Baby Ground Squirrel - Whistling Pete!

[WhistlingPete]

Hello! We are first time squirrel parents to an adorable little piuta ground squirrel. My boyfriend was out in an area where there are lots of burrows. this little guy was above ground and wouldn't go in any burrows and kept following. After about a half hour they decided his mom must be gone and brought him home.

We've had him for a month now. He's been on the GNC formula and we just got him henry's blocks. We think he's about10 weeks old now but appears to have no intent of ever giving up his formula. We're worried he may be getting chunky, but we let him run wild in our house most of the day as long as one of us is here, so i think he's getting enough exercise.

we have a hamster cage for him to sleep in, but I know it's too small for playing. any recommendations for the best cage to get for him long-term?

I'm excited to have somewhere for tips and advice!

I can't figure out how to attach a pic but here are our videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/idjenn313

[sid'smommy]

Is this a prairie dog pup ???

[farrelli]

He's the most adorable thing I've seen in some time! I know very little about ground squirrels, but we do have some people with prairie dogs and such who will be able to give advice to you. If they are like most squirrels, you shouldn't worry about weening them. They should take formula for as long as they want it. I'm glad you ordered HHBs. What is GNC formula?

You'll also be able to get cage info, but I think a lot of people let them have a lot of free roaming space. If you're keeping him as a pet, you'll also probably have to get him neutered as they become quite grouchy and smelly when in season. Do you have a vet?

Welcome to TSB! :Welcome I look forward to seeing more of this guy!

Btw, you can't post pictures until a moderator approves your account.

[WhistlingPete]

I found an AWESOME guide to squirrels of the northwest that helped me figure out he is a piute. It looks like the most closely related would be the richardsons ground squirrel.

The GNC formula is the puppy one they sell at petsmart in liquid form.

Luckily we do have a local vet that treats squirrels, will neuter, and actually has a pet squirrel. we havent taken him in yet, but called to get info so we'd know. I also called fish and game to see if it's illegal to keep him and they said it isn't, so welcome to the family Petey!

:)

[farrelli]

I think we have an active user who has a richardson ground squirrel, so you guys might have to talk.

Usually puppy formula isn't so great for squirrels, but if your guy is doing well and is moving on to HHBs, you're probably all set.

Again, this guy is adorable!

[sid'smommy]

I agree with Farrelli... he is ADORABLE! I will take him off your hands anytime ;)

[flyer girl]

This kid is just too cute I want to kiss his nose..:Welcome :jump

[MollyBear361]

Hi Petey! You sure are cute! I have a Richardson's Ground Squirrel named Winston. I'm not sure on the formula but I'm pretty sure they don't need the Henrys blocks. Those are formulated for tree squirrels. Petey should be living on mostly hay (timothy and not alfalfa) and pellets formulated for rabbits or Prarie dogs. Then they can also get veggies and fruits for treats. Not sure how much difference there is between Piuta and Richardson'sbut I will have to look it up. But they sure look alike.
You came to right place! We have another member who is familiar with Arctic Ground Squirrels too.
Also, get him a rodent wheel. A metal one. Big. Without the bar in the center that can hurt them. Winston spends hours on his. Loves it. And it will help with the weight. How old is Petey?

[pappy1264]

Goodness, what an adorable little one! Yes, hay, hay and more hay!!! If you are on fb, there is a great group, blacktail prairie dogs, and I bet Gena could really help you with this little one! Yes, no hhb's for these guys. Oxbox makes a great pellet they can eat. Good luck with him and keep those videos coming, they are great! (I had a RGS, Neeko, loved him so much! Sadly I lost him to cancer.) I now have a prairie dog, Apple Annie, who is the love of our lives! She even loves my dogs! (through the cage bars, of course, I never let them near her when she is out!)

[MollyBear361]

Goodness, what an adorable little one! Yes, hay, hay and more hay!!! If you are on fb, there is a great group, blacktail prairie dogs, and I bet Gena could really help you with this little one! Yes, no hhb's for these guys. Oxbox makes a great pellet they can eat. Good luck with him and keep those videos coming, they are great! (I had a RGS, Neeko, loved him so much! Sadly I lost him to cancer.) I now have a prairie dog, Apple Annie, who is the love of our lives! She even loves my dogs! (through the cage bars, of course, I never let them near her when she is out!)
PAppy - I didn't know you had a RGS!!! I may need tips!!! Petey - think Pappy meant Oxbow...that's what Winston eats...I still can't get him to touch hay :( but I got him when he was 2.5 yo so you may have better luck while Petey is young.

[WhistlingPete]

Petey actually LOVES hay, and oats. We tried sugar glider pellet food and he looks at it, smells it, glares at us like we just tried to poison him, and runs off. he does actually nibble on the HBB. Are they just unnecessary, or actually bad for him?

My biggest fears in life a month ago were things like job loss or death. Now its my squirrel not getting enoug calcium or having proper care for his teeth. how things change!

Any recommendations for where to get a good cage, type, etc?

Im so excited to find other ground squirrel people!! :thankyou

[MollyBear361]

I don't know about a cage. I'm currently looking also. I've heard a ferret cage but idk. Winston had his first vet visit yesterday to even out his bottom incisors and grind down the hooks on his back molars. Poor guy, won't be getting his upper incisors back. I've had him a few weeks and they haven't come back. Winston says :Welcome

[Fireweed]

Hi, Whistling Pete! :wave123 Your little guy is cute! He looks like a cross between a Richardson's and a California Ground Squirrel!


Goodness, what an adorable little one! Yes, hay, hay and more hay!!! If you are on fb, there is a great group, blacktail prairie dogs, and I bet Gena could really help you with this little one! Yes, no hhb's for these guys. Oxbox makes a great pellet they can eat. Good luck with him and keep those videos coming, they are great! (I had a RGS, Neeko, loved him so much! Sadly I lost him to cancer.) I now have a prairie dog, Apple Annie, who is the love of our lives! She even loves my dogs! (through the cage bars, of course, I never let them near her when she is out!)
I highly recommend getting in contact with this Gena person and checking out the PD group! :thumbsup There must be a Richardson's Ground Squirrel group out there by now, too. Tell us if you happen to find one!

Like pappy said, hay all day, every day! Fresh as often as possible (I keep a bale of hay separated in smaller containers and refresh their hay every day--that way the fresh smell entices them to eat more of it. They need hay to keep their teeth trim and their digestives in order). I also give them lots of hay to burrow in and dig in. I spread out treats among it so they have to search for them. Then I have an extra area where I feed the fresh hay every day--Mostly Timothy but also oat and whatever other fresh hay I can find. NO alfalfa!

Oxbow Bunny T's are the pellet I think pappy was referring to (the name may have changed). I use those... they don't need much. I give them less than 1/8 of a cup and spread that throughout their hay. Sometimes it takes them two days to eat all that... If they are looking too chunky, I give them less pellets. You don't want them to get overweight (although they will always be slightly chubbier-looking than tree squirrels!).
Hay and then pellets are the most important foods for ground squirrels--especially if these Piutes are related to Richardson's Ground Squirrels.

Every evening they get a few pieces of greens: endive, radicchio, escarole, romaine, kale. A couple small pieces of veggies with that (Check the Healthy Diet stickies for the best veggies. Watch their reactions to broccoli/cauliflower/cabbages---my ground squirrels get upset stomachs from those so I don't feed those.) My guys get one small piece of fruit every second or third day. They get a nut *maybe* once a month. Definitely take the HHBs out of the diet unless you give them for special treats--and even then I'd only feed half of one.

I also spread a handful of wild bird seed mix through their hay. Oats, too. I do that about once a week. For seeds, watch what the Piute--or even what the California Ground squirrels--eat and gather the seed bearing plants they are munching on (it will change with the seasons) then give your little guy some of those (make sure they are gathered in pesticide/chemical-free zones away from roads). I supplement my guys with a lot of wild foods in the summer--they get a ton of seeds that way. But they--Arctic Ground Squirrels--are also known as "seed eaters". :D

I'm telling you what I do to feed these guys, but you'll have to gather as much info as possible from as many sources and figure out the best way for you. There is hardly any info out there on ground squirrels. Mostly it's for Prairie Dogs--and they aren't Piutes, Richardson's, or Arctics so we all have to tweak our little guys' diets here and there as best we can to fit their needs. Dig it? :D

You can give him a box of dirt to play/dig in. Sand, too. A wheel! Tunnels--they love them. You can use PVC pipe or corrugated drainage piping. They like to chew the bark off logs (I split mine down the centre so they can sit on them and easily chew off the bark). They like to chew on willows (make sure you know exactly what the Piute in your area chew on before giving anything to your little guy). Give them several different boxes, cubes, hidey-holes to make nests in, too. :thumbsup

As for a cage, I have no idea. I use a room right now. But there are lots of ideas to build your own if you google "Prairie Dog cages" or "Prairie Dog enclosures" and look at the images. I haven't found a pre-made cage yet that I would use---if anyone has a good recommendation for a store-bought cage, tell us!

Oh, yeah...the formula... I use Fox Valley formula just to supplement them for a bit until they are eating lots of hay and pellets. Then I might give them a bit of dry FV as a treat once in a while. :) When most ground squirrels are found above ground they are usually almost completely weaned, so it's not as crucial to keep feeding the formula like you would with a tree squirrel, although it won't hurt if they keep taking it--as long as they aren't getting overweight and are starting to eat hay.

That's all I can think of right now. Have fun! And welcome!

[farrelli]

As Fireweed mentioned, the freshness and quality of hay matters. I know that a lot of rabbit people go to ranches and horse stables to get theirs. I don't know if there is a trusted brand in pet stores.

[WhistlingPete]

Thanks for all of the tips, everyone. We ended up deciding to buy a quite large ferrett cage that Petco has right now for about $200 (versus 349 for it at walmart). Petey has started refusing to sleep in the hamster cage we previously used, chewing the bars and making a ruckus. When we let him out, he runs to our dresser, climbs through the back into a drawer and goes to sleep in there. I hate him chewing the bars, so hopefully with a big cage we can make him his own drawer's worth of tshirts and clothes to sleep in.

Also, we clip his nails. Is this normal? He sits and lets us do it, and doen't jerk or anything so I know it doesn't hurt him. He was pulling fibers out of the carpet though now that they're getting stronger (he's about 11 weeks old now).

In response to my question about weaning him off of formula... I don't know why we hadn't though of it, but he wasn't using his water bottle to drink out of. So we tried putting a bowl of water instead of the formula and he is guzzling that, so I think he was drinking the formula for the liquids. Now we have lots of oats and hay that he loves, some nibbles here and there on the HBB, and no formula so he doesn't get chunkier. (we tried the weaning puppy formula that is only 12% fat instead of 40%, but is a powder. He won't touch it)

I also realized I hadn't posted pics yet, so here they come!

[WhistlingPete]

Here are some pics, hopefully from youngest to now!

_____________________
http://www.youtube.com/user/idjenn313
(http://www.youtube.com/user/idjenn313)

[WhistlingPete]

... and the best picture of all, from when he was first found in the field, dehydrated and with a sticker in his paw....

[WhistlingPete]

A few more....

[farrelli]

Totally adorable! I love the ones where he's sleeping. The one in the field looks like a poster.

[newsquirrelmommy]

Love the pics:D He is such a cutie pie:Love_Icon

[MollyBear361]

Cuuuuuuuuuuuttttttttttteeeeeeeee! Winston said he needs a friend, send him over!!!!! :D

[quagmire]

... and the best picture of all, from when he was first found in the field, dehydrated and with a sticker in his paw....

Love this photo. He is so cute in all the other shots. I want one :D

[Fireweed]

Oh, my goodness. So kayoooot! All the pics are awesome--but the sleeping pics are adorabubble. :Love_Icon

[WhistlingPete]

I caught the end of a good yawn/stretch!

[CritterMom]

OMG.

Klunk.

[Scooterzmom]

OHHHHHHHHH.... Cuteness alert!!!! *KLUNK

[Milo's Mom]

I'm not even sure I know the word to describe how incredibly cute he is. OMG.

I think I must have one of these, NOW! That field pic....enter it some sort of contest with a caption...it's gotta win.

[TubeDriver]

:D

[WhistlingPete]

Here are a few face shots of Petey. I swear once he sees a camera he stops and poses. The first, kind of blurry one, is when he is coming out of his tunnel. Then he stopped, showed his other paw. And then turned to get a shot of his "good side."

I call these "manicure please."

[MollyBear361]

:D :D :D :D :D

[farrelli]

He's so tiny! How big do they grow?

[WhistlingPete]

I think he's getting close to being full size. From what I've read these guys only get to be about 8-9 inches. Their tunnels are usually less than 2 inches in diameter, so they've got to keep slim too!

[WhistlingPete]

In case anyone missed this picture in the breed specific thread, this is Petey's Body Building picture. I think he posed for this in response to Farelli saying he is tiny. He's flexing and saying "Look, Dad! See my big muscles?!" :-)

[Skul]

What a sweet little grounder.
Loved the "lemmego" pic in #17. :rotfl

[CritterMom]

In case anyone missed this picture in the breed specific thread, this is Petey's Body Building picture. I think he posed for this in response to Farelli saying he is tiny. He's flexing and saying "Look, Dad! See my big muscles?!" :-)


Ahem.

"You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out, you put your left foot in and then you shake it all about..."

He wasn't posing! He's doing the Hokey Pokey! Solemnly.

[newsquirrelmommy]

Ahem.

"You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out, you put your left foot in and then you shake it all about..."

He wasn't posing! He's doing the Hokey Pokey! Solemnly.

:rotfl :rotfl Oh my Petey you're just adorable. I can definately hear that song in the background CritterMom:rotfl :D

[MollyBear361]

Adorable. :thumbsup

[TubeDriver]

So cute! I want a Petey! :D

[Shewhosweptforest]

Any new Petey pics....I love the videos....he his a camera hog fer sur:thumbsup
And you sure can see how you guys are Petey hogs.....errr you know what I mean...totally ga ga over your loveable, squeezeable, kissable Squirrel:thumbsup :grouphug :Love_Icon :grouphug

[farrelli]

Hey, I just noticed that Pete's YT channel has a lot of videos not listed here! They deserve to be seen! He's such a cutie!

[WhistlingPete]

Haha, yeah I got a little bit video crazy there. I can do a quick upload from my phone straight to youtube so it's just too easy. And of course I think that the entire world loves to watch Petey eat as much as I do! :-)

I really like the ones where you can actually hear his little lip smacking noises. This is a cute one... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tAsjW7spFc

[farrelli]

I love when he cleans his hands. Those nails look like they could do some damage though!

[Squirrel Girls Mom]

Haha, yeah I got a little bit video crazy there. I can do a quick upload from my phone straight to youtube so it's just too easy. And of course I think that the entire world loves to watch Petey eat as much as I do! :-)

I really like the ones where you can actually hear his little lip smacking noises. This is a cute one... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tAsjW7spFc

I can't speak for the entire world, but the TSB world loves to watch Petey do everything!! The dancing video is the cutest thing ever!!
Once in a while there is a thread or video that is just so very cute that I have to show my husband. This is one of those threads!!
Petey, you are waaaaaaay adorable!! :multi

[pappy1264]

OMG....I could just eat him up, he is so cute!!!! Makes me miss my Neeko! I love Annie, but having had both, there are def. differences between pd's and rgs. (Pd's are def. more needy, not complaining, I love to love my girlie). He looks great!

[jbillings]

I just subscribed to Petey's YouTube account! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this little guy! What a cutie patootie :grouphug and yes, the TSB world would love to watch him do just about anything!