Hair loss on tail and a few questions

[Sarah86]

Hi I'm new to this forum so please excuse the amount of questions I have! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. My squirrel is Nutkin , she's a grey and were in the uk so not much help available to us, she fell out of a tall tree when she was about 5 weeks old, I raised her and as she's blind in one eye and has a bit of trouble with balance sometimes I've kept her, she lives indoors as we can't trust our neighbours not to report her if she's seen, she's 15 months now and is happy and healthy she has a good diet but lately has begun to loose fur on part of her tail which has scared me! I've read about vit d deficiency etc and got very confused as to what bulb/lamp I could use, the full spectrum bulbs don't seem to give out UVB ? Can I use an avian one? The avian lamps give full spectrum&uva &uvb, is it safe?how long each day? Even if it's not this causing her hair loss on the tail she needs a lamp, I should have sorted one sooner-I fell into the trap thinking she was getting sun through the window all summer! :( could she be moulting? The skin isn't red or flaky and she dosent have visable fleas though I've never flea treated her as I haven't a clue what is safe and she didn't seem too bothered with itching. Sorry this is long, thanks, sarah&nutkin x

[Daisey007]

Hello, my name is Pam and I'm a licensed wildlife rehabber from the US.

I've often seen hair loss on the tail in both free and captive squirrels. It frequently appears to correct itself without any intervention on your part. However, I often observe and make note what I see the local grey squirrels eat in the wild, and then try to get some of it and feed it to my captive squirrel, Chewy (the love of my life!). Chewy had a section at the end of his tail that had obvious sections of hair missing. I watched it for months but nothing changed it. Then one day I went into the woods and dug up a cup or two of "red Georgia clay" and gave it to him. I'd frequently seen another squirrel I'd raised eating it, so I thought I'd start there. Much to my surprise, Chewy snatched up a small clump of it and began to eat it with vigor! I'm a chemist by trade, and I know that Georgia's red clay gets it's red color from "iron oxide" (iron). Soon after (2 weeks or so) I noticed his tail was filling out again. Within an even shorter amount of time, his tail was back to its full glory! So, look for foods rich in IRON, and make sure he gets plenty of it. Note of caution!!! DO NOT feed him an iron supplement!! Iron can be lethal in high doses!!! Let him get iron through foods only.

I hope this helps :Love_Icon
Kindest regards,
Pam

[Sarah86]

[QUOTE=Daisey007;1123367]Hello, my name is Pam and I'm a licensed wildlife rehabber from the US.

I've often seen hair loss on the tail in both free and captive squirrels. It frequently appears to correct itself without any intervention on your part. However, I often observe and make note what I see the local grey squirrels eat in the wild, and then try to get some of it and feed it to my captive squirrel, Chewy (the love of my life!). Chewy had a section at the end of his tail that had obvious sections of hair missing. I watched it for months but nothing changed it. Then one day I went into the woods and dug up a cup or two of "red Georgia clay" and gave it to him. I'd frequently seen another squirrel I'd raised eating it, so I thought I'd start there. Much to my surprise, Chewy snatched up a small clump of it and began to eat it with vigor! I'm a chemist by trade, and I know that Georgia's red clay gets it's red color from "iron oxide" (iron). Soon after (2 weeks or so) I noticed his tail was filling out again. Within an even shorter amount of time, his tail was back to its full glory! So, look for foods rich in IRON, and make sure he gets plenty of it. Note of caution!!! DO NOT feed him an iron supplement!! Iron can be lethal in high doses!!! Let him get iron through foods only.

I hope this helps :Love_Icon
Kindest regards,
Pam[/QUOTE

Hi pam thank you for replying, It's been worrying me but you've put my mind at rest a bit that you've seen it often, I'll get her eating more greens and some raisins and broccoli And see if it helps, do you use a light on your squirrels atall? I'm still so confused with them all! Thanks, sarah&nutkin x