Friday, March 08, 2013

Hoarding!

I cannot watch that "Hoarders" show on TV--mostly because I'm afraid I'd recognize myself in some ways.  When it comes to books, at least.  But, I think if someone wants to understand hoarding, s/he should have a squirrel--flying or otherwise; a squirrel can show anyone how to hoard!


This is a picture of my flying squirrel, Rocky.  He's such a sweetie, except when he bites me, but I can cut him some slack on that.  He is nocturnal, and, in the evenings, he sends out pleasant noises; I hear him pinging around his cage when I go to bed.

Squirrels "squirrel away" food.  If you watch ground squirrels during the fall, you will see them burying acorns for later.  Then, in the spring, you'll find them digging throughout the yard to find what they buried.  Rocky doesn't have a "yard," so he "buries" things under the wire at the bottom of his cage.  He might go rooting around for something later.  I hear him scratching the paper that lines the tray.

I cleaned out his cage this morning. Oy! Talk about hoarding!  He had enough stuff "buried" under the cage wire to feed him for a month or two.  Whole nuts, wilted lettuce, sunflower seeds--he wouldn't starve if I forgot to feed him!

I try to clean out his cage once a month, but I might have to shorten the cleaning cycle to every two weeks. Cleaning took about 30 minutes this morning, and I had trouble finding a tool to push out all of the junk.

I won't release Rocky into the wild because his tail is broken; I think that would cause him some problems.  He needs his tail to glide from tree to tree, and I think the other squirrels would give him a hard time.  As long as I have him, I need to take care of him, even if he is a hoarder.