Release/general care questions

[Shaky]

Hi. I'm new at this, so I could use some guidance.

Last week we found a little gray female squirrel in the back yard, near her dead sibling, under a nest that appears to have been damaged. We have a marauding hawk in the area, and we think the nest was raided. Our local wildlife rescue was full, so they suggested we try to raise her ourselves and pointed us to a care sheet posted on their website. We got her rehydrated and started on formula. A week later she seems healthy and eats a few solid foods between feedings of formula (more on that later).

I'm a little bit confused on her age, because the descriptions I have read are somewhat contradictory. When she came to us her eyes were open, she couldn't sit up on her haunches (but was trying) and her tail fur was almost flat against her tail. She could climb, but she was clumsy. In less than a week, she's now sitting up on her own, curling her (now bushy) tail over her back and climbing all over the cage with surprising agility. She's still a little clumsy outside the cage and can't leap very far or run very fast. She weighs 4.3 ounces and takes 6cc of formula at each feeding. I guess her age at six to seven weeks, but I keep reading contradictions to that.

That brings up a serious planning issue. I'm in Alabama, and our local wildlife rescue's help sheet says to winter squirrels that aren't ready for release by the first of November. She is obviously NOT anywhere near ready for release. If I'm judging her age correctly, she won't be ready until winter has already set in. From everyone else's questions, it seems like this litter was behind schedule.

How cold can it be outside and still release them? This week our high temps have ranged from the 70s to the 50s. We're going to build an outside pen for her tomorrow, but I don't know if she's old enough now to stay outside full time.

Back to the food issue, our local rescue told us to provide her with Puppy Chow as her solid food, so we did. Then I read that rodent block was better, so I tried to switch her over. I have discovered that she won't touch the rodent block UNLESS there's Puppy Chow in there as well. If there's Puppy Chow, she'll eat it AND the rodent block. No Puppy Chow, the rodent block remains untouched. Am I doing her a disservice by continuing to give her Puppy Chow to keep her eating solid food? (Again, we are feeding her 6ccs of Esbilac every four to five hours during the day.) Also, she won't touch fruit, but she goes crazy for pecans and pine nuts (which I give her sparingly).

The other nagging question is her bowel movements. When we got her she was pooping black pellets. Everything I've read said a formula-fed squirrel should start pooping yellow, but hers has remained black this entire week. It's solid, and she does it often enough, but it just doesn't match what I've read.

I'll have more questions later, but this is a start. Any comments are appreciated.

[island rehabber]

Hi Shaky, and :Welcome! Thanks for saving the little one....I'll try to answer as many questions as I can within the text of your post below:


Hi. I'm new at this, so I could use some guidance.

Last week we found a little gray female squirrel in the back yard, near her dead sibling, under a nest that appears to have been damaged. We have a marauding hawk in the area, and we think the nest was raided. Our local wildlife rescue was full, so they suggested we try to raise her ourselves and pointed us to a care sheet posted on their website. We got her rehydrated and started on formula. A week later she seems healthy and eats a few solid foods between feedings of formula (more on that later).

I'm a little bit confused on her age, because the descriptions I have read are somewhat contradictory. When she came to us her eyes were open, she couldn't sit up on her haunches (but was trying) and her tail fur was almost flat against her tail. She could climb, but she was clumsy. In less than a week, she's now sitting up on her own, curling her (now bushy) tail over her back and climbing all over the cage with surprising agility. She's still a little clumsy outside the cage and can't leap very far or run very fast. She weighs 4.3 ounces and takes 6cc of formula at each feeding. I guess her age at six to seven weeks, but I keep reading contradictions to that.
I think she is about 6-7 weeks old from your description, and so you are right to be feeding her solids as well as formula. Are you limiting her to 6cc's per feeding or would she take more? Because at her age she could go with 3x per day if she ups the amount to around 12-15 ccs....if she prefers smaller amounts more often, that's OK too but harder on you. :)

That brings up a serious planning issue. I'm in Alabama, and our local wildlife rescue's help sheet says to winter squirrels that aren't ready for release by the first of November. She is obviously NOT anywhere near ready for release. If I'm judging her age correctly, she won't be ready until winter has already set in. From everyone else's questions, it seems like this litter was behind schedule.

She sure is a late baby, and her situation reminds me of a cold, hard phrase another rehabber told me once: "the second season litter of squirrels are really just nature's way of feeding the predators as winter comes on." Ycch. Anyway, she should not be released for another 7 weeks at least, and if mid-December in Alabama is over 45 degrees, and there are leaves on the trees, that's OK. But if not, you will need to over-winter her in some type of indoor or outdoor enclosure. There are a lot of threads on that topic here on the Squirrel Board, so search away!

How cold can it be outside and still release them? This week our high temps have ranged from the 70s to the 50s. We're going to build an outside pen for her tomorrow, but I don't know if she's old enough now to stay outside full time.

At her age she shouldn't be outside full time if it's below around 55, in my humble opinion. She's alone -- no one to cuddle with -- and she's young. Take her indoors at night, I think.

Back to the food issue, our local rescue told us to provide her with Puppy Chow as her solid food, so we did. Then I read that rodent block was better, so I tried to switch her over. I have discovered that she won't touch the rodent block UNLESS there's Puppy Chow in there as well. If there's Puppy Chow, she'll eat it AND the rodent block. No Puppy Chow, the rodent block remains untouched. Am I doing her a disservice by continuing to give her Puppy Chow to keep her eating solid food? (Again, we are feeding her 6ccs of Esbilac every four to five hours during the day.) Also, she won't touch fruit, but she goes crazy for pecans and pine nuts (which I give her sparingly).

I don't feed my squirrels puppy or kitten chow, but if it gets her to eat the rodent block maybe you can gradually increase the amount of rodent block and remove almost all the puppy chow from her diet.....she also should get some green leaf veggies like kale or chickory, for calcium....and a cuttle bone or deer antler to start chewing on. (There are lots of threads on THIS topic, also!) The rodent block is an excellent source of nutrients so if she's eating some of that, plus the Esbilac, she'll be in good shape.

The other nagging question is her bowel movements. When we got her she was pooping black pellets. Everything I've read said a formula-fed squirrel should start pooping yellow, but hers has remained black this entire week. It's solid, and she does it often enough, but it just doesn't match what I've read.

The moment a baby squirrel starts taking in any kind of solids, their poops change to a darker color. With your squirrel eating pecans, rodent block, etc. her poops should be black. I believe it is only when they are 1-5 weeks old and getting only formula that their poops are light in color.

I'll have more questions later, but this is a start. Any comments are appreciated.

You're doing great -- read up on diet and overwintering here on the Board, and you and your squirrel girl will be in great shape. :):peace

[rippie-n-lilgirlsmom]

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g314/imdeebee/ages.jpg
maybe this will help.

[Gabe]

Rippie those pictures are excellent. Anyone we know?

[rippie-n-lilgirlsmom]

no Gabe, I just thought it was a great illustration for a newbie.

[Critter_Queen]

Rippie those pictures are excellent. Anyone we know?

That picture reference is from this document: http://animaladvocates.us/squirrelmanual.pdf

I've gotten a lot of good information from that pdf file. The pictures are worth $1000...

[Shaky]

I think she is about 6-7 weeks old from your description, and so you are right to be feeding her solids as well as formula.

She looks like the 7-8 week picture above, but not quite as fuzzy. She has a full coat of pure white fur under her belly. At some point I'll try to post a picture.


Are you limiting her to 6cc's per feeding or would she take more? Because at her age she could go with 3x per day if she ups the amount to around 12-15 ccs....if she prefers smaller amounts more often, that's OK too but harder on you.

I have been feeding her 6ccs because one of the squirrel guides I have says to feed her according to her stomach volume, which this guide says is roughly 10% of the squirrel's weight. If I did the math and conversions right, 10% of her 4.3 ounces converted over to volume is about 6ccs. Somewhere I read not to overfeed her because of the danger of aspirating the formula. But then again, I keep finding contradictory information that sometimes turns out to apply to younger squirrels than this one.

This morning I figured I would let her take as much as she wanted, so I offered her 12ccs. She took it all. I was afraid to make any more drastic change than that, but I'll let her have as much as she wants at lunch.

She will not eat fruit. I've tried strawberries and grapes, and she'll have none of either. I'll start trying various vegetables.


Anyway, she should not be released for another 7 weeks at least, and if mid-December in Alabama is over 45 degrees, and there are leaves on the trees, that's OK. But if not, you will need to over-winter her in some type of indoor or outdoor enclosure. There are a lot of threads on that topic here on the Squirrel Board, so search away!

That's going to be the luck of the draw. Mid December may be above 45 degrees for part or all of the month, but the trees already are losing or have lost their leaves.

I need to search for overwintering advice, so perhaps this question will get answered then. However, the first thing that comes to mind on overwintering is whether I can sort of "halfway" release her. Her enclosure (which we plan to start building today) is going to be on our back deck, almost in the shadow of the tree from which she originally fell. We intended to release her in that area anyway. I'm wondering if, when she's old enough for release, I can just start opening the pen and let her wander her original territory during the winter, just providing a food source and a place to come back to if the weather gets rough. Then, in the spring, we could "wean" her off the food in the cage as more wild food sources become available. She would be released, but not cut off with no food and perhaps stronger and a little wilder for the effort. Thoughts?

Thanks for the comments. As I've said, the advice I've read is often very contradictory, so it helps tremendously to have live humans responding to my specific questions.

[island rehabber]

However, the first thing that comes to mind on overwintering is whether I can sort of "halfway" release her. Her enclosure (which we plan to start building today) is going to be on our back deck, almost in the shadow of the tree from which she originally fell. We intended to release her in that area anyway. I'm wondering if, when she's old enough for release, I can just start opening the pen and let her wander her original territory during the winter, just providing a food source and a place to come back to if the weather gets rough. Then, in the spring, we could "wean" her off the food in the cage as more wild food sources become available. She would be released, but not cut off with no food and perhaps stronger and a little wilder for the effort. Thoughts?

Yes, I was taught the 5% rule and the 10% rule, and that is very helpful when feeding very young squirrels -- pinkies through eyes-opened age, basically, because they can get bloat if they are overfed, or diarrhea. However, at her age she could definitely be taking more and 12ccs sounds about right....you want her to get all that good calcium from the Esbilac as she grows. (Frankly, when I first started rehabbing and fed strictly "by the book", I ended up with skinny squirrels. :dono)

Your overwintering idea is perfect. Definitely make the enclosure for her on your deck where she can become acclimated to the outdoors, and later can come and go as she pleases. Good work, Shaky! :thumbsup