My husband reminded me of a few more things we did while taking care of the squirrels that you might want to consider. We got a large cage-the kind large parrots are in-about 4 feet tall and 24" wide. It had many different levels and they had a great time in there playing. We also provided lots of squares of T-shirt like cloths-we actually used commercial paint rags for them. They liked to carry them around and they slept between them. We also washed them everyday as they used the bathroom on them, but they seemed to love them. I will have to tell you this because it was so CUTE!! When they got big enough to eat nuts in the shell, we would give them two or three at a time. Of course, they had to bury one under the blankets for later. We also found out that if we gave them 2 or 3 while we were holding them, they would try to bury them on us!! They would put an acorn under the collar of our shirts, pat them down real well, and think they were buried. Of course they would fall right out, and they would just stare at them on the floor or wherever like they were saying "oh-well!!" At the time we had them,I had long hair which I wore in a ponytail. They would lift up my hair and try to bury nuts in my hair or under my pony tail. My husband and I laughed for hours over how darling they were doing this. One thing I need to caution you about, when ever they are old enough to be released, they will have no idea how to judge distances between tree limbs and they think they are super squirrels. They will run out and try to jump from one tree to the other even if they're 25 feet apart. We had one miss from about 75' up in a tree and fall the entire way. Luckily it did not hurt him, but we thought it had killed him. It's best to take them out to try out saplings and short trees for a while. Of course they can climb like bandits, and they are so glad to be on trees that they put on a great display of what can only be described as joyful behavior-jumping, twisting, running fast, rolling on the ground, etc.
One more sweet thing I have to tell you about. We live in a log house, and we attached a wood duck box to our house outside for our first squirrel, Rascal to live in. He absolutely loved it, but he wanted a home of his own making also, so he built a nest of leaves and twigs on the corner of our house, and he slept in there unless it was raining or cold. As I am tryping this, my husband is telling me to tell you to be sure and not get sticks from the ground or yard and put in their cages. We read on the internet that these sticks had bacteria, etc, that could be harmful to the squirrels unless you sterilized them (How do you sterilize a stick??!!) We got them some clean small pieces of wood to chew on because they are supposed to have wood. I'll keep up with this thread because I'd love to know how they're doing-also more pictures would be great. Linda
