blessedbeingmom
03-18-2012, 10:25 PM
Hello, my name is Tricia, I am married to Matt and we have 3 children (boy 8, girl 10, girl 12). I am a pharmacist & Matt is a stay-at-home, homeschooling father.
Our baby squirrel was first found Friday March 16th in the afternoon. She was trying to cross the road in front of our house, when a car passed by & saw her & could have run over her. The driver of the car was trying to shoo the baby squirrel away. My DH was in the side yard (our wooded part) & came to see what it was. He found the squirrel & put it in a box, so mom & girls could have a chance to see it later. Around 7:45pm, mom & girls came home from Bible study, and were shown the baby squirrel. We decided to leave it in the box overnight.
Saturday morning, dad & kids tried to let the baby squirrel go. They put her on the ground but she kept crawling after them. They tried putting her on a low tree branch, but she decided to run up Elizabeth’s arm instead. We gave her a little lid with a tiny bit of water and put it back in the box. I called a friend who has raised squirrels before and got advice that the squirrel still needed milk & we should get puppy milk & after my description (eyes open, about 4-5” long not including tail) that it was probably 5 to 6 weeks old. She also advised that we should get rodent block (rat & mouse food). I asked about guinea pig food (as we have 3 guinea pigs) but she advised that it would not be good for the squirrel as she needed something harder for her teeth.
I found several helpful pages on the internet & spent an hour or so reading about care of squirrels. I also determined that our squirrel weighed 80 grams & had its bottom two teeth & top two are just beginning to come in (barely).
We went to a local feed store & bought Esbilac powder. We also bought sunflower seeds (with no plans to give them anytime soon) and some hand-feeding syringes. We went to the grocery store & bought whipping cream & clear pedialyte. We already had some 1 & 3 cc syringes at home. I was unable to find the right nipples (the long kind) but plan to order them.
We did read about the Esbilac controversy but will keep using it for now, but we are being extra careful to turn the powder can upside down a few times before mixing, mix it well in advance, with very hot (but not boiling) water, etc. as directed on the sites I found. We also added a bit of cream to the batch & can give yogurt if needed but weren’t able (yet) to find full-fat plain yogurt (only low-fat & fat-free).
My oldest daughter is 12 & wants to be a vet someday, so she is keenly interested in small animals. We do have 3 cats, but they have had no interest in our guinea pigs from day one, although we take precautions nonetheless. Our guinea pigs live in our living room in a large cage that we made out of metal grids & coroplast. We do have a lid on their cage.
We have done lots of reading on cats, kittens, guinea pigs & other small animals, and we are now adding squirrels to the list. We have raised a baby rabbit in the past until one day it hopped away from a large outdoor playpen-type enclosure. We think it still comes back to our garden area sometimes, as we’ve seen Peter Rabbit from time to time.
We have quite the menagerie here currently. We have 3 cats, all of whom have been spayed or neutered. Sparkles is 15 years old & spends all her time on our bed or on the couch. She does little but sleep all day long. Mr. Salt is about 4 or 5 years old & he used to be the neighbor’s cat until he gradually adopted our family (and they knew this but did not seem to care) and have since moved away. We have been unable to get him used to staying inside, with 3 kids living here who are in & out all day & since he got used to being allowed to roam by the neighbors, it’s hard to change his habits. He does seem to stick mostly to our property though (we have one acre lots and no houses close by). Dottie was found (presumably dumped) a few years ago, and she is more of the kids’ cat as she spends more time on their beds. She does go out sometimes but we try to limit it. Ideally, we know it would be best for them to all be totally indoors, but due to previous habits before they adopted us, it is extremely hard to get them to stay inside. Our three children are homeschooled, and thus home (and in & out) all day long.
We also have 3 guinea pigs. We started a few years ago with two from a pet store, and unfortunately one died. Then I read up on the care of guinea pigs and how they need companions, found a rescue organization and we brought home two spayed females to go along with our male guinea pig.
We have 3 toads which started out as about 10 tadpoles last year and these are what we have left. We have a pond full of goldfish in the back yard, two betas, and four hermit crabs in a 10 gallon tank, with plans to upgrade them to a 29 gallon tank. (Our plans got a bit side-tracked and delayed due to our recent vacation followed immediately upon our return by my father-in-law’s hospitalization for 11 days, from which we were sure he wasn’t going to make it this time, and are extremely blessed he got out of the hospital last Tuesday & is now in rehab, thankfully!) (He almost died last May as well, so we are thankful for this extra time we’ve had with him.)
Okay, so back to our baby squirrel. We also read about having to stimulate her bowels & bladder, which is understandable as we know that must be done for kittens as well. However, she also seems to be able to poo & pee on her own, although we keep stimulating her after every feeding anyway.
For her feedings, we started her off with close to 10cc in pedialyte, via syringe, around 6 pm on Saturday the 17th. About 2 & ½ hours later, we gave another 5 cc pedialyte, and she peed lots of clear pee & a tiny bit of dark poo. At about midnight, we gave her a mix of 1 part formula to 3 parts pedialyte (total amount 6 cc).
We did not think she would need heat due to having her fur now, and our house being so warm (we are in south MS & our air conditioning isn’t working very well right now) but this morning she seemed a bit chilly, so we put half of her box over a heating pad on a low heat setting and she seems to like this side. This morning at 7 a.m. she weighed 78gm and took 8 cc of a 1:1 mix of formula & pedialyte. At noon, we gave her 8 cc of a mix of 3 parts formula to 1 part pedialyte, and again the same amount of the same mix at 4:45. We also put a piece of rodent block in with her just to get her used to it (did that this morning). My daughter cut it into four pieces for her. At around 8:30 tonight we gave her the last 3 cc of formula (straight, not mixed) and after midnight (before we go to bed) we will give her a full feeding. (Unfortunately, although we figured out how much we’d need to give her today, some was wasted by being left out in a bowl, so we doubled the amount we made this time around.)
I know we will need to move her into a cage of some sort soon, just trying to figure out what size and type we need to get & what else we need. How do we know if the openings in the cage are small enough to be safe for her? Also, can anyone tell me why glass bottles are recommended? What do we do for a nest box? We did have a dish towel with her but just changed it for a piece of fleece after I read her nails could get caught in it.
Sorry for being so long-winded, but thankful in advance for any help or advice! :)
Our baby squirrel was first found Friday March 16th in the afternoon. She was trying to cross the road in front of our house, when a car passed by & saw her & could have run over her. The driver of the car was trying to shoo the baby squirrel away. My DH was in the side yard (our wooded part) & came to see what it was. He found the squirrel & put it in a box, so mom & girls could have a chance to see it later. Around 7:45pm, mom & girls came home from Bible study, and were shown the baby squirrel. We decided to leave it in the box overnight.
Saturday morning, dad & kids tried to let the baby squirrel go. They put her on the ground but she kept crawling after them. They tried putting her on a low tree branch, but she decided to run up Elizabeth’s arm instead. We gave her a little lid with a tiny bit of water and put it back in the box. I called a friend who has raised squirrels before and got advice that the squirrel still needed milk & we should get puppy milk & after my description (eyes open, about 4-5” long not including tail) that it was probably 5 to 6 weeks old. She also advised that we should get rodent block (rat & mouse food). I asked about guinea pig food (as we have 3 guinea pigs) but she advised that it would not be good for the squirrel as she needed something harder for her teeth.
I found several helpful pages on the internet & spent an hour or so reading about care of squirrels. I also determined that our squirrel weighed 80 grams & had its bottom two teeth & top two are just beginning to come in (barely).
We went to a local feed store & bought Esbilac powder. We also bought sunflower seeds (with no plans to give them anytime soon) and some hand-feeding syringes. We went to the grocery store & bought whipping cream & clear pedialyte. We already had some 1 & 3 cc syringes at home. I was unable to find the right nipples (the long kind) but plan to order them.
We did read about the Esbilac controversy but will keep using it for now, but we are being extra careful to turn the powder can upside down a few times before mixing, mix it well in advance, with very hot (but not boiling) water, etc. as directed on the sites I found. We also added a bit of cream to the batch & can give yogurt if needed but weren’t able (yet) to find full-fat plain yogurt (only low-fat & fat-free).
My oldest daughter is 12 & wants to be a vet someday, so she is keenly interested in small animals. We do have 3 cats, but they have had no interest in our guinea pigs from day one, although we take precautions nonetheless. Our guinea pigs live in our living room in a large cage that we made out of metal grids & coroplast. We do have a lid on their cage.
We have done lots of reading on cats, kittens, guinea pigs & other small animals, and we are now adding squirrels to the list. We have raised a baby rabbit in the past until one day it hopped away from a large outdoor playpen-type enclosure. We think it still comes back to our garden area sometimes, as we’ve seen Peter Rabbit from time to time.
We have quite the menagerie here currently. We have 3 cats, all of whom have been spayed or neutered. Sparkles is 15 years old & spends all her time on our bed or on the couch. She does little but sleep all day long. Mr. Salt is about 4 or 5 years old & he used to be the neighbor’s cat until he gradually adopted our family (and they knew this but did not seem to care) and have since moved away. We have been unable to get him used to staying inside, with 3 kids living here who are in & out all day & since he got used to being allowed to roam by the neighbors, it’s hard to change his habits. He does seem to stick mostly to our property though (we have one acre lots and no houses close by). Dottie was found (presumably dumped) a few years ago, and she is more of the kids’ cat as she spends more time on their beds. She does go out sometimes but we try to limit it. Ideally, we know it would be best for them to all be totally indoors, but due to previous habits before they adopted us, it is extremely hard to get them to stay inside. Our three children are homeschooled, and thus home (and in & out) all day long.
We also have 3 guinea pigs. We started a few years ago with two from a pet store, and unfortunately one died. Then I read up on the care of guinea pigs and how they need companions, found a rescue organization and we brought home two spayed females to go along with our male guinea pig.
We have 3 toads which started out as about 10 tadpoles last year and these are what we have left. We have a pond full of goldfish in the back yard, two betas, and four hermit crabs in a 10 gallon tank, with plans to upgrade them to a 29 gallon tank. (Our plans got a bit side-tracked and delayed due to our recent vacation followed immediately upon our return by my father-in-law’s hospitalization for 11 days, from which we were sure he wasn’t going to make it this time, and are extremely blessed he got out of the hospital last Tuesday & is now in rehab, thankfully!) (He almost died last May as well, so we are thankful for this extra time we’ve had with him.)
Okay, so back to our baby squirrel. We also read about having to stimulate her bowels & bladder, which is understandable as we know that must be done for kittens as well. However, she also seems to be able to poo & pee on her own, although we keep stimulating her after every feeding anyway.
For her feedings, we started her off with close to 10cc in pedialyte, via syringe, around 6 pm on Saturday the 17th. About 2 & ½ hours later, we gave another 5 cc pedialyte, and she peed lots of clear pee & a tiny bit of dark poo. At about midnight, we gave her a mix of 1 part formula to 3 parts pedialyte (total amount 6 cc).
We did not think she would need heat due to having her fur now, and our house being so warm (we are in south MS & our air conditioning isn’t working very well right now) but this morning she seemed a bit chilly, so we put half of her box over a heating pad on a low heat setting and she seems to like this side. This morning at 7 a.m. she weighed 78gm and took 8 cc of a 1:1 mix of formula & pedialyte. At noon, we gave her 8 cc of a mix of 3 parts formula to 1 part pedialyte, and again the same amount of the same mix at 4:45. We also put a piece of rodent block in with her just to get her used to it (did that this morning). My daughter cut it into four pieces for her. At around 8:30 tonight we gave her the last 3 cc of formula (straight, not mixed) and after midnight (before we go to bed) we will give her a full feeding. (Unfortunately, although we figured out how much we’d need to give her today, some was wasted by being left out in a bowl, so we doubled the amount we made this time around.)
I know we will need to move her into a cage of some sort soon, just trying to figure out what size and type we need to get & what else we need. How do we know if the openings in the cage are small enough to be safe for her? Also, can anyone tell me why glass bottles are recommended? What do we do for a nest box? We did have a dish towel with her but just changed it for a piece of fleece after I read her nails could get caught in it.
Sorry for being so long-winded, but thankful in advance for any help or advice! :)