Milk Face

[sqrlpup]

Bleh. He's got this dried milk goop on his face and forearms that I cannot get off. I clean him up after every feeding but I guess not enough. He must have munched it off his arms because now he's missing hair on his forearms. He's scratching at it a lot, and I'm afraid he's gonna hurt himself. There's no scabbing or anything else, I'm pretty sure it's "just the milk". I've tried getting it off his face but he really thrashes around and screams when I bathe him for too long... My method of bathing is just, using a soft lens cloth with warm water. I guess the only thing I can do is just harass him a couple times a day until it's gone, right?

[rippie-n-lilgirlsmom]

I took a warm cloth (compress):thumbsup and tried to soften it up then a fine comb to try & comb it out? Hard to do with a baby that wont sit! Good luck

[Critter_Queen]

Warm wet/damp cotton balls...that's what I use for crusties of all kinds. Get the cotton ball really good and warm and wet (but not drippy, wring it a little) and apply it to the crusty stuff for as long as you can get him to let you...then I use my finger nails and finger tips to work it loose....if I can do it to butts, you can do it to chins and forearms! :thumbsup They do get uptight about it, but you must get it off of there...bacteria grows in that stuff and can give him an infection if he's ingesting it...

Good luck!!

[snakegetters]

They don't like it much, but the three little sqrls I'm raising get placed in a basin of warm water with a few drops of gentle baby face soap and rubbed down when they are sticky. Little sqrls can lose body heat fast so the water has to be kept warm and they need towelling off and time on a heating pad immediately afterward.

If you catch the stickiness early enough it can be wiped off with Kleenex or MalAcetic wipes which I think may be sold for human as well as veterinary use. Baby wipes might serve the same purpose.

[Buddy'sMom]

Babywipes worked very well early on - when Buddy would sit still. Fortunately, because the first time he had avocado, he was green up to his armpits!! He has since learned to eat it without a bit of green on him!

Didn't realize we had such a fastidious squirrel until I read this post. After his formula, Buddy very carefully wipes off his face - on whatever is handy: my shirt, my hair, the chair!! :D THEN, grooms himself. Good thing, because now he often is lapping instead of sucking and gets pretty drippy. I try to wipe but usually can't move fast enough.

Questions: I've tried to get him to lap from a jar lid, which he did only twice. Should he be switching over to a dish instead of the syringe? (12 weeks old) Or can they just get the syringe until they are totally weaned? Which might be when he is in the outdoor cage?? (NO interest in water, either in dish or drops on my fingers) Do they just eventually figure it out for themselves?? Or do we need to keep trying to teach him?

:thankyou

[Gabe]

Hi Buddy's Mom,
I syringe feed my squirrels until they are ready to give it up, usually going to 1 feeding a day at night so that I know their bellies are full when it's bedtime. It is a natural way, as that is the way their mother weans them, she nurses them and gives them finger food, gently or maybe not so gently pushing them away so they suckle less and less and pick up their own food more and more. Also you will never have a problem with sticky fur!
Gabe

[Buddy'sMom]

Thanks, Gabe, sounds like a good plan to me. One time I tried the formula in a jar lid and he put both feet in -- definitely very messy!

He's getting formula 1 or 2 times a day -- sometimes dives for the syringe, sometimes won't have any part of it. He does eat solids when he refuses formula, so we are trying to go with the flow. He rarely touches the Forti-Diet nuggets :shakehead , so I keep offering the formula, which has some ground nugget-powder added. He eats lots of veggies, some fruit, but I want to give him as good a nutritional start as I can before he goes off on his own.