Itchy Squirrel with new mommmy needs help

[sstacy19]

Hi Everyone,
I am pretty new to squirrel ownership...I have a Richardson Ground squirrel that I have had for 2 months, over the last month he has developed an itch. He has two litter boxes in his home one of which he finally learned was the potty but the other one he rolls around itching himself in.
I have checked him for fleas and visable mites...nothing..he has never gone outside for fear of such infestations from the local squirrel population that we keep well fed year round.
Oh, also to mention he is our only pet, so we do not have anyone else to give him bugs..well except for my horses but they are boarded elsewhere.
Are there any squirrell allergies that I need to be made aware of?
Here is his daily diet(veggies vary not all at the same time-usually 2-4 items for variety)
He has 3 bowls in his cage one gets Exotic nutrions squirrel food
another gets the nuts he was sent with simply stated squirrel food on the bag plus orchard grass hay
and the large bowl gets 2-4 items off the following list daily(I change it up so that he does not get bored) 3 different types of lettuce, raddish greens, carrots and carrot greens, cucumber, cabbage(his favorite!),beet greens, cherries and blue berries(didnt like apples or peaches?)
Thought about putting ground flax seed in as we take that ourselves and give it to my horses, any thoughts on that helping the itching?
Thank you so much!
Stacy and George the ground squirrel

[JLM27]

Is his fur coming out? He could have mange mites. They are too little for you to see, but after a while it is obvious if they are there. Then you have to get ivermectin.
If it's another type of parasite, others say they use kitten flea powder and it's OK. But I'm not a rehabber, so better wait for one of them to come in.mjs

"orchard grass hay"?? Are there things in there that could make itchies?

Can you post any pictures?

[Mars]

Does he appear to be itching himself outside of the litter box as well?? Being a ground squirrel digging and bathing in the dirt ( like a dust bath ) come natural. But if he is scratching all the time there are other possiblities.

[sstacy19]

no hair coming out...here are some pics if I can figure it out..well I tried to build a tripod site but it is taking to long to post a link to pics.. itches while he is just eating or hanging out...will get off of his wheel to itch himself.

[JLM27]

I couldn't figure out how to resize, then I hit on the idea of highlighting them in my directory and clicking on "File". One of the choices is "Send To" and under there is "Mail recipient". If you say you want to mail them, you get asked if you want to resize the ones you highlighted. You say "yes" and Windows does that and sets them up in an email for you to send. I just save the downsized pics off of the email and discard the email. Then I have small pics to load on TSB.

What's the "orchard hay" reference? Two of my squirrels have always enjoyed scratching. Paulie on the right side and Chubby on the left. Now that they are the same size, it's one of the ways I can tell them apart.

[TexanSquirrel]

:Welcome I hope we get this figured out soon!

[Mars]

Hmmm chance are something came in on the hay ( had that happen here ). Have you tried applying a "made for kittens" flea powder? JLM27 is right. I would sprinkle a little on a wash cloth and then gently work that through his fur avoiding his eyes, mouth and privates. I would also change his bedding and get new hay.

[sstacy19]

http://www.freewebs.com/sstacy19/apps/photos/album.jsp?albumID=1793048

posted pics of him on a site...
I didn't use my horse hay I bought it from the store, and my first thought was that maybe it is the hay..the name brand is Kaytee it says natural orchard grass...looks good and smells good..I just tried to take a picture of it but the dumb batteries in the camera died...

[sstacy19]

Thank you for the diet! I just found it in another post and was reading about my exotic nutrition food! Good to know,
also his 5 foot tall cage sits in a window so he gets plenty of natural sunlight,
question how do I keep him from being overweight? He LOVES to eat and will eat everything I give him I rarely have to throw away any left over veggies at night, (not hidden in his house either) just follow the diet with thumb size portions I guess right? thank you everyone, maybe he is just scratching to scratch...the outside squirrels do it but I figured they had pests..

[Sciurus1]

Hi, I think it may be that this is normal for this kind of ground squirrel to roll in the dirt, it is their way of getting rid of mites and fleas in their fur. If he/she has them you can get an over the counter spray that you spray only on the rear end. It is made from Chrysanthymums, which is a natural and effective for killing fleas and mites. It may also be that he/she itches from molting. Even tree squirrels get itchy and scratch themselves allot when they molt.