Something weird has been going on at the house for the last couple of days. First, I noticed that Chico was acting almost like he was back in high-hormone overdrive with me. Lunging, lots of pinning and flaring, lots of strutting. Yet still accepting scritches. Then last night near bed time, I heard Tausi go in to a panic, doing a lot of flapping around in his cage. Last time he did that was when I left the fan going and it was blowing his cage cover around. Last night I looked around, but couldn't find any apparent problem. Even Quito has seemed a bit nippier than normal.

Today when I got home, I came in the office for a few minutes, but then got up and walked back into the living room for something, just in time to see a bit of fur disappear under the TV stand by the bird cages. Critter alert!! Worse yet, I didn't get a good look, but it looked bigger than a mouse. I went over and kicked the TV stand, and sure enough, a Red Squirrel came skittering out and headed for the kitchen, disappearing under the treadmill! Oh lovely.

Long story short, we can't figure out how he got in the house, nor have we been able to locate him. He may have managed to get back out the same way he came in. I have two theories as to how he could have gotten in. A few days ago we had a new furnace installed, and the first time they ran it, I had all the windows open, and the doors propped open, in case of fumes. The other possibility is that when they installed the furnace and prefab chimney, they left a 2 inch hole in the ceiling near the chimney, allowing easy access from the space between the ceiling and roof. Haven't heard any squirrels running around up there, but right now that's my best guess. I blocked the hole anyway.

I set up the live-trap baited with some sunflower seed in the kitchen, so we'll see what happens. Moral of the story, once again, when your birds are acting odd or just differently, chances are there is a reason, you just have to figure it out! They were reacting to the presence of a potential predator who was foraging around under their cages for discarded pellets.

omg! i hope you can get him out of your house! that happened to me once when i was little, but my mom used to feed squirrels out of the back door and one ran in!

Glad you spotted it! You may want to take all food away tonight and make sure there's nothing on the floor, so you can get that little bugger to head to the live trap for it's snack.

Wow! Thats crazy! Its amazing how the fids communicate and we have to learn their language. I hate to sound ignorant, but is the squirrel a danger to the birds? I mean, I wouldn't want one in my house either but, if you dont catch it right away, it wont go for the birds will it?

Well, it's possible, but I think they see the threat as more that of an egg thief. The only cage he could come close to getting into is Chico's, the bar spacing is too small on the other cages, unless he figured out how to open a feeder door (not impossible either, they're pretty clever). I think it would be a serious mistake for him to get into Chico's cage!

I think he's still in here. A few minutes ago Chico let loose a few lusty bellows, not quite like his normal "I want attention", or "get off the phone" squawks. He was growling, too, just before he sounded off. I went out and looked around, but couldn't see anything. I suspect the noise spooked the little feller.

Id be creeping around until I caught him! Do you have your trap set up? Do you remember when I had zippy the mouse after my flood!? I understand how you feel.

Oh, this isn't our first rodeo with this sort of thing. When we lived in the old log cabin next door, we had cats, and a pet door that allowed them access to the attached shed, and a fully caged yard beyond that. The best fencing we could do at the time was 1" chicken wire. Small, but not small enough. There was one occasion when one of the cats brought in a Chipmunk and let it loose, and a couple of times with Red Squirrels. That's why we already have the live trap!

hahahahahahahaaha

Have I ever mentioned my pet squirrels?

When I moved into my neighborhood in NY I noticed a ton of black squirrels. We only had red squirrels back home so these little suckers fascinated me. Anywho, my neighbor told me that his name is Willie. I look at her like she had three heads and ask her "which one" as there were five within about a 25 yard area.

Turns out if the squirrel is black, it is called Willie. I haven't put any additional thought into the name and thats all I have to say about that.

Anyway I though Willie was adorable and proceeded to leave out nuts on the window ledge. After about a week of this I noticed that they'd come up on the front porch when I was sitting out there.

Well the pictures can tell the rest of the tale.





Do you have any idea just how strong these little beasts are? They pack a powerful muscle in those tiny bodies!!

I have black squirrels in my backyard here too but I haven't had the time to socialize with them. Not sure I want to since a squirrel dug the hell out of two of my potted plumeria plants. I wasn't a happy camper about that.

One year I planted some of those mammoth Russian grey-stripe sunflowers and harvested the heads one fall after the first frost. I placed several in a 5 gallon plastic bucket on my front step and put a spare doormat on top to keep the rain or snow out until I could suspend the seed heads for the wild birds to eat. Well, imagine my surprise a few days later when I went to remove the doormat and found a hole chewed through it and all the seed heads picked clean!

In the spring, when I went to get my gardening supplies out of my shed for spring planting, I found sunflower seeds hidden in every nook and cranny -- some were even stuffed into the end of a hose! Looks like the squirrel or chipmunk had forgotten where he had hidden all those seeds -- or they were more than he needed! LOL

Next town over from us has black squirrels. Boy are they pretty. We have red squirrels here and just in the last week or two we've had a lone grey squirrel stopping in to eat.

Nate good luck tonight with the live trap. We were able to get our little visitor the first night so I've got my fingers crossed here for you.