SquirrelFosterMom
05-07-2012, 07:49 PM
I am hoping someone might be able to help with a biting problem with my four baby squirrels that I've been raising for 6 and a half weeks. This is my first time fostering gray squirrels, although I've had experience with other wildlife.
I rescued them at 5 and a half weeks old out of a maple tree in my front yard. I will digress for a moment because their rescue was pretty amazing. One had come down and walked right up to my friend - he was cold and hungry and covered in fleas (a sign that mom wasn't around anymore). We looked up in the tree and saw another tiny squirrel 40 feet up in a nest screaming for his mom. He screamed off and on for a day. We ended up rescuing all three of his brothers by ourselves - no one with bucket trucks or tall ladders would help us (fire department, utility company, telephone company, etc.). So we broke up the nest with aluminum rods taped together and catching them in a sheet below. A real fireman's rescue.
All in all it's been an amazing experience raising them. I don't know if I can attribute their recent feistiness to their diet. I believe their diet is good. After rehydrating I fed them Esbilac at first - because it was easily accessible, but quickly switched to Fox Valley. I slowly introduced veggies, fruits, rat block and a few nuts here and there. I start their day off with HT blocks and a plate of high calcium veggies and wild food. I give them an afternoon snack of Kaytee, Henry's Block a small selection of fruit and then a walnut - which is good cracking practice I think for them. I end the day with a late formula feeding.
I try to wear the same top and pants when I greet them so my smell doesn't change - I don't wear perfumes and use minimal organic/natural beauty products. So it's not the smell issue.
They are all staying in a bathroom I converted into a wild habitat complete with cut pine tree stump, three large maple branches that extend to the ceiling, a screened window to overlook the yard from the second floor, hammocks, etc. It's a nice big nest and they bounce around alot of the day.
I'm planning to move them into a pre-release cage I will build in a couple weeks after they turn 14 weeks. They bite hard enough to make me and my boyfriend's hands and fingers bleed. One time one of them lunged at my cheek and scratched me. The problem generally arises after feeding in the adjoining bedroom and playtime ends and we let them crawl down our arms onto the sink vanity in the bathroom. They don't seem to want to leave us. :(
Is the biting just a natural wilding up process? Is there something else that we should do? Not interact anymore? I still have to feed them - they are almost weaned, but some still seem to want the formula. I don't pet them much anymore - just hold them upright during feeding. I have to wear thick gloves now and I flinch when they jump towards me.
I would appreciate any suggestions... Thanks!
I rescued them at 5 and a half weeks old out of a maple tree in my front yard. I will digress for a moment because their rescue was pretty amazing. One had come down and walked right up to my friend - he was cold and hungry and covered in fleas (a sign that mom wasn't around anymore). We looked up in the tree and saw another tiny squirrel 40 feet up in a nest screaming for his mom. He screamed off and on for a day. We ended up rescuing all three of his brothers by ourselves - no one with bucket trucks or tall ladders would help us (fire department, utility company, telephone company, etc.). So we broke up the nest with aluminum rods taped together and catching them in a sheet below. A real fireman's rescue.
All in all it's been an amazing experience raising them. I don't know if I can attribute their recent feistiness to their diet. I believe their diet is good. After rehydrating I fed them Esbilac at first - because it was easily accessible, but quickly switched to Fox Valley. I slowly introduced veggies, fruits, rat block and a few nuts here and there. I start their day off with HT blocks and a plate of high calcium veggies and wild food. I give them an afternoon snack of Kaytee, Henry's Block a small selection of fruit and then a walnut - which is good cracking practice I think for them. I end the day with a late formula feeding.
I try to wear the same top and pants when I greet them so my smell doesn't change - I don't wear perfumes and use minimal organic/natural beauty products. So it's not the smell issue.
They are all staying in a bathroom I converted into a wild habitat complete with cut pine tree stump, three large maple branches that extend to the ceiling, a screened window to overlook the yard from the second floor, hammocks, etc. It's a nice big nest and they bounce around alot of the day.
I'm planning to move them into a pre-release cage I will build in a couple weeks after they turn 14 weeks. They bite hard enough to make me and my boyfriend's hands and fingers bleed. One time one of them lunged at my cheek and scratched me. The problem generally arises after feeding in the adjoining bedroom and playtime ends and we let them crawl down our arms onto the sink vanity in the bathroom. They don't seem to want to leave us. :(
Is the biting just a natural wilding up process? Is there something else that we should do? Not interact anymore? I still have to feed them - they are almost weaned, but some still seem to want the formula. I don't pet them much anymore - just hold them upright during feeding. I have to wear thick gloves now and I flinch when they jump towards me.
I would appreciate any suggestions... Thanks!