What are the symptoms of a female in heat?
Yesterday Helen was acting strangely. She gets up before I do then naps until I she hears me puttering around in the kitchen. After a couple of minutes she will be heard moving about then appears, first doing some stretching, then she will come down and investigate as I prepare breakfast for the both of us. Eventually she will hop on my shoulder and I will take both breakfasts to my room. Sometimes she will hop off and it takes sometimes a couple of attempts to get her to stay on me.
Yesterday, after checking things out she went back and into her nest, which she has never done at this point in the proceedings. I became worried and got a nut out of the refrigerator and she was down like a shot before the refrigerator door was even closed. Normally, at this time, I crack any nut I give her so she will eat it and I don’t have to deal with her being territorial in the vicinity where she has cached it.
Yesterday she cached the nut in her old bed, which she hasn’t slept in a couple of months. She started chattering her teeth as I sat down at the desk. Her old nest is on top of an old printer.
I decided to fix my mistake of giving her an uncracked nut. I got on a pair of safety glasses and thick gloves and took the bedding apart until I found the nut. She lunged at my hands a few times, but not with real angry intent. I went out of the room and broke the nut with a hammer and returned and set the nut on the dresser, which she ate. I rearranged the components of her old bed and she settled down.
Then comes the next strange thing. Her normal routine is that she runs all over the room, pooping and peeing and eventually settles down to eat some and then goes back to running around or playing with me. Yesterday however she sat began to groom herself at length, which she pretty much never has done when I am around. Next she pancaked herself on her pink fleece of her old bed and just looked at me, occasionally getting up to groom herself some more. This too is strange.
(Normally, in my presence, in my room, she only pancakes briefly after she has tired herself running about. She almost always gets up again after 30 seconds to one minute.)
I was worried about this series of strange behaviors. She still wasn’t eating. I hand fed her a few pieces of food. Eventually, she resumed her usual activities, pooping, peeing, playing, and cuddling, interspersed with some mischief making. By the time afternoon came around she had eaten most of her food and I was relieved that she seemed back to her usual self.
I didn’t see her again yesterday after I went to get myself lunch. That isn’t unusual. She is more independent in the afternoon and if I try to keep her with me she becomes more and more of a pest.
Last night as I was getting ready to go to bed I set a cracked hickory nut in the usual place. [This normally is the only nut she gets all day.]
This morning when I went to the kitchen the nut was still there, which is unusual, but has happened three or four times. After puttering about in the kitchen I failed to hear her and became worried. I thought I heard her stir, but didn’t see her. (I wondered if I had imagined it.) I am currently in the process of tearing the house apart. So far I have seen no sign of her.
My hope is that, maybe being in heat, [She is approx. 10+ months old and this is the season for that activity to start to begin.] and she managed to sell release. This morning I found 1 1/2” hole for a pipe tucked in a clutter corner in the old addition of the house which I intend to tear off because it is of very poor quality and in bad shape. She might have squeezed out somewhere else that I am not aware of. The hole had been stuffed with a plastic bag, but that was not in place when I found it this morning.
I live on a busy road, in the middle of town and the there is a nearby granary that puts out poison. Not a good place for a squirrel, thus I was intending to release her elsewhere.
I have set some food on the porch. Even if she does attempt to return, she may be gone for days if she is coming into heat.
What are the signs when a captive squirrel goes into heat?