My squirrel doesn't like to be out of his cage...help!

[LeslieCVT25]

Hi, this is my first time on here and I have a question, if anyone could help that would be great. My little guy Opi is about 9 wks old now and doing wonderfully, except he doesn't like being out of his cage. I've had him since about 5 wks and have always taken him out several times a day for feedings and play. He was always with me, and loved curling up inside of the pouch on my hoodies, and loved playing hide and seek on the couch. But only recently he doesn't want to come out of his cage anymore. My husband and I have an amazing cage for him...a very expensive ferrett nation double level cage, with tons of toys, and branches ect ect for him to play with. He loves to play with us while inside of his cage, jumping, leaping, wrestling with his stuff toys and always makes his happy grunts when he sees me. So I guess I'm at a loss as how to make him comfortable outside of his cage now. Is this normal for him to be doing this? Will he grow out of it and eventually be willing to come out of his cage for play?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

mjs

[dizzdigia]

Do you have other pets in the house? I know with mine he is roughly 10 weeks now and has always had his cage open but never ventures from it unless he is hitching a ride on our shoulders! :D

[CritterMom]

At 9 weeks, this little guy would still be stuffed in the nest and getting his furry little butt whupped by his mama if he stuck a nose out if he was living in the wild. I would not be too concerned - it is his safe place. I anticipate in a month we will be giving you fun tricks to try to get him back INTO his cage...

[LeslieCVT25]

Yes we do have other pets but he is in a room of his own. His favorite friend there for a while was my blind diabetic schnauzer. He's never really around my other pets these days. When he was younger and being feed several times a day, the dogs were constant observers but never touched him. But now he has his own room and his own cage and seems very happy just being in his cage, as long as I play with him when he wants to. I guess I'm just hoping he grows out of it and becomes an adventurous little guy.

[LeslieCVT25]

Thanks Crittermom, thats what I was hoping to hear. He's such a fun little guy I just want to make sure he's as happy as possible.

[astra]

Yes we do have other pets but he is in a room of his own. His favorite friend there for a while was my blind diabetic schnauzer. He's never really around my other pets these days. When he was younger and being feed several times a day, the dogs were constant observers but never touched him. But now he has his own room and his own cage and seems very happy just being in his cage, as long as I play with him when he wants to. I guess I'm just hoping he grows out of it and becomes an adventurous little guy.
if he is a healthy little boy, I assume, he will be released when ready?
if so, he should not be in any contact with dogs. If he gets used to dogs while growing up, he will lose the natural fear of dogs and that will be his death sentence when released.
He should not see you interact with dogs safely either, as he is picking up cues from you since you are his mother right now:) (in the wild, they learn everything, including what's safe and what isn't, from their mothers).
It's not just the matter of dogs touching him or be "safe" for him, it's also a matter of him not getting used to the idea that dogs are safe to be around. Even your sweet blind diabetic schnauzer might lead him to assume that dogs are safe.

It's great that he has his own room, but re:dogs watching him being fed - never trust your dogs (cats) - they might be loving family pets, but they are predators and their instincts can be unpredictable... unfortunately...:grouphug

[LeslieCVT25]

Opi is a very healthy little guy, but unfortunately he is unreleaseable. He was brought in at about 5 wks, after a severe cat attack and sadly he doesn't have use of his left hind leg. His sibblings and mother were killed. So right now I am raising him, but when he's old enough he will go to a friend of mine who is a liscenced rehabber to be with her other unreleaseable squrriels. So thats why I wasn't too concerned about him getting used to my dogs. He was never alone with them, and for whatever reason he liked the schnauzer and would walk towards him, but NEVER without my hand and eyes on him carefully.

[mpetys]

Opi is a very healthy little guy, but unfortunately he is unreleaseable. He was brought in at about 5 wks, after a severe cat attack and sadly he doesn't have use of his left hind leg. His sibblings and mother were killed. So right now I am raising him, but when he's old enough he will go to a friend of mine who is a liscenced rehabber to be with her other unreleaseable squrriels. So thats why I wasn't too concerned about him getting used to my dogs. He was never alone with them, and for whatever reason he liked the schnauzer and would walk towards him, but NEVER without my hand and eyes on him carefully.

Is it definite that his left hind leg won't improve? I had a 5 week old baby that was mauled by a cat. It left him with many holes in his body and dragging his right side. He eventually did regain use of his right arm and leg but was not 100% and therefore I kept him as an NR. He is now almost 14 months old and has just recently made a few 2 foot jumps. Before that 18" was the most he would do. Occasionally, he still has problems with the grasp in his from paws. He is fast and can move around well, but I worry about falls all the time. This little guy just constantly amazed me with his will to live. Totally amazing.

[LeslieCVT25]

No its not definate that he will regain use of his leg, it was broken badly and several tendon/ligaments and (assumed) nerves were damaged. Since he was so young a soft cast was put on his leg, and thankfully was removed and re x-rayed and the bone looks good. There was even talk about possible amputation, but thakn God we didnt have to go there! In the vet industry cat bites are never something to taken lightly especially with baby animals. So it was pretty touch and go for a while. But the infection cleared up nicely and the bone healed well. But the concern is now, how the break will be affected as he grows.
He does use it a little, he tries to balance on it when eating but usually falls over, so he's found some pretty smart ways of holding himself up, usually leaning against his favorite stuffed monkey.

Did you use any rehab tricks to help yours regain some movement or did he do it on his own?

[astra]

No its not definate that he will regain use of his leg, it was broken badly and several tendon/ligaments and (assumed) nerves were damaged. Since he was so young a soft cast was put on his leg, and thankfully was removed and re x-rayed and the bone looks good. There was even talk about possible amputation, but thakn God we didnt have to go there! In the vet industry cat bites are never something to taken lightly especially with baby animals. So it was pretty touch and go for a while. But the infection cleared up nicely and the bone healed well. But the concern is now, how the break will be affected as he grows.
He does use it a little, he tries to balance on it when eating but usually falls over, so he's found some pretty smart ways of holding himself up, usually leaning against his favorite stuffed monkey.

Did you use any rehab tricks to help yours regain some movement or did he do it on his own?
Michele will, probably, reply later...

I'll just say that some people use some kind of physiotherapy, massage, exercises to help him strengthen the muscles in that leg (just as you would do with humans). Of course, it has to be done careful, gradually so that he does not overextend himself and does not re-injure, or injure something else...

[LeslieCVT25]

Thats what I was actually looking into. I have been trying some very light massaging. But his little leg is so tiny lol. Thankfully he's done well on his own with slowly moving it. I even thought about swim therapy...it works wonders for dogs and especially horses, but I'm not sure how it would work with a squirrel...assuming of course that squirrels aren't really aquatic type animals lol. But in shallow warm water and maybe some type of harness, it might work. I know that hydro therpay works wonders on injured legs...what do you think?

[astra]

Thats what I was actually looking into. I have been trying some very light massaging. But his little leg is so tiny lol. Thankfully he's done well on his own with slowly moving it. I even thought about swim therapy...it works wonders for dogs and especially horses, but I'm not sure how it would work with a squirrel...assuming of course that squirrels aren't really aquatic type animals lol. But in shallow warm water and maybe some type of harness, it might work. I know that hydro therpay works wonders on injured legs...what do you think?
yes, light massage is a good start
Dogs and horses swim and swim well...squirrels, normally, do not swim.... so, what works for dogs and horses might not work for squirrels...


I know that water can do miracles...hmmm... but squirrels usually hate baths and being dunked ;-)
you just have to weigh everything, and, first of all, see how he takes it:

on one hand, squirrels hate baths, and it might stress him out some
on the other hand, squirrels with some bad injuries often get frequent baths to avoid urine scold and that kind of stuff... so, sometimes, as much as they hate it,they sort of get used to it...

maybe, if someone could hold him in water up to his waist, let's say, and either massage and/or move and/or encourage him to move his legs under water?....something along those lines?....maybe, give him a piece of avocado afterwards as a reward or something?...

but I would not just dunk him in water, even with a harness.... because if he sinks, he will sink with the harness and if you try to pull him up by the harness, you might end up injuring him.
Also, if he ends up sinking and inhaling some water, that might lead to pneumonia - you do not want that at all
Also, it takes time to get used to a harness, a lot of them do not like harnesses, so that is an additional stress. He might end up associating a harness=stress with water==stress which will symbolize for him double stress...

SO, you see, a lot to consider....

although, I do vaguely, very vaguely recall something like a positive experience in terms of "water, physio, injury"... can't remember details and who and when...

I am sure, other exp.ppl will share their thoughts, too

[LeslieCVT25]

I didnt think squrriels were swimmers lol, and of course I would never dunk him. I was thinking more along the lines of very very shallow water, just enough to cover his leg and then gently hold him and gently poor small amounts of warm water on his leg. hyrdo therapy for dogs and horses is doing just that, allowing warm water to run over and down the injured leg, promoting healing and circulation. So it was just a thought.
And I guess I should of worded it better but i didn't mean a harness you buy from a pet store, more like a support harness that would support his entire body, made from an old sock or something. Just so 1) he would be completely weightless with no pressure on his injured leg and 2) could be something I hold on too if he tried to paddle. My thoughts just being, in a weightless enviorment if he used his leg it would be much less stress on his healing break but allow him to try and regain his strength and hopefully start to heal his injured tendon/liagments....one of which was exposed and had to be sutured back together and thankfully its healed well. Poor little guy he went through so much but its amazing how far he's come and how much he improves each day.

His appetite has always been good, and other then this little leg, he is perfectly healthy

[astra]

I didnt think squrriels were swimmers lol, and of course I would never dunk him. I was thinking more along the lines of very very shallow water, just enough to cover his leg and then gently hold him and gently poor small amounts of warm water on his leg. hyrdo therapy for dogs and horses is doing just that, allowing warm water to run over and down the injured leg, promoting healing and circulation. So it was just a thought.
And I guess I should of worded it better but i didn't mean a harness you buy from a pet store, more like a support harness that would support his entire body, made from an old sock or something. Just so 1) he would be completely weightless with no pressure on his injured leg and 2) could be something I hold on too if he tried to paddle. My thoughts just being, in a weightless enviorment if he used his leg it would be much less stress on his healing break but allow him to try and regain his strength and hopefully start to heal his injured tendon/liagments....one of which was exposed and had to be sutured back together and thankfully its healed well. Poor little guy he went through so much but its amazing how far he's come and how much he improves each day.

His appetite has always been good, and other then this little leg, he is perfectly healthy
sorry, I must have misunderstood about the harness.
The thing that concerned me about a harness in this situation is that it might "squeeze" his upper body too tightly if you try to lift him by it (sometimes, ppl squeeze them too tightly on top and cause injuries/breakage in the shoulder/upper back area and they lose movement in their arms). So, as long as your idea of a "sock-harness" isn't going to pose a risk like that, I guess, you could try it.
It would be very beneficial to incorporate some water therapy.

It does sound like he's been through a lot in his short little life, poor little guy.:grouphug

But this idea of water

[LeslieCVT25]

So I tried the "sock harness" this morning and it worked perfectly! I took an old sock, cut its length to fit his, put 2holes, then I cut the sock at the top so I could hold both sides of the sock so that way his body would rest and not be squeeze. As tech we use towels to makeharness" to support dogs that can't walk, its just support under them so they dont put too much pressure of injured leg/hips. That was pretty much my concept here...just something that could support his body, yet let his legs move freely.

So this morning I made his little support harness, and took him for a little "swim therapy". He did marvalous!!! He didnt mind the water at all...it was very shallow so his little feet could still touch the bottom...and I let his leg soak in the warm water, and after alittle while, he started to move his back legs. He wasn't stressed out at all...he actually seemed very relaxed...even peed in the water :wott lol. He definately wont do that if he's scared or nervous. We only did his therapy for about 10 mins...just to see how he does. But I've got to say, afterwards ( after he was all dry and took his nap) he seemed almost like a different squrriel. He seemed more comfortable on his leg. Where as before it seemed uncomfortable and even painful at times. Its hard to explain, but he seemed happier and more comfortable. I couldn't be happier with the results and I think that his swim therapy will contiune for a while...and see how it goes!

[astra]

So I tried the "sock harness" this morning and it worked perfectly! I took an old sock, cut its length to fit his, put 2holes, then I cut the sock at the top so I could hold both sides of the sock so that way his body would rest and not be squeeze. As tech we use towels to makeharness" to support dogs that can't walk, its just support under them so they dont put too much pressure of injured leg/hips. That was pretty much my concept here...just something that could support his body, yet let his legs move freely.

So this morning I made his little support harness, and took him for a little "swim therapy". He did marvalous!!! He didnt mind the water at all...it was very shallow so his little feet could still touch the bottom...and I let his leg soak in the warm water, and after alittle while, he started to move his back legs. He wasn't stressed out at all...he actually seemed very relaxed...even peed in the water :wott lol. He definately wont do that if he's scared or nervous. We only did his therapy for about 10 mins...just to see how he does. But I've got to say, afterwards ( after he was all dry and took his nap) he seemed almost like a different squrriel. He seemed more comfortable on his leg. Where as before it seemed uncomfortable and even painful at times. Its hard to explain, but he seemed happier and more comfortable. I couldn't be happier with the results and I think that his swim therapy will contiune for a while...and see how it goes!
oh, what a great news!!!!
Sounds very promising.
If possible, could you post photos of what it looks like?... just for future references.
Definitely, please keep posting updates!:thumbsup

[LeslieCVT25]

When my camera is fixed ( I dropped it in water :shakehead ) I will definately post pictures of his sock harness. It looks a little funny...but if worked :alright.gif