Belka is a magnificent animal worthy of admiration and attention. This is an interesting object for study.

The animals are bushy, cute, mostly friendly and extremely mobile, which is very attractive to children. So if you were lucky enough to have a site near the forest, do not apply to make a house for squirrels on your own or at least arrange for the cuckoo sympathy. This will allow you not only to observe the full events of animal life, but also to make friends with them. Interested in the offer? Then let’s see how you can draw protein into your garden.

What is a house for squirrels?

The forest variant of squirrel housing is a hollow, by functionality it can be compared with multi-room apartments. It:

1. Storage for food (pantry with stocks).

2. The maternity home. Proteins give offspring twice a year.

3. Kindergarten. Belchata remain with the mother up to 3 months of age.

4. Protection from bad weather and enemies.

In the winter, squirrels can still be clustered in groups, but it’s time to get children in the spring, so each individual goes to seek and equip his own house. This is the time of natural selection. Stronger animals privatize already lived hollows, driving the former owners out into the street. That’s why we need to put feeding troughs for squirrels and not be lazy to build housing for them.

house for protein

House for squirrels

No carpentry talent – go to the store. There it is possible to find belchchatniki any model: from the simplest analogue of a birdhouse to multi-storey cottages. However, the choice should be based not on the beauty of the architecture of the squirrel dwelling, but on the material and the quality of the workmanship.

What should be a good squirrel house?

“In natural conditions, they live oaks and coniferous trees, so you need to type exactly this kind of wood on the house for squirrels”

Proteins are rather capricious and demanding on the proposed housing, therefore, deciding to buy or make a house for squirrel with their own hands, it is worth considering the following tips.

1. Belchatnik is constructed from wood and only from wood. No synthetics. Animals will never settle in plastic, plastic, tin nests. And they recognize the tree and not everyone. In natural conditions, they live oaks and coniferous trees, therefore, it is necessary to type exactly such kind of wood on the house for squirrels. In the absence of such material, you can take a chance and make a litter aspen or birch. Do not try to use for this purpose poplar or fruit trees. Proteins in such houses, even with the most luxurious layout, will not live.

house for protein

A house for squirrels should be made only of wood

2. Regardless of where the garbage will be located: on a tree in the garden or in a home cage for squirrels – do not try to ennoble it by covering the boards with varnish or paint. An artificial smell will frighten animals, and they will not approach such a housing.

house for protein

Do not cover the house with chemical compounds

3. The desire to make the life of the animals smart is commendable, but when building a house for squirrels with their own hands, it is still worth sticking to the recommended proportions. The animals will be much more comfortable in the compact improvisation of the hollow than in the royal chambers. Optimal parameters of the house are 55x40x45 cm. As for the size of the climb, it should not be made more than 7 cm in diameter.

house for protein

Recommended house sizes for protein

The choice of materials is also relevant for the construction of a feeder for proteins. Here, too, you can not use any improvised items, like popular plastic bottles, jerricans and other.

How to install a white house

Belchatnik is not enough to be comfortable, it still needs to be properly installed. The house for proteins is fixed directly to the tree trunk, and not hides in the branches. Animals should feel safe, so their home should be raised at least five-meter high. The hole of the eye must look either to the south or to the east, the main thing is that this side should not be the windward main period of the year.

house for protein

Make sure the house is at a sufficient height

To ensure that the squirrels can improve their cloister and insulate it, it is recommended to put a few pakli or pieces of moss on the bottom of the pupil. This is an excellent raw material for patching gaps that can form in the walls of the house with time. For the full comfort of living next to the belchatelnik it is necessary to hang a feeding bowl for squirrels. This will help you to quickly settle with the animals of the new house.

house for protein

A feeder next to the house will attract protein

Does the caregiver care?

Certainly. Like any home of rodents, a white house will exude an unpleasant smell and be saturated with a bacterial flora. If it is not periodically cleaned, the animals will be ill. Cleaning of the litterboxes and in the enclosure for squirrels, and in the garden it is desirable to conduct closer to the end of the summer season. Important! Work should be in gloves.

house for protein

Cleaning of the litters is carried out at the end of summer

As in any home, the establishment of order begins with the removal of debris. Throw away everything, including the insulation, if it was laid in the nest. Then, all surfaces in the house for squirrels are wiped with a damp cloth. After such cleaning an unpleasant smell should evaporate. It remains to lay fresh floor on the floor and return the squirrel abode to its place. Proteins will certainly appreciate the caring attitude and in autumn will return to the hospitable garden.

House for squirrel own hands

It’s certainly easier to buy a foxhole, but this offer is more relevant for those who do not have skills in carpentry. To assemble such a construction is not at all difficult. For work, you need to stock yourself with scraps of a board of two centimeters thick and thirty centimeters wide. Of these, or a solid three-meter board, the components of the house for the protein elements are made.

house for protein

Materials for making a house

On the back wall it is necessary to saw off 55 cm, on the side – to prepare 2 plates of 45 cm long. The front part is made 1-2 cm higher.

house for protein

Build the walls of the house

This will provide the roof with a slight slope, and water will not stay on it. Of the remaining pieces, they build porches. It remains to cut the entrance and you can collect the house. The harvested parts are glued together and taken on self-tapping screws. This house is especially good for arranging a cage for squirrels.

house for protein

Ready house for protein

Under natural conditions, the proteins will be more comfortable in a monolithic loin chopper cut from a log a minimum of forty centimeters in diameter. Thick, without cracks, the walls will make the house noticeably warmer. Its design is more adequate to the surrounding landscape decoration. To build a design, you do not need any special skills. Begins the construction of a house for squirrels with their own hands from sawing logs. At first, a piece of 4 cm thick is cut from it, and then a 40-centimeter workpiece is cut off. In the latter, a rather large cavity is chosen. In the end, you should get a bowl with a minimum of three centimeters thick walls. Inside, you can polish everything, so that the proteins do not hurt about the untreated surface. We saw through the entrance hole and nailed the roof, the workpiece for which we made the first. The belchatnik is ready for use.

house for protein

House for squirrels from logs

If there is a sufficiently large log, you can build a whole squirrel dormitory. For this, just like in the first case, we cut out 2 thin mugs for the roof and the bottom and an integral 85-centimeter base. Drilling “flats” will need to be from both ends, not forgetting to withstand the minimum thickness of the walls. Be sure to leave the dividing wall somewhere in the middle of the log. We make in each section a hole in the hole and close the ends of the prepared lids. Two-story house for squirrels built.

house for protein

House for squirrels from logs

How to equip an aviary for protein

“Under the future house for protein, you should select the angle opposite the window”

Those who do not only need to watch the squirrels frolicking in the garden can be lodged right in their house. Animals are unpretentious, but they can not be kept in crowded places. They just need to move a lot, and to provide such a space can only be equipped with a good aviary for protein. It is collected by analogy with the bird, but it only has a slightly different specificity of equipment.

house for protein

An enclosure for squirrels in the garden

Under the future house for protein, you should select the angle opposite the window. The size of the area is determined by the number of animals that are planned to be populated there. Consider the construction of an enclosure for squirrels with their own hands at the rate of 3-4 residents. We’ll talk right away. Animals need height, so in a small apartment and houses with low ceilings, it is better not to realize such ideas. Ceiling height should be from 3 m.

house for protein

The height of the enclosure should not be more than 3 meters

Assemble the frame by fencing at least 3 m2 of floor. Support can be strong boards or thick timber. It is possible, of course, to assemble a completely metal structure, but it will be more difficult to fit into the home interior. In addition, the naturalness of boards and beams will help to ensure conditions that are identical to natural conditions.

house for protein

Cell for keeping protein at home

Support columns are firmly fixed to the floor and ceiling. In the case where the enclosure for protein is collected on the street, the supporting elements are digged into the ground. The street version will require a roof. You can neglect this and just tighten the top part of the net, but then the houses and feeding troughs for the squirrels will remain without additional protection and can request repair or replacement much quicker.

The walls of the enclosure will also be mesh. This is practical, reliable and will allow unobstructed observation of the behavior of the enclosure population. Fixing the mesh is made by screws. It is important to ensure that the screws do not pass through the boards. Animals can get hurt on their sharp ends. If this happens, then eat the excess or bend them, hammering into the depth of the support.

Be sure to equip a small door, because somehow one must go to the squirrel territory to clean the enclosure and the feeding troughs for squirrels. In the case of street settlements, a simple door can not be avoided. Here you need a whole vestibule. This will allow you to enter without fear that the untrained still squirrels will break free. After a few months, everything will change. Proteins are very attached to the feeding troughs and their habitat. They can even be let out for a walk, without fear that they will run away into the forest.

house for protein

Scheme of the enclosure for protein

What to put inside

First of all, a sprawling tree. It can be a living plant, planted in a tub or treated sawn. Proteins will be happy to climb on both. On one of the deaf walls of the cage is attached a house for squirrels. It is not necessary that this was a masterpiece of architecture, for this role is quite suitable simply assembled from a sheet of plywood box, equipped with a removable roof and having openings for entry. There the squirrels will equip the nest, which will need to be periodically reviewed, and remove from there food scraps and debris.

house for protein

A spreading tree in the aviary will appeal to the proteins

Since the movement for protein is life, be sure to put a wheel with a diameter of at least 30 cm in the enclosure. In addition to the nest, the squirrels can make several more shelters wherever the animals can seclude themselves.

house for protein

The wheel is a necessary part of the enclosure

Naturally, you can not do in the aviary without a feeding bowl for protein and drinkers. They are usually put on the floor. If you need to buy a drinking bowl, then the feed can be constructed with your own hands. For a domestic cage, it is not necessary to make it closed. Here you can improvise and hollow out the container from the same log, giving it the shape of a trough, frigate, etc. But this is work for professionals. Home-grown Kulibin can start with more simple models.

house for protein

Drinking bowl for protein

Feeding trough for squirrels own hands

The proposed version of the feeder is not a bit more complicated in the assembly than the white house. This option is rarely used in enclosures for protein, but it is often found in European parks. The design is practical and convenient to use. Fluffy babes with pleasure extract food from it. Specificity of the structure ensures that food, filled in the feeder, will not be eaten by magpies, crows, pigeons and other large birds. Unlike the house for protein, the feeder is made transparent. Its main element is a glass jar. This is a good decision not only in terms of food safety. A glass aquarium makes it possible to observe a trapezed animal, but it does it surprisingly touchingly.

house for protein

Feeder for protein with jar

So, to collect a feeding trough for squirrels with their own hands it will be required:

  • ruler;
  • screws;
  • saw;
  • glass jar minimum volume;
  • board 180 cm in length;
  • sandpaper.
house for protein

Drawing feeder

The board is sawn and assembled according to the type of a small house-dressing room. On the sides drilled 10 cm diameter. In the center of the front wall an opening is made, into which the neck of the glass container is easily inserted. The body of the jar lies on the extended-bottom board and is fixed with a rim. As with the house or the enclosure for the protein, the feeder will also require care. From there, periodically it will be necessary to throw out the litter and the remains of food.

Feeder out of the box

This is a unified model of a feeder for proteins. The box should have larger dimensions than packs from kefir, the proportions of which are quite satisfying for birds. In the side wall of the box a hole is cut, and ropes are stretched into the holes cut under the top of the container. For them an improvised dining room will be suspended on a tree.

house for protein

Feeder for squirrels out of the box

Open feeder

The most unpretentious option. Specificity is that on a wooden stand pegs are fixed, on which corn cobs are threaded. Birds can not cope with large grains of a vegetable and all the food goes to proteins exclusively, which make it easy.

house for protein

Open feeder with corn cob

Than to please a squirrel

What can I fall asleep in the feeding trough for protein, except for seeds and nuts in the shell? In winter, it should be dried fruits, without any additives, and pieces of unsalted lard. The latter is rich in calories and vitamins, which contributes to good cold tolerance. As a meal, dried mushrooms, oat flakes and flax seed can be offered. Take care that the products offered do not contain flavorings, salt and sugar.

house for protein

Dried fruits will please the protein

Conclusion

As you can see, it is not so difficult to build an enclosure for squirrels, a house or a feeder, especially if there is a desire to do it. The main thing is not to disregard the advice of specialists, so that the animals will accept your gifts and let you into their world.

Photo gallery – a house for squirrels

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Author: Mikhail Bond