16 week mark, advice on possible changes

[Eejay]

Im thinking Lilo is about 16.5 weeks now. She has been cutting back on her formula which i offer 2x a day.she takes about 25ml each time. Seems her eatting is getting pickier as well. Ive finally gotten the vitamins from henrys and i am attempting to make my own blocks now that i have all the ingredients. Im wondering which one, almond or hazelnut extraxt will make the blocks more inviting to her? Im very concerned about her getting the nutrients she needs. Her fur is changing. Shorter and coarse downher rump area Im hoping it is only from molting. Do i need to be concerned about mbd yet? She has shown aggression to my two grown children and has bitten them both, punctures and drew quite an amount of blood ( when they fed her for me in my absense, through cage bars) she has not yet shown me any aggression. Im wondering at what age is it possible that she could show aggression towards me. I will add a photo after this post.
Daily she is offered 2 cups of leaf greens. And i alternate between 2 sliced mushrooms. Cucumber, brocolli, water melon, berries brussel sprouts. And 5 oxbow blocks . she makes quite a mess so im not certian how much she actually consumes.
Ive not been able to get an accurate weight on her. As she wont co operate. Even when i try when she is sleeping. Thank you in advance.

[Eejay]

The last pic is just to show off her cuteness

[Rhapsody]

The fur change looks like its due to improper diet to me..... I would suggest you look over the list of approved food in the nutrition section and add some variety to yours squirrels daily diet along with some hhb block.

I feed: HHB, Vanilla Yogurt, Sweet Potato, Yellow Squash, Mushrooms, Snap Peas, Avocado, Carrots, Romaine Lettuce, Mealworms, Blueberries or Strawberries, 2 Nuts.

As far as the aggression goes squirrels tend to become a one person animal as they grow up and your squirrel is at that age now, therefore, it's best to avoid having the squirrel out of its cage when other family members are home or more attacks will continue to happen.

[Eejay]

Thats my issue i do offer all these foods as well . i base my shopping list for her on the guide provided here. She nibbles on food when i offer it. But i am at work during the day and leave her with her salads and veggies and rodent block as well as yogurt. Since she has started to wean herself off formula she is losing weight. Hopefully she will eat home made block with henrys vitamins. I am baking them tonight after work. Any ideas and tips on what i can add to them to make them desireable to her is greatly appreciated. She also just starting to drink water. I was offering her watermelon daily to hydrate her. Ive cut back now that she is drinking.
I did read jar baby food to add to block recipe..which one would have the best results?

[Eejay]

If i only offered her home made block during the day and then gave her salad an veggies when i am home at dinner time(530pm)would this improve things. Ive offered all these foods during the day when i am gone as i dont want her to go hungry.

[Mel1959]

I know what it's like to have a picky eater! It sucks! You constantly wrack your brain trying to think of things or new ways to offer food that they will eat. . First let me say what a cutie she is. I love her coloring. .

I think if she is hungry and healthy food is provided, she will eat. As for additives to the blocks, I read somewhere on here that their squirrel liked the hazelnut flavor over almond. . I never added it when I made my blocks. If you are going to add some babyfood, I would suggest some type of fruit mixture that includes banana, as it seems to be sweeter and have a detectable taste. If you want to boost the caloric content you can add some Fox Valley Ultraboost. It's like a powdered form of heavy whipping cream. I mix it with my guys formula at a 50/50 ratio and they gain weight nicely. I think her coat could benefit from the fatty oils in avocado and coconut oil. Try giving her some avocado and see if she will take it. I think the block recipe might call for coconut oil. I think extra protein will help her fur, too.

Another option for a food you can make is boo balls, especially since she's used to oxbow block. There are several recipes on here. Basically you grind up the oxbow block into a powder and mix with ground nuts, Fox Valley formula (and Ultraboost if you have it) and then add some babyfood, coconut oil, protein powder and mix it all up and put it in the fridge for several hours to firm up a little. Then take a little out and roll it into a ball. I always roll the balls in ground nuts, sesame seeds, flax seeds or ground Henrys blocks, I think that helps it to be more appealing.

Good luck with her and I hope she starts eating better for you.

[Eejay]

She does like avocado and i usually coat her oxbow with coconut oil she wont touch it without. I tried some almond extract on her blocks yesterday she didnt seem to care. Im going to try to find hazelnut extract. 2 stores i checked didnt have it.
Im going to try the boo ball recipe i read that one and different ones. Figured i try 2 versions see which is more successful. Thank you so much for the help. Ive read and read everything i could. Feeling a little inadequate not being able to get her to eat right. Since she started to self wean its been a struggle.. She is worse than my kids were lol

[Eejay]

She did nibble on the home made blocks i baked last night. So they are at least edible to her. So today when i left for work i left her a bunch of those as well as regular blocks. I only left her a hanful of spring mix. Hopefully she gets hungry enough to eat the blocks.tonight ill give her veggies and a slice of fruit when im home from work. Fingers crossed.
Im wondering if i should give her a quarter of a tums daily for now until she starts eatting properly

[Eejay]

Came home and found that she appears to have eatten all of the home made blocks! Left all the regular oxbow blocks still. I only left her with a small handfull of greens through the day. Now she is eatting her salad and a somewhat healthy treat.
Fingers crossed she keeps eatting these. I did coat some of them with coconut oil and left some plain. Im gonna clean her cage out to make sure she didnt just stash them though

[Eejay]

So i made a batch of boo balls. She ate one that i offered right away. I added some vitamins that i bought from henrys..hoping that would help it nutritionally because i added plain bannana baby food..
I figured i could alternate between the boo balls and the homemade blocks. For variety reasons.
Boo balls will probably save my sanity with this picky eater

[Nancy in New York]

So i made a batch of boo balls. She ate one that i offered right away. I added some vitamins that i bought from henrys..hoping that would help it nutritionally because i added plain bannana baby food..
I figured i could alternate between the boo balls and the homemade blocks. For variety reasons.
Boo balls will probably save my sanity with this picky eater

These little ones can be SO picky sometimes. Glad you found
something that she will eat..............for today.
Lilo is beautiful by the way!

[Eejay]

So Lilo's hair is changing again. Seems to be getting longer and back to its texture slowly in some areas? Its been less than 2 weeks since i made homemade blocks ..could this be because diet improved. Or it is molting after all?

[Eejay]

[QUOTE=Eejay;1191355]

Before pics of her hair 2 weeks ago

[Nancy in New York]

It could be both diet and molting.
I know you feed her healthy foods, and not sure
what else you could do.
The next time you take a photo, can you get it from a
little further away. Sometimes I can see clearer when
it's not so close up.

Edit: Just another thought.
What hand soap do you use?
Do you pet her a lot in the areas where the fur
looks sparce?
We had a member on whose squirrel was loosing fur,
and after some questions, we discovered she used dial
soap which really irritated her squirrel. Her squirrel was
developing a pattern of "baldness" right where she typically
scratched/petted her.
She stopped using the soap and the squirrels fur grew back.

#567 and before
http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/s...s!-lt-3/page29

[Eejay]

I use 2 or 3 different soaps.zest..bath n body works usually on my hands .. And when i pet her, it is usually from her nose up the back of her head straight down to her tail...

[Eejay]

Think she. Was molting. Hair is getting longer in the rough short areas

[Eejay]

Lilo is so soft now. Becoming stricter with her diet is starting to show. Fur is silky soft now.

[Eejay]

She does have a heart shaped bald spot .im assuming from rubbing on cage when im not home. I have double checked her room for hazards and am going to start letting her free in there while im gone to see if this corrects itself ..lol getting a nanny cam type thing soon so i can watch her when im at work..just need to figure a safe spot for it

[Nancy in New York]

Lilo looks fantastic. What a great update.
I love that little heart on her nose/forehead by the way.

[Shaena]

well, my guy molts twice a year, tail to head then head to tail- I have a mortifying pic up of his bald ass during this (only underfur was left, the long hairs came in another color- his adult coat, really), but it all came in thick soon enough- I just made sure to give a bit of extra coconut and avocado to help him build the new hair. it was the first one that was really bad, the following ones he just sheds a bit