change of course, but I'm really unsure which window above is most ideal.

Thank you!