Rex's Parents
02-23-2012, 12:34 AM
Hello all!
We are new to the board (having discovered it this last weekend) and wanted to introduce ourselves to you guys. Rex is our reason for being here (and the jewel of our hearts). He is the second rescue that my wife and I found this year. He is from SW Washington, is about 7 months old, and has a few problems that will keep him from being released to the wild (he has had many seizures since we got him at about 4 weeks of age). He is a Western Grey squirrel and is very healthy (dispite the seizures he experienced as a youngster).
The first squirrel that we found (she actually came to our doorstep) was doing really well until she was about 4 months old. We had given her to a rehabber when she was 3 months old, to get her ready to go into the wild, but about 3 weeks after she went to him, she suddenly passed away. We are not sure what happened, but know it wasn't due to any neglect of the rehabber.
Rex is a pleasure to have and does well in the house, even though there are 6 cats, 1 dog, 2 adult humans, and 1 minor human. He has a large cage he stays in during the day, and has run of the closed off living room during the evening and night (until bedtime, when he goes back into his cage and sleeps in his own bed he fashioned himself out of spare cloth his mommy gave him). I am including a favorite picture of my wife and mine, showing him in the popcorn bowl and in the background, you can see the glow of 2 of the cats watching him. This was one of the only times the cats were in the room while he was out (they snuck in!). ***not going to be able to post the picture until I can edit it, since it is too big right now (2.9MB). We will post asap!***
It is nice to see this board and have already learned that we need to change his diet a bit. We have been mainly giving him foods that would normally be found in the wild here, but lately he has started losing patches of fur on his sides and haunches. I believe this is dietary, and so far hasn't shown any signs of MBD. We have started him on calcium though, as a precaution and will be getting him some HHB asap (if we can find it locally. If not, we will have to buy it online and have it shipped here). We hope to have a long relationship with all of you and because of Rex, my wife and I have decided to start the process to become official state rehabbers in Washington (we will have to hide Rex though, since WA law requires any physically or mentally un-rehabbable squirrels to be euthenized). Anyway Hello to all from Rex and Rex's parents!
We are new to the board (having discovered it this last weekend) and wanted to introduce ourselves to you guys. Rex is our reason for being here (and the jewel of our hearts). He is the second rescue that my wife and I found this year. He is from SW Washington, is about 7 months old, and has a few problems that will keep him from being released to the wild (he has had many seizures since we got him at about 4 weeks of age). He is a Western Grey squirrel and is very healthy (dispite the seizures he experienced as a youngster).
The first squirrel that we found (she actually came to our doorstep) was doing really well until she was about 4 months old. We had given her to a rehabber when she was 3 months old, to get her ready to go into the wild, but about 3 weeks after she went to him, she suddenly passed away. We are not sure what happened, but know it wasn't due to any neglect of the rehabber.
Rex is a pleasure to have and does well in the house, even though there are 6 cats, 1 dog, 2 adult humans, and 1 minor human. He has a large cage he stays in during the day, and has run of the closed off living room during the evening and night (until bedtime, when he goes back into his cage and sleeps in his own bed he fashioned himself out of spare cloth his mommy gave him). I am including a favorite picture of my wife and mine, showing him in the popcorn bowl and in the background, you can see the glow of 2 of the cats watching him. This was one of the only times the cats were in the room while he was out (they snuck in!). ***not going to be able to post the picture until I can edit it, since it is too big right now (2.9MB). We will post asap!***
It is nice to see this board and have already learned that we need to change his diet a bit. We have been mainly giving him foods that would normally be found in the wild here, but lately he has started losing patches of fur on his sides and haunches. I believe this is dietary, and so far hasn't shown any signs of MBD. We have started him on calcium though, as a precaution and will be getting him some HHB asap (if we can find it locally. If not, we will have to buy it online and have it shipped here). We hope to have a long relationship with all of you and because of Rex, my wife and I have decided to start the process to become official state rehabbers in Washington (we will have to hide Rex though, since WA law requires any physically or mentally un-rehabbable squirrels to be euthenized). Anyway Hello to all from Rex and Rex's parents!