Pregnant Squirrel

[BeeFernandez22]

Hi guys! I haven't been on this board in a long while but I used to be fairly active here. I am sure some of the seasoned rehabbers here will remember me and give me a slap on the wrist for this, but I have a question about my female squirrel. I overwintered a brother/sister pair of greys that are now around a year old. (As soon as the temperatures here are consistantly warmer and the trees begin to bud, we will be moving them out to the release cage. Hopefully we have more luck this time around than we did last time..) Anywho, I did not keep the two separated. I have read all over the place that they do not breed in captivity so I was sure they would be okay. Recently (probably within the past 2 weeks) my female has gotten VERY protective over her sleepy tent. This has never been an issue in the past, and I just attributed it to the fact that it is mating season and she is reaching sexual maturity. I suppose she could have a nut or something stashed in there, but that also has happened multiple times in the past and she has never acted this way. My reason for concern is that she is starting to get rather portly so to say. At one point I was concerned she was underweight because she was so much smaller than my male but I was reassured she was within normal weight range. Now she is getting pretty round. I never noticed any evidence that she had gone into heat, and I do not see her nipples enlarged as I would expect to see... Are there any other signs of pregnancy I should look out for, or do I just have a pudgy girl on my hands?? haha. Thanks in advance for the help.:thankyou

[djarenspace9]

When my vet checks for pregnancy he gently palpates the belly and he says you can feel them in there if they are pregnant.
I don't know if there is any other obvious sign to look for.
Do you have a vet that could check her?

PS. I do have a 6month old male that is so fat if he were a girl I'd swear he was knocked up!

[astra]

as far as I know, you should be able to see nipples if she were pregnant.
Have you checked if there are stashes?

[BeeFernandez22]

When my vet checks for pregnancy he gently palpates the belly and he says you can feel them in there if they are pregnant.
I don't know if there is any other obvious sign to look for.
Do you have a vet that could check her?

PS. I do have a 6month old male that is so fat if he were a girl I'd swear he was knocked up!

Hmmm.. I will get her out and see if I can feel anything lol. I was rubbing her belly last night and didn't notice anything but then again, I wasn't trying lol. My male was looking like a little bowling ball with legs for awhile during the "winter storage stage" haha... He is finally returning to normal size.

[BeeFernandez22]

as far as I know, you should be able to see nipples if she were pregnant.
Have you checked if there are stashes?

I have not checked for any stashes but plan to do that today. I usually try to avoid cleaning out her sleepy tent too often as it REALLY upsets her. I go in there every couple of weeks and empty it out and she seems so out of sorts. She doesn't typically keep food in there and on the rare occasion I see her stash a nut in there, my male goes in and eats it. Little piggy....

[BeeFernandez22]

Well, no stashes and a squishy belly... Guess she is just putting on weight. Her eating habits haven't changed so I wonder why the weight gain recently?:thinking

[stepnstone]

You would definitely see a pronounced change in her nipples as well as her "personal" area, I watch for these signs with my wilds.
My little girl got the roily poly belly too, knew she couldn't be pregnant. It's just a normal beefing up thing they do for the winter months, don't matter if they are inside or out it's just a natural occurrence for the species.
As other's have said as far as the aggression, look for a stash. That's another thing they all seem to hoard more then usual during this time.
Also, have you considered the possibility that she was/is in heat? My sweet little girl turned into a mini Edward Scissorhands when she went into heat. Didn't last long thank goodness...