craigslist brothers

[Sara89nicole]

So I have been absent for some time now, but am brought back by a pair of brother grays my fiance and I happened upon on craigslist. We are on our way now to get these precious boys. I know a grays diet differs from the fliers we had so I'm back to refresh on diet and nutrition. I will post pics when we pick these boys up. They were bred, born and raised in captivity so they will be our forevers. (They are super friendly) 😊 I'm back so I can post pics and weights when I get them to make sure they are where they need to be. Any refresher advice and input would be greatly appreciated. They are roughly ten months old.
Is a dark quiet place appropriate for a few as not to stress them?
Best diet staple? (Current owner is giving us zupreeme monkey biscuits,these ideal?)
Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Sara89nicole]

These handsome boys are with me now, snuggled down in a plastic tote for their ride home. As its dark and their usual bedtime it will be tomorrow before I can get good pics. They look and act like happy healthy boys. I'm in love. Their names are fick and thog.:Love_Icon

[HRT4SQRLS]

I'm looking forward to pics. :tilt

I would take it slow with these guys because they are adults. Hopefully they will transition and accept you soon. I'd be real careful though because they bite really hard. :tilt

[Sara89nicole]

Will definitely take it slow and let them adjust at their own pace. One decided to climb all over me withing the first ten minutes of meeting them. So far no signs of aggression and they've never bit anyone before so hoping we can keep that trend lol but if I get bit I prob deserved it :grin2 I do have a question, at ten months should their balls have dropped yet?

[HRT4SQRLS]

:grin2 I do have a question, at ten months should their balls have dropped yet?

:thinking Uhmmm .. Not an expert on that. :tilt If they haven't I guess the answer in no. :peace

[SammysMom]

They have probably dropped, but they sort of get bigger and smaller depending on the time of year. Are you not seeing them at all? Maybe a pic would help with that question also.

[island rehabber]

:thinking Uhmmm .. Not an expert on that. :tilt If they haven't I guess the answer in no. :peace


Normally they will drop at 5 months old, sometimes earlier. Late bloomers I guess. :grin2 You sure they're boys?

[Sara89nicole]

Yea they're definitely boys theirs no denying that. Guess its jus what time of the year it is. :grin2 they were fairly stressed last night after the ride home but are doing much better this morning. Spent some outta cage time exploring the house and us before we had to run an errand in town. I did end up with a fairly nasty set of bites trying to move them out of travel tote into larger enclosure lastnight, keeping the area clean is the main concern isn't it? I'm trying to add some pictures but it would t let me...

[Sara89nicole]

Idk why but the choose file button to upload pics isn't working.:thinking

[nkkritters]

Why were wild squirrels on Craig's List????

[Sara89nicole]

They were born in captivity and handraised.

[Sara89nicole]

I'm still working on getting a weight to post to make sure they're at a proper weight. If someone wants to post em for me I can email pics.

[Duckman]

SO, when you say they are definitely boys, is it because there is a genital that protrudes? If that is the case, you may still have girls. My rule of thumb, and that is exactly what it is, is that if you can place your thumb between the anus and the genital, it is a boy, if you can't it is a girl. The male genital is up in the belly area, where the girl parts are right next to the anus.

[Sara89nicole]

Yea, its up on their bellies 😄 after spending more time with them yest I have to wonder if thog isn't older as his male parts are more pronounced than ficks, he's also bigger...

[Duckman]

I often see many differences from siblings, from size, tail fullness, maturity. There can be many differences from litter mates. Only the people who had them can know for certain. The fact that they are together and not fighting is a good sign!

I can PM my email address to you and you can send me any photo's you want to send, if that is ok. Let me know!

[Sara89nicole]

I emailed some to someone to post for me, thank u tho. Fick does bully thog some even tho fick is the smaller of the two

[stepnstone]

Posting for Sara...

First is fick and thog together, fick on left thog on right. Next is thog eating a carrot. Third is fick looking out a window.

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[Sara89nicole]

Thank u for posting these for me :glomp iv wanted everyone to see these handsome boys

[stepnstone]

Not trying to insult or embarrass, just want to make sure we are on the same
page with sexing as both male and female privates protrude somewhat.

Picture of younger babies. Male on left, female on right.

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[Sara89nicole]

:grin2 Both of theirs are bout a quarter the way up their bellies roughly right above their hips, with thog u can see his male parts hanging down a little from behind him, ficks are smaller but still present as well. I couldn't get a clear picture of it tho. I will try to get a pic tonight.

[stepnstone]

:grin2 Both of theirs are bout a quarter the way up their bellies roughly right above their hips, with thog u can see his male parts hanging down a little from behind him, ficks are smaller but still present as well. I couldn't get a clear picture of it tho. I will try to get a pic tonight.

As long as you are comfortable knowing you have two males
there is no reason to have to expose them with squirrel porn...
http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/laughing/rolling-on-the-floor-laughing-smiley-emoticon.gif

[Sara89nicole]

:rofl4
No peep show I guess :) yea I'm comfortable saying males lol.

[RobinTN]

Oh wow... I'm glad these two found you! I'd actually seen that ad (Pair of Western Greys in Hendo...) but like you, I hadn't been here on TSB in a while. Thog & Fick... gotta love em lol! I actually run 3 craigslist searches every day (if I remember)... Search "squirrel" in "for sale", "services", & "community"... Kind of like a sqrl outreach I guess. Its usually ppl selling hunting dogs or looking for places to hunt, but every now & again there's a found baby.

[Sara89nicole]

I actually ran across the ad by mistake, yep that's these guys they were in Hendersonville which was only bout an hour drive from me. I do look on craigslist a lot just in case but this time was pure accident but I'm glad to of found them. :)

[Annabelle's papa]

Oh wow... I'm glad these two found you! I'd actually seen that ad (Pair of Western Greys in Hendo...) but like you, I hadn't been here on TSB in a while. Thog & Fick... gotta love em lol! I actually run 3 craigslist searches every day (if I remember)... Search "squirrel" in "for sale", "services", & "community"... Kind of like a sqrl outreach I guess. Its usually ppl selling hunting dogs or looking for places to hunt, but every now & again there's a found baby.

:dance Truly Wonderful, czarina just rescued a Sugar Glider two weeks ago, :bowdown (See -Not the sharpest tack, thread) from some college kids who were in total neglect of the poor Lil Soul.:sadness The Students of Higher Education had it listed on CL as a Southern Flying Squirrel.:dono:facepalm most likely none of them were Animal Science Majors.:rofl4

[Sara89nicole]

So I still have a few unanswered questions...

Meal worms, how many can be consumed daily? Every time I feed the boys fick goes right for the meal worms and tends to eat almost, if not all of them so then I have to feed a few more for thog and fick ends up with a few of those anyways...:facepalm

They have been in their cage since the biting incident a few nights ago to help them adjust which they seem to be doing well, both greet us when we come home even if we were only outside for ten mins. Nuts have been completely cut out for now and both boys are just dying to get out and run the house. Its killing me to keep em caged so I'm wondering how long should I leave em in the cage to allow them to adjust before letting them out again? We have been spending a lot of time sitting by the cage talking to them so they hopefully see we aren't a threat and have been sharing feeding responsibility so they see we both won't harm them.

Aside from questions, I'm seeing more and more of their individual personalities these past few days. Fick is the outgoing boisterous one, curious about everything and smart (really really smart) he's also my chewer he chews on absolutely everything. He's the vocal one, he's the reason I know when the boys wake up in the morning :) he is sweet as well but on his own terms. Thog is calm and quiet not as curious he jus kinda rolls with whatever is going on, he actually sleeps in most mornings past sunrise, most days till 9 or so. He is also the bully (or so he thinks) he tries to steal ficks food but usually doesn't succeed. He is also a very sweet boy and more on the when ur trying to love on him terms. They are different as night and day but both very adorable and loving g little boys.
I'm smitten and know already release is going to be hard but at least I can have comfort knowing its what'll be the best and my boys will be happy. :Love_Icon

[HRT4SQRLS]

Hi Sara, I'm really sorry that things didn't work out the way you expected with the boys. I was sorta worried about that happening and it did. :shakehead

I don't think this was a total train wreck because you did rescue them. You are able to offer them the greatest gift of all which is their freedom and their birthright which is a life in the trees. They really do need to be released whenever it is possible.

Personally, I would be VERY hesitant to let them out of the cage again. If they are to be released soon I would not give them 'out of cage' time. I think you are asking for further attacks and aggression. They could turn on you at any time. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees. I do think the likelihood of them coming out of the cage and being sweet and cuddly are FAR LESS than them coming out and attacking again. They are squirrels ... they are adults ... you didn't raise them ... and squirrels bite BAD!!! It's just the way it is. It was NOTHING that you did at all. Sorry. That's just my opinion but I would not allow a repeat of what happened before. Be very careful ... you don't want more bloodshed.

As far as the meal worms, you do need to limit them because they do have a really bad calcium to phosphorus ratio. I believe you had flyers before. Even for flyers, many people roll the worms in calcium carbonate powder before feeding them to help balance this out. I don't know the magic number of worms but I would not let them have more than 10 per day. Probably more like 5 would be better. If you can roll them in calcium carbonate powder, I guess 10 would be OK but it's purely a guess. The bottom line is TOO MANY mealworms could lead to MBD.

[Sara89nicole]

Yea the fliers ate meal worms but weren't huge on them so to many wasn't an issue. I will have to watch fick closer when I feed them, he ate bout 9 the other day by himself before thog could get any :poke yea I don't want them to end up with mbd, I'd feel terrible if that happened. They have a decent size cage, 3x3x6 for now so at least they can move round. I just feel bad keeping them caged u know but do understand why it has to be done. Thank u :grin

[Sara89nicole]

Just an update...
Fick and thog are doing well!! :Love_Icon
I ordered Henrys blocks for them, partly because of fick missing fur in some spots and it was suggested that nutrition may of been a problem. Molt was also suggested but I wanted to cover all my bases. They love the henrys blocks and devour them :thumbsup fick has fur growing back in now.
Both boys have packed on some weight since we've had them, they eat really well and we have no problems getting them to eat all their healthy foods. They say broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and romaine daily. They also get avocado, bananas, blackberries, strawberries, carrots and some yogurt as treats. When they get yogurt we just dip a piece of whatever fruit their getting that day into it and then feed it to them and they love it. They get meal worms as well but I cut back on them as fick was consuming large quantities of them for a couple days (he ate them all before thog got any). Now they get them every other day, 2-4 each.
The spot where fick knocked his head is still scabbed up but looks good and is healing.
Thog has a little belly going on, not quite fat but he is a little rounder than when we got him, could I be feeding him to much? He's absolutely in love with his food, he also is the one to savor every bite, he eats super slow and leaves next to no mess behind.
We've done good about not letting them out of their cage, we do however still hand feed fruit through the cage which I reckon we also need to stop. Its just hard.