little female skin appears to be flaky

[spamrestricted]

Hi,

I have three squirrels, two are large female and male and then a small female. All three now have their eyes open :) The big male and little female just opened yesterday.
The little female eats like there is no tomorrow and I'm feeding her more than 5% of her weight, but she is handling fine and she really really wants it. I'm thinking since she is so small, she needs the extra nutrition.
Anyway, her skin appears somewhat chafy/dry/flaky. I read in one of the post that eveeno baby cream works great. I was going to pick this up today and rub it on her for next feeding - is this safe to do?

I'm thinking maybe this happened, when I was treating for bloat, wrapped in warm tissue. So I try not to wipe her on her belly anymore. She is not dehydrated, as least she doesn't appear to be. They were severly dehydrated when I took over the care - almost shutdown completely.

She weighs 57grams and the two large ones weigh 74grams. The big ones don't appear that dry. There is still no hair on their bellies - is that normal for fox squirrels? They were found almost 3 weeks ago and I was assuming they were about a week old when found.

Thanks for any knowledge you can throw at me.

Gia

[Rhapsody]

I would suggest Organic Coconut Oil or Coco Butter Cream (not lotion) to rub on flaky skin....... just a little each time.
and their white fur will come in on the belly in time (around 5 weeks) --its part of their growth process.

Age / Stages of a Squirrel:
http://www.squirrelsandmore.com/feature/174/how-to-determine-the-age-of-a-baby-squirrel.htm

[spamrestricted]

cool - thanks very much.

Gia

[CritterMom]

Also, make sure you are keeping them in a plastic bin of some kind - it helps keep humidity in with the baby. Cardboard boxes will leach the moisture right out of them.

Also, you can put something like a little custard cup in the corner of their container with a water saturated sponge or crumpled wet paper towel to raise the humidity levels in their container.