KitKat
06-13-2008, 09:49 AM
Dilemma:
Last night, I was sitting on the couch watching TV, and my cat sauntered up from our basement proudly displaying a poor little something in her jaws. This isn't an uncommon thing for her, and I'm usually pretty good at persuading her to drop her prizes after a little chase. I had thought that the little thing was dead when I managed to get her away from it. I took her up to my room and shut the door with every intention of taking the little corpse outside when I got back downstairs. Well, by the time I got back to his resting place, I was taken a back to see him looking up at me, his little chest pounding. The little thing was obviously shocked and dazed, and it took a few seconds to flip himself onto his stomach. I went to grab something to put him in. A little chase took place while trying to capture the little thing, but eventually we managed to get it in a cage I had from keeping mice. The chase proved that the creature had some kind of damage to one of his hind paws, but otherwise there were no obvious signs of injury.
We could've let him outside after capturing him, which is still a possibility, but I just couldn't let him out, being obviously injured, last night to let some owl pick him up. So, we kept him on a towel in the cage with a piece of strawberry all last night, but he's not touched the food. It's proven to be quite spy, despite the injury. Upon capture, it sprung about the cage, hung on the bars and was crawling all over the towel. However, ever since that moment or two of escape attempts, he's been fairly still, staying mainly to one corner of the cage with the occasional step or two. We've put it in it's own room, safely away from the cats.
I'm afraid I'm entirely new to the whole idea of caring for squirrels in any capacity, so I went directly on-line to see if I could find out what it was and maybe what it would eat. My research has convinced me that it is a flying squirrel. I'm assuming that it is one of the northern species because of our location, but I certainly can't be positive of that. The website I checked out said that the average size would be near to 30 centimeters, but I believe our little guy is a little bit smaller than that.
I hate to see the little guy so scared of us when ever we come near the cage, because I don't want to stress him out any more than he already is. I'm so worried about what I should do to get him to eat. My father's thought is that it may have internal bleeding from the attack or damage to vital organs that inhibits it from eating. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I should take the little thing, or what I should feed it that it might like better?
Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Last night, I was sitting on the couch watching TV, and my cat sauntered up from our basement proudly displaying a poor little something in her jaws. This isn't an uncommon thing for her, and I'm usually pretty good at persuading her to drop her prizes after a little chase. I had thought that the little thing was dead when I managed to get her away from it. I took her up to my room and shut the door with every intention of taking the little corpse outside when I got back downstairs. Well, by the time I got back to his resting place, I was taken a back to see him looking up at me, his little chest pounding. The little thing was obviously shocked and dazed, and it took a few seconds to flip himself onto his stomach. I went to grab something to put him in. A little chase took place while trying to capture the little thing, but eventually we managed to get it in a cage I had from keeping mice. The chase proved that the creature had some kind of damage to one of his hind paws, but otherwise there were no obvious signs of injury.
We could've let him outside after capturing him, which is still a possibility, but I just couldn't let him out, being obviously injured, last night to let some owl pick him up. So, we kept him on a towel in the cage with a piece of strawberry all last night, but he's not touched the food. It's proven to be quite spy, despite the injury. Upon capture, it sprung about the cage, hung on the bars and was crawling all over the towel. However, ever since that moment or two of escape attempts, he's been fairly still, staying mainly to one corner of the cage with the occasional step or two. We've put it in it's own room, safely away from the cats.
I'm afraid I'm entirely new to the whole idea of caring for squirrels in any capacity, so I went directly on-line to see if I could find out what it was and maybe what it would eat. My research has convinced me that it is a flying squirrel. I'm assuming that it is one of the northern species because of our location, but I certainly can't be positive of that. The website I checked out said that the average size would be near to 30 centimeters, but I believe our little guy is a little bit smaller than that.
I hate to see the little guy so scared of us when ever we come near the cage, because I don't want to stress him out any more than he already is. I'm so worried about what I should do to get him to eat. My father's thought is that it may have internal bleeding from the attack or damage to vital organs that inhibits it from eating. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I should take the little thing, or what I should feed it that it might like better?
Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!