We are finally in and getting settled, Woody and I took a huge decision when we bought our house in that we would have to divide our lives for a while due to work commitments. At first this made perfect financial sense but in the first week reality bit and with everything we have been going through recently it felt like a particularly daft thing to be doing. Hopefully this will pass and a new "normal" will evolve. I will just have to be uber organised with the lone care care of dogs, horses and er....squirrels....
Crouchy called us the day the removal men arrived; "do we want some baby squirrels?". He'd been on a job, cut a tree down and the nest with it, he was about to throw them in the chipper!!
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| Squigs 2007 |
It's been 9 years since I met "Squiggle", my first hand reared squirrel, and I never quite got over her disappearance after 2years of living with me. She was very affectionate, playful and extraordinarily protective of me making her strong willed and grumpy at times. The call of the wild was too much for her to ignore and after several escape attempts, a couple of over night camp outs where she came back exhausted she finally peeled back the lead on the windows popping a diamond shaped piece of glass out and off she went never to be seen again. I often wonder if she made it to the woods to find a new life or if the farm dog had her, I'll never know.
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| A surprise house warming gift! |
I found myself apprehensively agreeing to two more babies, boys this time, knowing that they can be destructive, requiring bottle feeding every 3hours, warmth and later on space, a varied diet and something to climb and learn how to be a squirrel (and they are complete time wasters!!). In my head this was purely to save them, feed, grow and send back to the relative safety of our land (in a non-red squirrel environment). A little counter productive you may think when we want to plant young trees but there is already a population of grey squirrels alongside Buzzards, Tawney owls and Foxes. "Do not get attached" I warned myself "this is just a transaction of my time for the next 6 weeks".
I was not expecting to fall in love with these little scamps. How naive. How stupid. I should have known...
For those of you who have met a squirrel you may think "yes cute, fluffy, something for dogs to chase, so what, it's just a tree rat" but they are not like hamsters, or gerbils they are more like ferrets or puppies. Extremely intelligent, gregarious, problem solvers they just want to play, interact and cause mischief, using me as their climbing frame. I am their walking tree! However they are also very tactile towards each other and me, wanting to groom and reassure one another loving company they are very vocal in their chatters, purring and barking for communication. Check out this instagram squirrel Jill to see examples of the noises they make. this_girl_is_a_squirrel
(I was not always this soft, they were once "vermin" and I had enormous fun shooting them at weekends....something I struggle to get my head round now seeing it akin to shooting dogs for fun. For someone who eats game and hunts this is a very strange twist of fate).
There are plenty of good websites to get advice on raising squirrels, much advice is from the US with a few more popping up in the UK these days;
For the past 5 and a half weeks I have followed a recommended and previously successful hand rearing programme:
FEEDING SCHEDULE GUIDELINE – (Goats milk)
4 wks fully covered in short hair but eyes still closed - 3-4ml every 3-4 hours
5 wks eyes starting to open - 5-6ml every 5 hours (may skip night feeding, do not go over 7-8 hrs)
6 wks more aware and starting to play eat - 10ml 4-5 times per day
7-8 wks now look like miniature squirrels starting to curl their tails over - 10-15ml 4 times a day (should be eating a variety of nuts, fruits and vegetables)
9 weeks - 10-15ml twice a day
10-11 weeks - 12-15ml once per day/wean
5 wks eyes starting to open - 5-6ml every 5 hours (may skip night feeding, do not go over 7-8 hrs)
6 wks more aware and starting to play eat - 10ml 4-5 times per day
7-8 wks now look like miniature squirrels starting to curl their tails over - 10-15ml 4 times a day (should be eating a variety of nuts, fruits and vegetables)
9 weeks - 10-15ml twice a day
10-11 weeks - 12-15ml once per day/wean
The Legalities
Grey Squirrels are a non native "invasive" species originating from North America. The Eastern Grey has been in the UK since 1876 rapidly growing in numbers they spread to most of Britain by the early-to-mid 20th century. Although physical aggression has not been proved they compete with our native Red Squirrel for food, territory and are a generally more robust and bold breed making their spread easy.
With that in mind you have to consider your motives for taking squirrels on, thinking about the long term commitment you can give. If you choose to you can apply for a licence to keep them; www.gov.uk-grey-squirrels-apply-for-a-licence
Even when speaking to vets, licensed rehab experts and even defra there are grey areas around keeping and returning them, they admit the policies are either vague or have been removed without substitution and rules are different for Wales and Scotland where there are still pockets of Red Squirrels.
There are still some difficult decisions to make and measures to put in place for our two boys. I'm not sure what sentence harbouring squirrels holds (!?!), so to avoid any difficult legal issues I will end their story here. However if the opportunity ever arises for you to help hand rear an orphan, grab it, gently, with both hands it is quite an experience.
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| Snoozy Sofa Squirrels |
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