Originally Posted by
littlesquirt
I recently took in a baby squirrel, he fell out onto a busy road from a very high nest along with his brother. Unfortunately his brother was already dead when my boyfriend found them. He has been under my care for the past 2 and a half weeks now and has been getting quite big. So here are some of my questions: oh and he is about 4 weeks old....he has quite a bit of fur and his bottom teeth have errupted, but eyes are still shut.
1) I recently purchased the powdered esbilac to feed him but I find that the texture is MUCH different from the liquid. It seems to seperate from the water when I warm it up (I don't use the microwave, I use hot water contact). And it smells quite.... untasty. I add a little bit of organic live cultured yogurt in it. But my squirrel doesn't seem to enjoy eating it very much. I also sometimes add in some applejuice (homemade....take an apple, mush it up, squeezed the juice out with a clean new cheesecloth) and he seems to enjoy this much better. should I use applejuice in every feeding? How do I solve the problem with the powder seperating?
You need to use VERY warm water with the powdered Esbilac to get it to mix. Warm the water first and add it to the Esbilac, stir thoroughly. Sometimes "globs" of fat or small clumps of formula will be on the surface. You can mash these with a spoon. His formula should be fairly warm (not hot) when you feed him. I wouldn't mix apple juice with it either
2) He is VERY squirmy and makes weird grunting noises when I am feeding him or stimulating him to go potty, is this normal? He also sneezes sometimes and I am afraid he might be getting sick. I know if he sneezes when feeding this is due to aspiration, but he sneezes sometimes just normally. It's not that often but I have noticed it. There is no wheezing of the breath though and no clicking noises when he breathes.
They sometimes sniff and sneeze a little. Is there ever formula coming out of his nose when he does so? If so, you need to slow down a bit on the rate you give him the formula. Squirming abd grunting (especially when stimulating) is natural. It's how they work the poops out.
3) How do you tame the squirrel? How many hours per day should you spend bonding with it? Once they reach sexual maturity will they just become wild and want to go outside?