Ill Flying Squirrel?

[G0dn0te]

I have a Northern flying Squirrel that we caught when she was a baby((maybe a month old??)) in our house. She's a fiesty little girl, and becoming a little more tame by the day. But I have a question!

She has a very oily/scraggly looking coat, ((are they called coats for squirrels?)) and she also has a small bald spot on her hip, that looks like i tmay be from over-grooming... I heard that some overgroom when they are bored?

I'm wondering if she is ill... She runs all the time at night, has water, her diet is only Ferret Pellots ((made up of meal worms, different proteins, etc.)) called Ferret diet. Could this change be from a lack of minerals of protein?

Also, she let me pet her today... which she usually doesn't do, usually she runs away... the first couple times she ran away, but this time she didn't. She didn't seem skinny, but she could have been... I'm wondering if she isn't feeling well ((she seems to have tear stains around her eyes... could that be from her dirty cage which I'm going to clean tomorrow/later this evening?)) because she didn't run?

Thank you very much!

G0dn0te

[Skul]

I have a hunch you have the Southern variety.
From your desciption of her fur, I'd have to guess a young squirrel or has dietary problems.
Usually, a ferret diet isn't the best. This may be where the problem lies.
If you have some good greens such as brocolli, kale, cucumber slices, Endive etc, try a bit of those.
Small pieces of pecan, hazel nut(filbert), almond, and walnut may help.
Small pieces of apple or pear are also OK.
Thinking it's young, makes a difference with its diet.
You mentioned you thought her age at a month. At that age, they barely have opened their eyes.
She may very well need to be on formula.
How long have you been caring for her?

[G0dn0te]

Well, I live in New Hampshire, so I doubt I have a southern... but I've never really been able to tell the difference between the two... can you tell me how to identify them?

Well, when I caught her ((a year ago)) she was about 4" long, 6" adding the tail, and her eyes were wide open... so perhaps she was older than I thought. Lol!

Okay... are there any types of foods I can give her besides the veggies, etc.? For like a primary part of the diet?

Thank you so much for your speedy response! :D

[MiriamS]

Okay, there are many flying squirrel people that are going to give you a LOT of information. Don't get overwhelmed because we just want to make sure your little furball has the best care and health and that you realize what you've gotten yourself into.

First off, the best way to tell the difference between a Northern and Southern flyer is the white fur on their bellies. In a Northern, the base of the white fur is black. In Southern flyers, it's all white. The term "Southern" can be a misnomer because they exist quite far north.

You said you caught her when she was a baby but that she's a year old now and very feisty and usually runs when you try and touch her. Does that mean you didn't know about the bonding process and the little girl is not bonded to you? I'm not judging, just trying to get information.

Regarding diet, there's something called Henry's Healthy Blocks for flying squirrels that make for a great base diet. You can buy it here:
http://www.henryspets.com/products/Flyer-Blocks.html

It's extremely important that your flying squirrel have a significant amount of protein in its diet as it would in nature. You can buy mealworms and waxworms at your local pet store. You must provide a calcium source as well, such as a cuttle bone (sold for birds) or a piece of deer antler, which you can buy online. My flyers are three years old and they still drink formula but if you haven't been giving her formula this whole time, she may not take to it. You can try regular full-fat yogurt. For the fur loss, I'd try giving small chunks of avocado and see if that helps.

That's a lot of information for now. Please consider starting a thread for this little one in the flying squirrel section so we can get to know both of you. :Welcome

[G0dn0te]

Okay! Thank you!

Let me start with this..... I have NO CLUE how old she is... whatsoever.... :thinking I caught her, at midnight, June 3rd, 2011, ((I know this because it took an hour to catch her! :D)) and at that time, she was pretty large, her eyes wide open, gliding all around....

I did know about the bonding process... but I didn't know how to do it... so she is not bonded to me, and she is timid... but other the last few months, she's been getting better, and has let me pet her through the bars, and last week, she walked up to my hand while it was in the cage and sniffed it... then today she let me pet her....

Do you mean the base, as in the tail? Or the base all the way around, such as the wings? ((wings? Or skin flaps? What are their gliders called? :) )) If it's black on the flaps... then yes, she is a Northern.

[Mrs Skul]

:wave123 Hi G0dn0te Welcome to TSB! :Welcome
You can't post Picture, or Send PM yet. Can you Email your Phone number and the Picture to me? I will get it posted for you. cmsokla@nctv.com I can Email my phone number if needed. :thumbsup
Please stop feeding the Ferret diet it will harm, and eventually cause the Death of your Flying Squirrel. :shakehead
The Flyer needs a High Calcium Diet, a High Protein, and a Flyer Block. Please Go Read The Squirrel Nutrition. http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=191
This Diet will consist of Fresh Vegetables, Live Meal Worms, Wax Worms, and Boiled Chicken and Chicken Bones.
You all so can offer Freeze dried chicken and Chicken Poppers. These 2 are a dog treat. (But they are Chicken only!) Please Order some Flying Squirrel Block, FoxVally 32/40 Formula for Babies, and
Read up on a Healthy diet for Squirrels. (Squirrel Nutrition.) Hear is a cites you can order the Flyer Blocks for Babies and formula. http://henryspets.com
If you offer Formula. It would help the Flyer Bond better to you.
Please Please, Please Lets Fix The Diet be for your Flyer gets MBD, and Dies. :shakehead ( Metabolic Bone Disease, & from Lacking Protein! From lacking Calcium)
PS
If you can Email some Pictuers of when you found the Little Flyer, and some Current ones.
This will help me Tell you the Age, The Kind, (Southern, or Northern), and Health. Thank you for trying to Find Help befor it is to Late. :grouphug

[G0dn0te]

Thank, thank thank you! I'll go get some pictures. I got her to eat some Raspberry a little bit ago! I'll go email you right now. Thank you!

[Mrs Skul]

http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32288
Hear is a few ,Pictuers of 3 Northern Flying Squirrels Babies. Go and look. Let use know is your look like them. I will find some southern pic for you to look at. Your Flyer is at least 1 year old. It should not have the Greasy look. :nono
The Diet is Very Bad and you are going to run into trouble soon. (With out the Proper diet, Calcium and Protein.)
This cite is My Southern Flying Squirrels Darla,Spanky,Piglet,Bucky,Abby,and Bianca. Look at the end and you will see them when they were much older. See if yours look like any of Mine. :thumbsup3
http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16792

[G0dn0te]

For some reason, I'm unable to view those pages... it says, :


G0dn0te, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.


My guess is, I don't have approval yet to view it, as my account hasn't been accepted by an admin.

[Mrs Skul]

OK you still don't have permission yet. Can you EMail your Phone number so I can call you? I am Dyslexic and have trouble typing. I do have some Pictuers of Northern Flyer on my Cell.
I can send them to you then you can down load them to your computer and look. I will see if Skul will post a Southern Flyer Picture for you. Hang on.

[G0dn0te]

I just sent you my email and phone number. My mother just informed me that if you call tonight, I can answer, as it isn't to late, and this is very important. Thank you again!

[Mrs Skul]

OK GOdnOte
I just got your Email. I will see if Skul will post them for you. The Flyer is a southern Flying Squirrel. Do you know if Male or Female? Can I Call you now?

[G0dn0te]

I'm pretty sure she's a female....

Yes you can call now, I'm waiting. :)

[G0dn0te]

Just a quick note, I got home to find she had eaten the whole Raspberry!!! :D

I learned that we have no yogurt, so I'll have to buy some tomorrow. But this is what I put in:

1 Romaine Lettuce Leaf, 1 Red Lettuce Leaf, a Chard Leaf. 1 blueberry, cut in half, 1 cherry tomato, cut in half, some Avocado((peeled away the top film where the seed had been)), Half a button/white mushroom, and two small pieces of Asparagus((the head, and part of the stalk)). I put 2 pieces of the chicken blocks in, and a tums as well as a cuddlebone, and her other pouch with a bunch of cotton balls and paper-towel in it... she went STRAIGHT for the pouch and started ripping and tearing to her delight.

I also lined the bottom of the cage with one of my older((not really, but I care about her more than I did the T-shirt)) T-shirts.

Now I'm really praying.... and hoping.... we'll see what she eats between now and tomorrow.

Thank you so, so much Mrs. Skul, I don't know what I'd do without your help.

[MiriamS]

I meant the base of the white belly fur. You know how some blonde women get "roots" because they really have dark hair and as the dyed blonde hair grows, you can see the darker roots? The white belly fur would have dark "roots" if your flyer is a Northern variety.

Mrs Skul is the best so she'll fix your flyer right up. You gave her all of the right food and cage goodies and that should help immediately :thumbsup

I am curious, though, why you captured a flying squirrel that was outside, seemingly wild? I'm wondering if you caught a wild flying squirrel that is now showing signs of depression because it's captive. Usually people make pets out of orphan babies.

[G0dn0te]

Mrs. Skul decided that my Tinkerbell is a Southern flyer. :)

This is a long story... I posted it in the welcome area! But in short, she wasn't wild ((or wasn't caught in the wild outside)). I was walking downstairs one night, when we found her in our house.... spent and hour chasing her, an hour getting her into a cage, and an hour figuring out what she was. I kept her because she was in the house, and we have a LOT of owls here, that we could hear outside, and it was colder out, and I was terrified to let her go, as she was a little baby!!! ((probably just under or around 6 weeks old))... and this is why I kept her. :)

So unless you count a 2 story home, the 'wilderness' as there were tons of hiding places, and 2 dogs and a squealing little brother to worry about... as well as birds squawking.... then I caught her in my house. ;)

[MiriamS]

Gottcha :thumbsup

[IrishHarps]

It sounds like all the other flyer people took good care of you before I even started to read this thread :)

My only advice is to listen to Mrs. Skul. She knows what she's doing!

And also I concur with the others. The diet is probably causing most of those problems.

Good luck and I can't wait to see pics!

[G0dn0te]

THank you very much!

I'm going to call Mrs. Skul back soon, but I learned that she didn't eat anything I put in the cage last night... but the raspberry, and I think she ate the chicken ((freeze dried chicken))

[IrishHarps]

I wouldn't worry about that too much just yet. If she's used to something else, it may take her a bit to stop being picky and try new things. Just keep giving her what she's supposed to eat (only) and she will eventually. She won't starve herself :)

I think there are some tips and trick on the forum too for getting picky eaters to try new things. You may want to search around the forums here for more info.

Have you tried avocado yet? Mine goes bonkers for it. In fact yesterday she dropped a piece on the floor, and then squeaked at me until I picked it up and gave it back to her so she could keep on eating. Spoiled little runt ;-)

[G0dn0te]

she is adoring the freeze dried chicken! :-)

i trked avacado, she didnt touch it....

i bougt some mealworms today and will try that.

[G0dn0te]

I just spent a little over an hour with her out of the cage in the bathroom. It was a lot of fun watching her run around, but it was hard to get her to eat the medicine. She had about... maybe 4 drops of the just tums water, and maybe 2-3 drops of tum+syrup water, and a couple drops of just syrup water.... she licked a Raspberry... I didn't want to force her to greatly, as she isn't completely hand-trained, and I don't want to hurt her, or break any small bond that is there.

I finally decided to put her bacck when she started biting me through the towel. :owned

I got a few videos of her, and some pictures. :)

She seems very energetic... and when I opened the towel once((i put her in my shirt to see if she would calm down... nope!)) and she climbed out of my shirt, and then hopped on my arm, i held my breath, and we sat there, her on my arm for 2-3 mins as she just stood there, not moving, and me breathing quietly, whispering to her now and then.

Her fur seems MUCH less oily.... she did some jumping around ((she climbed all the way up to the ceiling with the drapes... talk about giving me a heart attack at the thought of her falling!!!)) THEN SHE JUMPED!!!! She very quickly fell toward the ground, opened her wings a little bit and soared to the other curtain! LOL

Needless to say... she seemed really happy.

[G0dn0te]

Here are a couple videos!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfU6UIiDNyc&feature=youtu.be

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OGZamT4xgk&feature=youtu.be

[G0dn0te]

I got her to eat a full 1cc of the Tum+water mix with dad's help... it was force-fed, but I did it slower to not choke her, and we'll see how she does tonight.

Her coat is no longer greasy/oily, and her eyes are still bright! :D

[Skul]

The Tums/water mix is good. Might not need quite that amount however.
Just a few drops each day is fine.
As her diet improves, that can be reduced.
If she really goes after the chicken, you can also dust a piece of it with some powdered Tums, and skip the water mix.
The only supplimental calcium we use is the mealworms are dusted with Repcal, before offering.
I did see the photos, and she is a Southern girl.
I'll try to get those posted shortly.

[IrishHarps]

Ooo what a cutie! Definitely a Southern :D

I can't quite tell if it's lighting or what, but does the patch of fur on the lower half of her back (by the hindquarters) look good in person? In the video it looked like she may be getting a bald patch back there but I couldn't quite tell.

[G0dn0te]

Oh ok i gave her another 1cc of the water before i came on, and her teeth were that florecent orange! :-)

Now to get her to eat things besdes te chicken.

[G0dn0te]

Also, that isnt a balding spot, but rateher hair growing over where she had had a bald spot.

[Skul]

OK, here they are.
I'm guessing the first two were with a cellphone, shortly after you got her.

172746

172747

172748

172749

172750

[G0dn0te]

Thank you so much for posting these!!!

Here are some more pictures:

[MiriamS]

She's very cute and looks relatively healthy. I'm shocked she rejected the avocado. :thinking Never heard of that happening before.

I can't help but think that this cage needs a good cleaning. If that is melon or some dried food at teh bottom and the dust is a good representation of the general cage, you don't want her to inhale dust or bacteria. A healthy habitat and good diet are always the best place to start.

[G0dn0te]

That dust is from the bathroom floor where I put her down on, I will have to do a little more sweeping before letting her out today.

THe stuff on the cage is actually the side of the cage, ((I turned the camera sideways)) and it's urine. I'll ahve to give it a good cleaning today when I let her out... do I just use soap water?

[MiriamS]

You can use water or soapy water but I prefer water with rubbing alcohol in it or rubbing alcohol wipes. That disinfects and takes the smell away without leaving behind any chemical that could irritate my flyers. Just make sure yours isn't right there when you use it because the momentary fumes can cause eye irritation.

[G0dn0te]

Ok, I'll have to go out and get some of those wipes. Right now I have her in a pouch inside my shirt.

[G0dn0te]

She seems really exhausted today... I wonder it it's from running around more than usual yesterday? Any ideas?

[Skul]

I see a little better improvement in the eyes and the fur.:)

[G0dn0te]

I'm glad! She started nibbling on a Strawberry today, and she tasted the lettuce, then ran away because I was watching her eat.... still haven't tried the mealworms... I can't get close enough to feed her them.

[G0dn0te]

I just gave her a whole Hazlenut, whole pecan, and whole Almond. She took the Pecan and chewed a whole in it, and is loving eating it! :D

[G0dn0te]

I made a Strawberry, Rhubarb sauce the other day that I add a little syrup to... would this be a good treat of Tinkerbell? It's a little bit bitter.

[G0dn0te]

She's been doing fantastic.. but today she seems more... tired... could it be because it's thundering and lightninging outside? She still ate, but she's just hanging out in her nest box...

[IrishHarps]

I wouldn't worry too much. My flyer has 'off' days where she'll be more lethargic, not play much, sleep in her nest box most of the night, etc, but the next day she'll be back to normal. Some days she's more standoffish, the next day she is crawling all over me and won't get off :-P I wouldn't worry unless there are serious signs of illness or if she is lethargic for more than a few days.