squirrel won't eat!

[sdanielle140]

I'm sorry if you feel this doesn't apply to life threatening emergencies, but my baby Nico will not eat or drink anything, I'm not sure why! I just moved to a new apartment and he has been here for 3 days. Today is the first day that he has not taken to the Henry's blocks or raspberries. He doesn't want to come out of his cage and stays in a corner, he was rescued in July of 2014 at about a week old, I've raised him since.

[Annabelle's papa]

I'm sorry if you feel this doesn't apply to life threatening emergencies, but my baby Nico will not eat or drink anything, I'm not sure why! I just moved to a new apartment and he has been here for 3 days. Today is the first day that he has not taken to the Henry's blocks or raspberries. He doesn't want to come out of his cage and stays in a corner, he was rescued in July of 2014 at about a week old, I've raised him since.

:) Hi sdanielle140, you have posted in exactly the right place, can you post a picture and current weight, and a brief description of your Lil' ones diet.

[sdanielle140]

I have no idea how to put a picture on here! But I don't know his exact weight! He's a little chub, healthy weight I'd presume. He eats 1 Henry's healthy wild bites block in the morning with 2 raspberries and then I feed him raspberries, a mushroom, mandarin oranges and peaches throughout the day, depending on his mood and then 1 block at night. I give him occasional junk food such as a chip here or there and He drink from a glass critter water bottle.

[jbtartell]

here is a the link to the food chart..
http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?44440-Healthy-Diet-for-Pet-Squirrels

what kind of squirrel it he?

[Annabelle's papa]

I have no idea how to put a picture on here! But I don't know his exact weight! He's a little chub, healthy weight I'd presume. He eats 1 Henry's healthy wild bites block in the morning with 2 raspberries and then I feed him raspberries, a mushroom, mandarin oranges and peaches throughout the day, depending on his mood and then 1 block at night. I give him occasional junk food such as a chip here or there and He drink from a glass critter water bottle.

:) There is a manage attachment button at the bottom of the reply page you can use for posting a pic, or you can email me a pic at atpat1963@gmail.com and I can post one for you. Today is the first that He hasn't eaten, can you check His teeth, has He been exposed to anything harmful like cleaning solutions, etc.

[jbtartell]

sometimes they wont eat when scared or stressed.. you know him best and know what calms him.. they is a lot of newness to a move.. smells noise.. and site.. if this is the case he will eat soon, try a snack, try a nut or avacodo.. something he loves..

[HappyLittleSquirrely]

The secret is going slow with expose, allow mega time to adjust, squirrel needs to figure out where he is and who everyone is... so he feels secure, slow expose is key... cover all sides of the cage but the front..
don't give up of veggies, just keep offering and rotating selections, something he won;t touch one day may be something he loves next week... variety is the key with feeding, we need a wee bit of everything so his nuttritional intake is fulfilling what he needs.

[RobinTN]

You should also consider the possibility that someone who lived there before you may have had other pets that left their scents in the apartment. Squirrels are so tuned in to smells, he probably thinks there's 50 other animals in the next room. You could try putting some extra familiar smelling items in his cage, maybe some t shirts you've slept in recently but not yet washed.

Make sure he doesn't become dehydrated. Temporarily adding a tiny bit of sugar to his water may tempt him to drink if he's not interested.

Once he gets past the newness of the move (squees despise change!) hopefully his appetite will return. I'm very glad to hear you feed him Henrys blocks. Mine prefer the wild bites too:grin3
BUT... the blocks are only the starting point for a healthy diet. There is way too much sugar (fruit) in Nico's diet, which can cause diabetes. You need to cut out almost all of the fruit (and mushrooms are particularly bad because of an extremely negative calcium to phosphorus ratio) and replace that with a variety of vegetables with a good (>2:1 calcium to phosphorus - Ca:Ph - ratio)

I downloaded this to my phone and refer to it in the produce dept while I'm shopping, it's a list of foods & their Ca:Ph ratios
253854

I think someone else already posted this, but here's the Healthy Diet link, it has the squirrels version of the food guide pyramid
http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?44440-Healthy-Diet-for-Pet-Squirrels

Keep us updated, and never hesitate to ask even if it seems like a silly question. There are a lot of people here with a lot of squirrel experience, and we always want to help squirrels:thumbsup

[sdanielle140]

Thank you so much for your help everyone! I always was so frustrated trying to find answers online to qquestions about him because I never got an answer! I really appreciate it! I'll change up his diet and let him sleep with my t shirt :)