Urgent identification and help needed

[soupdragon10]

Just come across this thread. Those have got to be some of the cutest baby animals ..............

So glad they are doing well.

[madsmum]

what the plan for their future? can you release them?

[jazzywoo]

awww they are so cute good luck with them
ann xxx

[blade100]

Originally Posted by madsmum

what the plan for their future? can you release them?

i should imagine that they'd be too tame to be released now?

i love them

[feorag]

Not at all! If you do what is known as a "soft release" it can be very successful, even for the tamest of wildlife, because they can revert back
to the wild very quickly.

3 years ago I handreared 2 red squirrels who lived in my house and garden for 5 months and were totally tame, jumped
all over my cats and 'ate' my house!
Because they were July kittens and hadn't had a chance to store their winter larder we decided to release them the following year, so we
found a garden in a red squirrel area where the owners would let us erect a pen,as we obviously needed to get them away from us.

We built a pen and kept away for over a month, then went up to take a further supply of food and clean up the pen a bit.
The squirrels came straight to us, although they always ran and hid when the garden owners came out to feed them. They never forgot us.

They were released the following May successfully and continued to return for the rest of that year and the following.

From this:



To this:



And this:



And plaguing my cats



To release day - one out and one to go!



I also handreared a stoat last year and she successfully released from a soft release pen.

[blade100]

awwwwwwwwwww how gorgeous were they!
i bet u got quite emotional when that time came to let them go.i know i would've done.

[feorag]

Absolutely. I would be lying if I didn't admit to wanting to keep them forever, they were such a joy to have around and so very entertaining. I got nothing much done over the period of time I had them because they were so time consuming and I uploaded loads of videos on You Tube of their progress. If you type "hand reared red squirrels" into the search box you'll find them.

However, they were after all wild animals and I just felt it was right that they live the life they were intended to live. It was a very bittersweet day the day we released them though!

Similarly with Little Miss Stoaty, who had her own fan club on here My latest orphans - stoats She was incredibly tame and again a delight to rear and I was very tempted to keep her too, but she was released.

[Requiem]

Oh god, the baby dormice and the baby red squirrels... you guys turn me into a gibbering, squealing wreck.

I'm not sure if I'd have the willpower to release them after hand-rearing them, even though it's the right thing to do.

[vintageprints45]

Thought I should post a few photos to show how they are doing

[Amalthea]

Wow!!!! They've got a great enclosure! Lovely little critters! Still totally jealous