# Red Squirrel kittens - 5 weeks on - picture heavy!!



## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Last Saturday Barry and I went up to visit the red squirrels for the first time since we took them up to their winter pen at the end of October. Red Squirrel Protection (which runs out of Northumberland Wildlife Trust's office quite near me) very kindly donated us a 25Kg bag of hazelnuts and a 25Kg bag of mixed feed, mixed to my specification, which should hopefully feed them until next spring! :2thumb: So we went to deliver that and top up their feeder.

The good news is that although they weren't actually frightened of us, they no longer would climb onto us or our hands, so we were very pleased about that after only 5 weeks away from us! :2thumb:

As you will see from the following photos, after their little 'hiccup' in the first week, they're doing great. Their coats and now thickening up and their tails are getting really bushy now.


















Watching Barry do some work in their pen with great interest:

















There was obviously a shoot going on in the fields on the other side of the wood, so guns going off all the time and this little one was very interested in it all, whereas the others were more interested in the food! :lol2:
























Course once they realised that there was new food in the feeder and especially food they'd never been given before (peanuts) then it became a "free for all" as they munched and bickered and stole and fought each other over a nut :crazy:

















Can you believe this level of bickering over a nut when the feeder is full to the top???

















Finally a few little videos - this is how manic they were when we first arrived.

Handreared red squirrels - now 17 weeks - Part 1 - YouTube



Then there was a squabble over a carrot before we re-filled the feeder.

Handreared red squirrel kittens - Fight over a carrot! - YouTube




Finally they settled to eat .......

Handreared red squirrel kittens now 17 weeks old - Part 2 - YouTube


and squabble!! :lol2: I felt so sorry for the star of this video. As you can see it takes quite a while for a squirrel to gnaw their way into a hazelnut and every time the boy got almost to the point of breaking through the shell - TWICE - one of his sisters came along and stole it! :roll:

red squirrel kittens squabbling over food - YouTube



Once full fat and happy, they finally went into their nest box to sleep. One tap on the bottom produced this little face peeping out to see what was going on! :flrt:


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## LizardFTI (Dec 2, 2006)

hahah










This has to be my new favourite picture in all the world <3


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## kim1989 (Feb 20, 2010)

They are so adorable. I want one. Lol.


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## laurencea (Aug 28, 2009)

i love the video of the poor little boy having his food constantly stolen.

great update. they look so good.


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## PESKY (May 25, 2010)

ive been following this story and telling my OH about it.

what a fantastic job you've done with them, your a real credit to them and animal lovers in general.

when i first saw you had them, i assumed as id seen it before that they would live with you as 'pets' after you rescuing them. it was such a nice thing to read that you were re-introducing them into the wild. after reading how well they are doing and that they arte already less 'tame' is fantastic news. They are very lucky they found there way to you and not somebopy else.

well done you!: victory:


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Thank you! :2thumb:

There was never any intention of keeping them as pets (much as I would have loved to though!) they were always going to be released.

Way back in 2007 I handreared 2 who came to me much younger than these 4. The other ones were only about 14-16 days old and weighed 38g & 40g respectively. This is a photo of them when I brought them home.



















And if you look at my videos on You Tube back to the early ones, you'll see loads of videos of them running riot in my house.

These are my favourites.

9 week old red squirrels think I'm a tree - YouTube

16 wk old red squirrel trying to sleep up my jumper. - YouTube


These 2 came to me in mid-July, so they were born a little bit earlier than the 4 I have now, but they were not ready to release before winter either, so we did the same with those 2 as we did with the 4 we have now.

They went into a pen for the winter in a red squirrel area and were looked after by the owners of the garden until it was time to release them in mid/late Spring. They returned almost every day that year and the year after, but they are no longer sure if they still come now as they cannot tell the difference between them and the other wild ones any more.

They were very much tamer than these ones, as we had them from a much younger age and so they'd never even set eyes on their mother or another squirrel - I think they thought they were cats! :lol:

And it took us a while to find a suitable garden for the pen, then we had to raise the money to buy the materials and my husband had to build the pen, so they were with us from mid-July until mid-December and were extremely tame.

However, although they always remembered us and up until the day they were released they would jump straight onto us as soon as we walked into the pen, they always ran and hid when the owners of the house came out to feed them - even though they were feeding them every day for 5 months, they never went anywhere near the people.

Here they are on release day - one out, one to go (but he didn't leave the pen for another 2 days! Bless :sad:


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## Testudo Man (Aug 3, 2005)

Thanks for the update on these beauties, really good photos too, and how red are they?:no1:


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## paulajo (Oct 13, 2010)

They are absoloutely stunning and what gorgeous colours :flrt:

Ive watched your videos over and over again, each time they make me smile! 

Hope you dont mind me asking but i was led to believe that Squirrels couldnt have peanuts as they were'nt nuts but legumes?


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Raw Peanuts aren't good for red squirrels (or even birds and other animals) to eat in any sort of large number as they contain a carcinogenic called aflatoxin, which is a fungal toxin. Apparently roasting reduces it, but doesn't remove it entirely. You can buy aflatoxin free peanuts, but they are hard to source and very expensive. 

So I never give the young squirrels peanuts and when I introduce them, as in the case of these 4, they only get a few mixed in with the large quantity of other nuts etc in their feeder and I pay more to get the best quality nuts are they are less likely to have this fungus than the cheap animal quality nuts. That was why they were so excited to discover the peanuts in the feeder, as they'd never had them before.

They are fed fresh food and a handful of hazelnuts, sweet chestnuts and beech mast every day, so they only use the feeder is just there for 'back up' and it takes them about 3-4 weeks to actually empty it.


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## Elina (Jul 22, 2009)

I just can't believe how much they have grown! You have done an amazing job with them. 

-
Elina


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Aw thanks Elina! :2thumb:


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## Shelleyred (Jul 11, 2010)

It was so nice to red this thread. You have done wonderful job! Absolutely stunning creatures!


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

thank you! :2thumb:


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