SugarGliderSuz
05-15-2011, 01:45 PM
Hello, I am so glad pappy1264 told me about this board. My son's friend found a baby squirrel outside his apartment after a MAJOR thunder & wind storm on Friday. He tried to get the baby to go back to its tree, but it continued to follow him and eventually came up and sat right on his boot. At that point, the friend was a "goner" and couldn't resist the little squirrel. Apparently the nest was destroyed during the storm. My son told me about the baby yesterday and brought it home to me last night.
I have always been a squirrel lover, to the point that my sons are embarrassed by my husband and I singing "We love squirrels, we love squirrels! Yay for squirrels, we love squirrels!" on a frequent basis :crazy In addition, we have a very large collection of squirrel stuffies, figurines, etc.
Okay, so back to the baby. From what I have read, I have deduced that the baby is about 6 weeks old. It is a fox squirrel and weighs 199 grams right now. I have placed an order from Fox Valley already and in the meantime, I am feeding the goat's milk/yogurt formula.
I do have a LOT of experience in hand raising small mammals - sugar gliders. I have owned gliders for over 11 years now and have become considered an expert in the "glider community" on the subject of hand raising gliders. Based on that fact, pappy1264 feels that I should be able to handle hand raising this squirrel. My husband is busily, and happily, building a cage and nesting box out in our garage right now. I plan to keep the baby squirrel in a separate room of our house so that it can have the peace and quiet it will need, until it is ready to start the "soft release" process. So far, it is eating well and its feces is firm, but not too hard.
So, my question is... How do I determine its gender? I don't see an obvious scrotal sac, but didn't know if it would be obvious at this age yet or not? (Determining the gender of a glider is very easy, but not so with this squirrel :dono
I have always been a squirrel lover, to the point that my sons are embarrassed by my husband and I singing "We love squirrels, we love squirrels! Yay for squirrels, we love squirrels!" on a frequent basis :crazy In addition, we have a very large collection of squirrel stuffies, figurines, etc.
Okay, so back to the baby. From what I have read, I have deduced that the baby is about 6 weeks old. It is a fox squirrel and weighs 199 grams right now. I have placed an order from Fox Valley already and in the meantime, I am feeding the goat's milk/yogurt formula.
I do have a LOT of experience in hand raising small mammals - sugar gliders. I have owned gliders for over 11 years now and have become considered an expert in the "glider community" on the subject of hand raising gliders. Based on that fact, pappy1264 feels that I should be able to handle hand raising this squirrel. My husband is busily, and happily, building a cage and nesting box out in our garage right now. I plan to keep the baby squirrel in a separate room of our house so that it can have the peace and quiet it will need, until it is ready to start the "soft release" process. So far, it is eating well and its feces is firm, but not too hard.
So, my question is... How do I determine its gender? I don't see an obvious scrotal sac, but didn't know if it would be obvious at this age yet or not? (Determining the gender of a glider is very easy, but not so with this squirrel :dono