A few questions, help needed....

[SquirrelLove]

1. How can you tell if your baby squirrel has Downs syndrome?

2. How can you tell if your adult female squirrel is pregnant?

3. If the adult female is NOT pregnant is there a safe diet she can be put on?


Thank you for any help,
Joanne in Jax

[Jackie in Tampa]

1. How can you tell if your baby squirrel has Downs syndrome?short legs, short nose & wide face, slow eating, slow learning skills, are a few.

2. How can you tell if your adult female squirrel is pregnant?
small pencil lead sized nipples

3. If the adult female is NOT pregnant is there a safe diet she can be put on?
the healthy diet http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28009



Thank you for any help,
Joanne in Jax
:wave123
jackie

[SquirrelLove]

thank you Jackie!
On the downs syndrome, she is only about 6 wks old so it's kind of hard to tell yet but she has a more rounded head, smaller eyes and a short nose. Her legs look fine so far though. She is terrible about eating though, I have to force her to notice the nipple is there. She grunts a lot. She will NOT let me put her down! She cries and cries to be picked up when I put her in her cage unless it's night time and I'm sleeping next to her. I even had to take her grocery shopping with me and hide her in my shirt. Boy was I hot! When I got home I put her in her cage to put groceries away and she screamed and screamed for me to come back.

Now about the adult female. I see no nipples yet, but she was doing the dirty deed and she is a little bit larger. I'll have to wait awhile to check nipples when she might be farther along. But she's gotten so fat her belly drags on the ground so I was thinking it is time for her to go on a diet. She mainly eats veggies with 1 serving *small* of fruit, gets some nuts once a day too. She's in the sunshine with shade so she's not at risk for MBD but I think she's at risk of being too overweight. She never stops eating except to sleep and if I accidentally wake her up she goes straight for food. I need to slowly wean her down to a smaller healthy diet.

PS, the little one I speak of that might have downs does have a cage mate the same age that doesn't cry and asked to be held all the time and the cage mate squirrel seems to be doing very well. But my point was she has another squirrel to be with but wants me instead.

Thank you for all your help!