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Keep it (As long as it seems to stay healthy and happy.) No one is gonna come after you for harboring a squirrel. 😯
I say keep it. If not, you might want to find a wildlife rehabilitation group. It might not be good to just turn it lose again. I’m not sure how quickly squirrels forget how to forage for their own food and stuff…
He’s pretty wild. I don’t think he’d forget. My cats are keeping him on his toes. I had to put cardboard around the bottom of the cage so he stops attracting so much attention. I guess we’ll see what happens come spring. =)
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Dreamscape, Orion, Poison Dart, Fireberry, Spangler + Tigerberry DragonsArlla wrote:I think you’ve got it backwards, Mimi…
You’re right! Thanks for catching that. I misread it somehow… 😳
I think he should be OK when he’s released, but it would be a good idea to leave food out for him for awhile just in case, while he’s getting adjusted. I know squirrel rehabbers who raise squirrels from babies often have no trouble releasing them back to the wild. But they do it gradually and take them out to the yard to play for short times in the beginning. Then when they’re ready to release them, they leave the door to the cage open with food in the usual place so that the squirrel can keep coming back to the cage as long as he feels like it, until they get acclimated to being in the wild.
I think with one that was wild to begin with, just leaving some food out (maybe in the cage?) would be fine.
I’ve heard that many areas have as many flying squirrels as regular but because they are nocturnal most people never see them. True? Urban myth?
I think that’s true, ddvm. There is also some birds like the nighthawk that people never see, but they’re everywhere. You can hear them at night sometimes, but it’s hard to see one. They look just like a bump on a tree branch. Flying squirrels probably live in knot holes, so they can’t be seen during the day too.
Well, I hope he gets better and in the Spring, when (if) you decide to let him go, he takes off. I wonder what happened to it to get him like that in the first place?
I just want to mention that letting pet animals go really isn’t the best option a lot of the time! When I used to work at the pet store, we would often (like once or twice a month) get people that would come in and buy animals just so they could release them outside. So they could “liberate” them. The thing is, many of the animals in the pet industry just can’t survive if you let them go – either they are native to a completely different climate, or they have nutritional requirements that they cannot meet except with supplements YOU feed them or unless they have access to food from their native environment, or they don’t have the skills to spot and avoid predators (or they are bred to be colors easily spotted by predators), or they have become so domesticated that they don’t know how to find food for themselve. With the vast majority of small animals, the last bit is certainly not the case – small critters can almost ALWAYS find their own food, even if it’s not food that’s actually good for them.
If someone released a parrot here in San Diego, they’d probably be fine. They’d join up with one of the many wild flocks that occasionally fly around the city. If they released some monk finches, though, they probably wouldn’t last a week. Some things you release can adapt just fine, but most exotic species WON’T – and that’s using SD as an example, which practically has no winter! Releasing something native to a tropical climate in a place where it snows for 3 or 4 months in the winter…don’t expect them to live too long!
This isn’t the case for the flying squirrel – I think they are native to that area (aren’t they??) so releasing it in the spring, especially if it isn’t fiendly with people, might be fine. But just make sure you research the animal you want to release first!!!
It was kind of morbidly funny…I was at an AIDS walk once, and there was a little ceremony to launch the walk which involved releasing a bunch of white pigeons….the instant they were release, 3 or 4 hawks dove in and snagged a quick and easy lunch. Not exactly the symbolism they were going for when they planned on releasing the birds!
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
-J R R TolkienArlla wrote:I just want to mention that letting pet animals go really isn’t the best option a lot of the time! When I used to work at the pet store, we would often (like once or twice a month) get people that would come in and buy animals just so they could release them outside. So they could “liberate” them. The thing is, many of the animals in the pet industry just can’t survive if you let them go – either they are native to a completely different climate, or they have nutritional requirements that they cannot meet except with supplements YOU feed them or unless they have access to food from their native environment, or they don’t have the skills to spot and avoid predators (or they are bred to be colors easily spotted by predators), or they have become so domesticated that they don’t know how to find food for themselve. With the vast majority of small animals, the last bit is certainly not the case – small critters can almost ALWAYS find their own food, even if it’s not food that’s actually good for them.
If someone released a parrot here in San Diego, they’d probably be fine. They’d join up with one of the many wild flocks that occasionally fly around the city. If they released some monk finches, though, they probably wouldn’t last a week. Some things you release can adapt just fine, but most exotic species WON’T – and that’s using SD as an example, which practically has no winter! Releasing something native to a tropical climate in a place where it snows for 3 or 4 months in the winter…don’t expect them to live too long!
This isn’t the case for the flying squirrel – I think they are native to that area (aren’t they??) so releasing it in the spring, especially if it isn’t fiendly with people, might be fine. But just make sure you research the animal you want to release first!!!
That sucks about the doves. Poor things 🙁
Another worry about animals being released that are not native to the area (not this flying squirrel) is the possibility of them becoming an invasive species that jeopardizes or even annihilates other local wildlife. Even if the animals released don’t flourish, the virus or parasite they might carry can.
Drag0nFeathers, if you do decide to eventually release him but are apprehensive about whether he will flourish, I can give you the name of a good Wildlife Center in MA who can give you advice on what to do next in the release process. They might rebuke you a bit since they don’t advocate the keeping of wildlife but they always have the best interest of the animal at heart and they are trained so you can just take the advice and ignore the chew-out.
I thought it was wild in the first place. ❓ She said its scared all the time and its behavior led me to believe it was wild, so I figured it she could release it once it recovered and it would be fine.
It might be wild – I’m not sure if anyone can be sure, if they’re native – but even “domesticated” exotics can be wild if they aren’t hand raised by someone very dedicated. Those sugar gliders I had were “wild” even though they were defintely bred in captivity.
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
-J R R TolkienAh! I see. I would def not recommend releasing it unless it was native to the area and I was sure it was wild. Im not a fan of domesticating wild animals, unless the only other option is feeding it to the wolves, so to speak.
A couple of the ferrets that I have now were found ferrets. Dallas, a white one, got into a guy’s garage and he called a local vet because a large white “rat” was chasing him around the garage. They told him it was obviously a pet and to bring it in. Turned out to be a ferret. One of the best ferrets I ever had was Frank (aka Ferretface from MASH). He was caught in a Hav-A-Heart trap. He had been trying to live off the people’s prize winning tomatoes. A week before the people up the street who owned a ferret had moved….sometimes I just don’t understand people. He was pretty skinny when he was caught. Ferrets cannot live in the wild anymore (no matter what the law in CA is).
AHH! Lots of responces! Um…I don’t know if he’s wild or not. He is certainly jump but is warming up to me pretty good. He hasn’t bitten me the past few times I’ve handled him, though I’ve still been using the gloves, just incase. I got him some apples, squash, peanuts, rasins, walnuts, and dates. He seems to really be enjoying them. I loked at his food bowl and everything has a few bites taken out and then put back like he couldn’t decide. I think if I let him go he woul dbe just fine. I’ve decided not to handle him so often so he stays a bit on the wild side. When I FINIALLY get a house and move I think I may do what Mimi suggested and leave the cage outside with food in then after a while take the cage away but leave food and then maybe start throwing food around the yard so he can forage and get the idea he’s free.
I need to do more research on the breed first. He’s definately s southern flying squirrel so I don’t know how the heck he got in Massachusettes. If there is any kind of flying squirrel around here they should be the Northern kind.
Northern Flying Squirrel: http://www.noahhunt.org/FlyingSquirrel/FlyingSquirrel.html
Southen Flying Squirrel: http://www.geoimagery.com/gallery/gwt01.html
Mine: http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h196/drag0nfeathers/100_2466.jpg
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h196/drag0nfeathers/100_2532.jpgOh Arlla…I still may keep him so don’t think your advice was overlooked, but……those POOR PIGEONS!
Got a busted Windstone?
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