Questions about my new flying squirrel Little

[SarahChrisandLittle]

My boyfriend Chris and I, just recently got a 2 month old flying squirrel "Little" we have been reading on the nfsa board about how to bond and feed your new pet and all she wants to do when we are trying to bond is sleep/run away from us and hide, she will not take any types of treats from our hands (pecans, walnuts, apples etc.) when we try and have her come to us in our hands she wont, and has bitten us a few times. Could she possibly be sick, or what steps are we not taking that we should be? We just bought vitasol mulitvitimans for her water, reptocal for her food (calcium) a mineral block with seeds to gnaw on for her cage, as well as a mineral salt block, and a woden swing and wood sticks for her to chew on. the progress we have seen since we first got her has improved but we want to know if there is anything else we can do for her to help her bond with us? thanks everyone! :Love_Icon
xoxo
c+s & lil'

[4skwerlz]

My boyfriend Chris and I, just recently got a 2 month old flying squirrel "Little" we have been reading on the nfsa board about how to bond and feed your new pet and all she wants to do when we are trying to bond is sleep/run away from us and hide, she will not take any types of treats from our hands (pecans, walnuts, apples etc.) when we try and have her come to us in our hands she wont, and has bitten us a few times. Could she possibly be sick, or what steps are we not taking that we should be? We just bought vitasol mulitvitimans for her water, reptocal for her food (calcium) a mineral block with seeds to gnaw on for her cage, as well as a mineral salt block, and a woden swing and wood sticks for her to chew on. the progress we have seen since we first got her has improved but we want to know if there is anything else we can do for her to help her bond with us? thanks everyone! :Love_Icon
xoxo
c+s & lil'
:Welcome to TSB.
One of our flyer experts will be here shortly to help. Bonding takes time and patience. If she sleeps on you, in your clothes, or in a bonding pouch, that is bonding too. Slow progress is all you can expect.

Please read the Healthy Diet in the Nutrition Forum. The basis of her diet should be some kind of rodent block or squirrel block, lots of insects (such as mealworms), healthy veggies, etc. Please throw out the multivitamins and mineral blocks. Once you get her on the Healthy Diet, you won't need the Reptocal either (please check to make sure it does NOT contain Vitamin D; if it does, don't use it; the proportion of calcium to vitamin D is wrong for a squirrel). Never put vitamins or supplements in the water.

A flyer doesn't bond quickly like a kitten or puppy. Sounds like you're making progress. Good luck.

[Jester]

Hello, :wave123 this is how I bonded with my flyer, I hope it helps.. He didn't like his bonding pouch after a week so I would scoop him up out of his cage while he was asleep and place him inside whatever shirt or hoody I was wearing and would keep him in there all day everyday and I would put him in his cage at night when they're most active. I would give him lots of seeds while he was in there and eventually he became comfortable in there. I would also let him run around in the bathroom a lot, where he really had nowhere to hide or run away to, and I would keep offering him treats and talking to him. When I could get him to start taking treats from my hand, I started holding a seed up in front of my other hand so he would have to climb on my hand to get it. It took a few weeks of this, but eventually he bonded very close to me. He wants nothing more than to be inside my shirt, if you look at my thread you'll see many pictures of him unconscious in there lol. And I can actually call him and he'll come running or flying over to me. He does that all the time on his own too. For bonding treats, try pumpkin seeds (unsalted of course), they're cheap, small enough that she will finish them quickly and come back for another one, and she can have quite a few everyday. My flyer Jester goes crazy for them. She's probably biting you because she's scared of you and doesn't like your attempts at trying to grab her or pick her up, mine bit me once when I backed him into a corner and tried to grab him. After that, I started working on getting him to come to me, by offering treats the way I described and he's never bit me since, I can even pick him up now he trusts me so much. Its just all about building trust. I hope this helps.. :thumbsup