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hey! so my baby squirrels ended up opening their eyes and being nice and healthy! my question now is when should I take the heating pad off, when do I introduce water to their diet, is there any foods I can introduce besides the formula and when can I stop stimulating them to go to the bathroom? Any advice for these squirrels are much appreciated!
I removed my baby's heating pad two days after her eyes opened and it seemed to work well, but I gave her extra fuzzy things to snuggle up to. I see that she can pee and poop on her own sometimes, but I still stimulate her anyway. I would suggest continuing stimulating your babies for a week after her eyes are opened just to be sure they can do it on their own. My girl can go on her own, but she still needs to be stimulated before each meal. This is just what I do for my girl, but maybe it will help.
You can put some rodent blocks in their cage. They won't eat it but they will play with it and get used to the smell. They should start eating rodent blocks before introducing any other food. For water bottle, my 7 week old baby won't drink from it yet, but you can hang it and it is important to show them how to drink from it.
If just a single, with no siblings to help keep him warm, I would keep him with bottom heat available until at least 7 weeks.
I agree, heat available until at least 7 weeks old. He should be getting the water he needs from him formula. A good rodent block should now be kept in with him. In a couple of weeks, you can start to introduce more foods, but start with the rodent block. Usually when their eyes open up, they are starting to potty on their own, but continue to stimulate for another week or so, just to make sure they are going! I keep mine on light colored fleece, too, so you can see when they go.
How many babies do you have? Single squirrel babies take a little longer to do everything as you have to teach them everything, but babies with siblings do things alot quicker! At five weeks my summer babies were peeing and pooping on their own, my fall babies that I have now are already doing it on their own but I still stimulate them anyways after a meal. I still gave my summer babies rice buddies well into 12 weeks, just something to cuddle with and suck on here and there. When they stop peeing on it, you know they dont need it anymore :D
Our first foods for the squirrels are always the same:
-Mazuri monkey chow
-Multigrain Cheerios
We break up the chunks of monkey chow with a nutcracker and the squirrels love it, plus the Cheerios seem to make everyone happy. We also stop stimulating genitals one week after eyes open, and we remove heat source after eyes open. It's always easier to remove that heat source when you have more than one squirrel, so they can ball up to keep cozy. We do cover the crate with a sheet or towel to keep the warmth in the cage though for a while after eyes open.
I personally don't see any harm in there being a very small very shallow dish of water in cage after eyes open. They don't seem to notice it much until ten weeks half the time though. Good luck!