When is the right time to release?

[Rabs]

Hello again fellow squirrel parents!

I am raising my first gray squirrel babies. Brother, Bean, and sister, Nugget. Beautiful black sweeties.



We live in Northern Michigan, where the winters are pretty hard. We found the babies on October 26th, and their eyes opened on the 28th. They are now 9.5 weeks old-ish. My husband simply won't believe that we can't release them this Fall. I have tried to explain about lack of food storage, lack of knowledge about surviving the cold, and the difficulty they will have defending themselves since they are not yet full grown, but he thinks that I just want to keep them. Believe me, I love them dearly, but am not looking forward to having them all winter, which is pretty darn long around here. It takes me an hour and a half each morning to clean/refresh their cage/feed them/yaddi yaddi. Definitely a labor of love. I am looking forward to being able to sleep in again! Ha ha!

So would you all PLEASE give me factoids I can use to convince him that keeping them is the only way to give them a chance of survival in the wild? I'm tired of arguing about it. I will be forever grateful!



Bean and Nugget thank you!
Rabs

[Rabs]

Oops! We found them August 26. Duh.

[island rehabber]

Oops! We found them August 26. Duh.

I figured that.
At most they are 9-10 weeks old now and that is too young to even be out in a pre-release pen yet. How will your weather be 2 weeks from now? Will the nights be below 45*? If so, you need to overwinter. They will not have enough time to build a solid nest nor will they have any time to bury nuts for the really cold weather to come. What about leaf cover? Here, maples and some oaks keep their leaves until mid-December, but again this is a maritime temperate zone. Hope your hubby understands.

[Rabs]

I figured that.
At most they are 9-10 weeks old now and that is too young to even be out in a pre-release pen yet. How will your weather be 2 weeks from now? Will the nights be below 45*? If so, you need to overwinter. They will not have enough time to build a solid nest nor will they have any time to bury nuts for the really cold weather to come. What about leaf cover? Here, maples and some oaks keep their leaves until mid-December, but again this is a maritime temperate zone. Hope your hubby understands.

We will lose our leaves in 2-4 wks. We are at about 30% color now, and mid October is peak of us, and the leaves are pretty much down by the end of the month. We have had snow as early as mid October, but usually around mid November is when it is below freezing regularly. We have already had nights below 45*°.

They are super rowdy now. I shudder to think of the chaos when they are fully grown! That big cage is seeming pretty small now. Do they ever slow down? Ha ha! All my clothes are in tatters. I have so much fun with them.

Any tips for keeping them occupied in the winter? I have a squirrel wheel in the cage, but they don't seem much interested. Maybe they will be later.



Thanks for you help!
Rabs