calcium intake

[Mavrycs Mommy]

ever since reading about little nuttys MBD :shakehead im worried about Mavryc and im determined to make sure he gets LOTS of calcium (which im sure he is but im a worry wart :poke lol) he eats his block daily and also boo balls (which is the only way he gets his fv these days he weaned himself a little earlier than i would've liked but he wont touch the stuff unless its in a boo ball) plus his veggies and i know kale and broccoli are both very high in calcium but are there any others :dono ?! and is there anything else i should offer that will provide calcium :thinking ?! i just want to make sure im giving my little Mavie everything he needs to be a happy HEALTHY squirrel (we DO have the happy part covered lol hes spoiled) :thankyou for any and all advice!!!

p.s. i did have a ? about boo balls, i noticed that there is an adult squirrel variation is this a needed evolution?! is there something wrong with giving fv to adult squirrels?! because i think id feel better if Mav had some form of FV as long as he's with me you know?!

[Nutty's Mama]

What a cutie!!! Im sure that one of the experts will respond to your thread shortly, but it sounds like you are doing a great job getting little Mav all the nutrients he needs. Keep up the awesome work!!:thumbsup

[Mavrycs Mommy]

What a cutie!!! Im sure that one of the experts will respond to your thread shortly, but it sounds like you are doing a great job getting little Mav all the nutrients he needs. Keep up the awesome work!!:thumbsup
:thankyou those pics are ancient though, you really should check out his thread he's a big boy now :D
http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30401

[Mavrycs Mommy]

If Mav is eating his blocks every day (2 HHBs or a small handful of commercial rodent block), he is getting all the calcium (and other nutrients) he needs. There's no such thing as a "high calcium veggie"; veggies do provide other nutrients, including micronutrients only found in fresh foods. Just follow the Healthy Diet and you'll be fine; hundreds of squirrels can't be wrong!:)
really?! hmmm... i thought kale was for sure lol!!!! Mavryc eats more than a SMALL handful of block hes a piggy :dono but i was told its okay to keep his bowl full of block at all times (we use Kaytee) is this correct or was i misinformed?! and someone mentioned something about calcium in egg shells?! shoul i give him hard boiled eggs or no?!

[pappy1264]

Kale is actually deceiving, as although it has a good ca/phos. ratio, it also has oxalates, which inhibits the uptake of calcium, so it isn't a great choice for greens (esp. if it is the only one you feed. Spinach is another green that has oxolates, as well.) I buy spring mix, as it has a variety of greens (and red leaf lettuces). I also add to it collard greens, mustard greens, chickory endive, watercress and cilantro. I find the mix is eaten well.

[Mavrycs Mommy]

nope most def not the only thing he eats lol hes spoiled so he gets all the good stuff :D he gets a different mix of yummys every week so he doesn't get bored the only thing i feed him every single week is sugar snap peas... theyre his favorite and he cant get enough of them lol some of his other favies include carrots (which i do not buy for him and only offer when we already have them around the house) cilantro broccoli parsley cucumber and cherry tomatoes but he eats pretty much all of the veggies i offer those just go first lol the only thing he doesnt seem to care for is bell peppers :dono i do try to include a leafy green every week as well lately ive been buying an artisan mix from walmart that he likes pretty well :D

he also enjoys the occasional fruit apples are his favorite but we havent tried grapes someone told me they were a choking hazard so ive been afraid to try them :shakehead hes also not to big on strawberries unless theyre mine :thinking :rotfl

so yea thats pretty much his daily diet plus nuts as treats (i may be just a tiny bit guilty of giving him one to many every now and then though :poke)


SOOOOO :poke :poke are boiled eggs a good idea?! :crazy

[CritterMom]

This is a pattern I see here - I even fell into it at one time. We get a bunch of frightening MBD cases on here and suddenly, against your will, you find yourself wanting to add calcium to EVERYTHING so you are never the one making that post... But calcium is one of those things that enough is great but too much is NOT. Excess calcium is thrown out of the body in the urine and if there is too much of it over too long a time, crystals soon form which then join and become stones and kidney stones mean surgery...

If you are feeding blocks, and especially if you are feeding blocks PLUS HHBs, which you are (and I do), then unless the only other thing you are feeding is sunflower seeds and corn, you are DONE - no more are needed. The regular blocks have the right quantity of calcium:phosphorus; the HHBs are somewhat turbocharged and have more calcium, since they were designed not only to be a food but also to compensate for all the OTHER stuff we feed - that is plenty.

The other things - the veggies and fruits - bring all kinds of nutrients to the table and provide much needed variety to prevent boredom, too, but you don't need to spend hours calculating calcium if you are feeding the diet you are.

So step away from that calcium bottle...you can do it!

[pappy1264]

If you are worried, put a marrow bone (minus the marrow) in the cage. I have found squirrels will chew on them as they need it (good for their teeth, too!) They will get the purest form of calcium this way. All my guys have them *and do use them. I looped a chain through it and hung it on the side of their cages next to the water bottle.

[Pierre]

This is a pattern I see here - I even fell into it at one time. We get a bunch of frightening MBD cases on here and suddenly, against your will, you find yourself wanting to add calcium to EVERYTHING so you are never the one making that post... But calcium is one of those things that enough is great but too much is NOT. Excess calcium is thrown out of the body in the urine and if there is too much of it over too long a time, crystals soon form which then join and become stones and kidney stones mean surgery...

If you are feeding blocks, and especially if you are feeding blocks PLUS HHBs, which you are (and I do), then unless the only other thing you are feeding is sunflower seeds and corn, you are DONE - no more are needed. The regular blocks have the right quantity of calcium:phosphorus; the HHBs are somewhat turbocharged and have more calcium, since they were designed not only to be a food but also to compensate for all the OTHER stuff we feed - that is plenty.

The other things - the veggies and fruits - bring all kinds of nutrients to the table and provide much needed variety to prevent boredom, too, but you don't need to spend hours calculating calcium if you are feeding the diet you are.

So step away from that calcium bottle...you can do it!

:goodpost :goodpost :goodpost

Good Reminder!!

Too much calcium also decreases PTH which turns off bone turnover which you also do NOT want to do. Bone needs to be metabolically active to help regulate serum Ca. Older animals also shouldn't be overloaded with Ca as the kidneys are no longer as able to secrete the excess and you get problems with that too--as in, bone being laid down in soft tissues..... Could go on an on, this is a huge subject but too much Ca is NOT good as Critter Mom stated.

[Mavrycs Mommy]

:thumbsup thanks guys!!! like i said i am a worry wart but i will try the marrow bone for sure (just in case lol)

[Mavrycs Mommy]

:thankyou all for the replies but i still have 2 unanswered ?s lol about the boo balls (in first post) and also should i give him the hard boiled eggs with the shell or no?! :thankyou

[CritterMom]

It is not the boo balls, it is the HHBs that are available in juvenile and adult formulas - youngsters are growing so fast they need higher amounts of things like protein that adults don't, so, two formulas.

Feel free to offer a bit of hardboiled egg - mine won't touch it.

[Nancy in New York]

I've tried the hard boiled egg with shell and they won't touch it, but give it a try. What kind of block does your little one get.
I make the boo balls and give them out periodically, depending on how they eat that day etc. Remember that too much calcium is bad, so it's kind of a balancing act.

[Mavrycs Mommy]

we dont use hhbs!!! Mavryc eats Kaytee Forti Diet... i was asking about the boo ball variations posted on the first page of the thread there is an "adult squirrel" one with no FV :dono

and :thankyou both i guess we'll see what Mav thinks of the eggs :thinking

and nancy he gets two boo balls DAILY but he is also no longer taking FV at all and im pretty sure he still should be he just doesnt like it anymore :dono he LOVES his blocks though... pretty much once he started eating them consistently he started refusing the FV

[justplainnutz]

Ok, first, I just have to ask because it drives me crazy every time I see your username. How do you pronounce Mavrycs? What language is that from? French? Polish? Slavic? I'm sort of a closet linguist so such etymological questions fascinate me.

Now to your questions:

1) Papaya has an almost 5:1 cal/phos ratio and my munchkins LOVE it.

2) I've read that egg yolks have enzymes that are bad for squirrels. Some sites say no egg products at all, some say the whites & shells are ok.

3) I keep a chewing bone in their cage & they gnaw it as needed. As someone else already said, it's great for their teeth. I used to keep it in their nest box and I could hear them in their gnawing. The echos in the wood box sounded like an old man snoring and used to make me laugh. But they peed on it too much in there and they won't chew it after it gets icky with pee stains, so I hung it up high in the cage where they can't get above it to pee down on it. They don't chew it as often up there, but it lasts longer.

You can buy sterilized segments of cow femur from the pet supply store in the doggie bones section.

Now don't forget my pronunciation question!

[momma2boo]

we dont use hhbs!!! Mavryc eats Kaytee Forti Diet... i was asking about the boo ball variations posted on the first page of the thread there is an "adult squirrel" one with no FV :dono

and :thankyou both i guess we'll see what Mav thinks of the eggs :thinking

and nancy he gets two boo balls DAILY but he is also no longer taking FV at all and im pretty sure he still should be he just doesnt like it anymore :dono he LOVES his blocks though... pretty much once he started eating them consistently he started refusing the FV

I know what thread you are referring to. I cannot tell you anything about the variations since I didn't create them.

I imagine if you left out the nuts completely and just did crushed HT and babyfood fruit to make them that would be fine. I did mention in a recent post that anyone can gradually reduce the nuts in the Boo Ball recipe until their squirrels are eating plain HTs.

You mentioned that your squirrel doesn't want FV anymore. Aren't you putting it in the Boo Balls? If so, he is still getting it. :)
I hope this helped a bit. If not I will try to find that thread and be more specific. :D

[Mavrycs Mommy]

JPN: its pronounced maverick but im just a weirdo who likes to be different but it seems no one else gets his name either all though i think it looks cool lol :dono

m2b: yes boo balls are the only way hes getting FV and that was actually my question is it safe for him to have the FV in the boo balls even as an adult? im assuming yes?! lol

and we use Kaytee not HT

:thankyou :thankyou :thankyou :thankyou :thankyou

[momma2boo]

I have read here on TSB to give FV as long as they will take it.

[Mavrycs Mommy]

:thankyou okay good it makes me feel better knowing hes getting all he needs

[Mavrycs Mommy]

Ok, first, I just have to ask because it drives me crazy every time I see your username. How do you pronounce Mavrycs? What language is that from? French? Polish? Slavic? I'm sort of a closet linguist so such etymological questions fascinate me.

Now to your questions:

1) Papaya has an almost 5:1 cal/phos ratio and my munchkins LOVE it.

2) I've read that egg yolks have enzymes that are bad for squirrels. Some sites say no egg products at all, some say the whites & shells are ok.

3) I keep a chewing bone in their cage & they gnaw it as needed. As someone else already said, it's great for their teeth. I used to keep it in their nest box and I could hear them in their gnawing. The echos in the wood box sounded like an old man snoring and used to make me laugh. But they peed on it too much in there and they won't chew it after it gets icky with pee stains, so I hung it up high in the cage where they can't get above it to pee down on it. They don't chew it as often up there, but it lasts longer.

You can buy sterilized segments of cow femur from the pet supply store in the doggie bones section.

Now don't forget my pronunciation question!

guess im not the only one :dono http://www.mybabyname.com/names/Mavryc

guess it means wild :rotfl :rotfl

[justplainnutz]

Ahhh, Maverick! Gotcha! So are you a big James Garner fan or a big John McCain supporter? (Brings back such amusing memories of Sarah Palin.) Well, I guess it makes sense...leave it to a maverick to buck the traditional spelling of "maverick". :)

[Mavrycs Mommy]

idk who James Garner is :dono and im not really into politics either so i think those last questions are over my head BUT if your asking why his middle name is James its because its his daddys middle name lol Matthew James Ketner and Mavryc James Ketner (yes he does have three names... doesnt everyone?!? [hes not just a squirrel hes my baby] :jump)

i :Love_Icon my MJKs!!!! :rotfl :rotfl Mavryc had a sister for a few short days and her name was Mavery Jane Ketner (she was a bunny we rescued from a cat sadly she didnt make it)

[justplainnutz]

James Garner is the actor who played Bret Maverick, the charismatic wandering cardshark on the hit TV show, "Maverick". It was a popular western series back in the 50s/60s. Mel Gibson reprized the role on the big screen in the 90s. (with Garner playing his father in the film.)

John McCain ran against Barack Obama in the U.S. Presidential Election. His running mate, Sarah Palin, was often parodied because whenever she didn't understand or know the answer to a question posed by reporters, she would change the subject and say, "John McCain is the original maverick." She used the term "maverick" so prolifically and in so many irrelevant contexts that I think it will take a generation before anyone else will be able to use that word without conjuring up images of her.

I think Maverick is a great name for a squirrel because both Bret Maverick and Sarah Palin kinda remind me of a squirrel, each in their own way.

[Mavrycs Mommy]

oh well i was born in th 90s so yea missed that one :rotfl :rotfl :rotfl :rotfl :rotfl :rotfl

[justplainnutz]

Whoa, you mean people BORN in the 90s can type already? :eek: Holy cow, where have the years gone!?! :thinking I was in college through most of the 90s and that seems like just yesterday to me! When I was a kid, I functioned in "squirrel time" and a week seemed like an eternity. Now I guess I'm in buffalo time or something and whole years seem to fly by without even registering in my memory. What happened to '07-'10? I have virtually no memory of the years between when I came back from China and when I met my squirrels....and I don't even take drugs!

[Mavrycs Mommy]

haha :rotfl yea i can type (cant spell, most def dont use propper grammer, AND i dont even know what a book is :D its a generational thing :jk)

time just flies for me now that im done with high school lol but before that they just dragged on and on and on and on again...glad thats over :D