Pre treated wood and housing with chickens

[Matt]

I rescued a baby red squirrel from my cat 2.5 weeks ago. I believe he/she was about 4 weeks old (eyes open, fur, not sitting up, tail not that bushy or curved). We keeps him in a car carrier with straw, wood and a warm fleece hat, have been feeding Esbilac (didn't see that there's a better brand out there until now) with a little heavy cream, weaning from 5x/day to now 3x. He's eating apples, pine nuts, maybe avacado, chewing on wood sticks. We built a 4x4x2 foot enclosure with wood and wire mesh. He's probably 6-7 wks old now. Here are my questions
- we used pretreated wood for the cage and he was chewing on it yesterday. I keep plenty of sticks and branches and a deer antler in there. How worried should I be about the pretreated wood and advice of what else to offer him to keep him from chewing on it?
- we are also housing 5 4-wk-old chicks in the cage (right now it's 2 feet high, will turn it on its side for more height in another week). They seem to be getting along ok - anything negative known about that?
- the chicks are fed medicated crumbled feed. It's an antifungal, amprolium. I've read it's not poisonous to dogs and other animals but nothing about squirrels. So far he hasn't shown interest in it and I'm moving the chicks out in a few days.
- he hasn't really taken to the squirrel block yet, wondering if that's normal for 6-7 wks?
- should I worry about calcium supplementation yet?

Thanks in advance for all your help. Have more questions about release but just want to make sure he's safe for now

[Mel1959]

Hi Matt, :Welcome to TSB. Is your plan to release this little one when he gets older? He will not be ready for release until he is about 14-16 weeks old. Your little guy is still pretty young to be very interested in foods other than formula. He should remain on formula until he chooses to wean himself. It could be until he is 14 wks old. You are feeding powdered Esbilac? Another formula called Fox Valley is designed for squirrels. Some people on this board feed a 50/50 mix of Fox Valley and Esbilac with good success. Any transition in formula should be done gradually to help prevent diarrhea. The first food your little one should eat is a good quality rodent block or squirrel block. You can purchase Henry's Healthy blocks for squirrels (as well as Fox Valley formula) from Henrys Healthy Pets online. Only after your little one is eating block well do you want to introduce other foods. you do introduce foods you will want to familiarize yourself with the proper squirrel diet found under squirrel nutrition on this forum. When he's around 8 wks old he will nibble on blocks, but he will eventually learn to love them if you don't offer him anything else but formula and blocks.

As for the cage being made from pre treated wood. It's not ideal, but from everything I've read about the products they use to treat the wood, they are not nearly as harmful as they once were. When you make him his own cage just use untreated wood. The wire mesh should have openings no larger than 1/2 inch squares, not chicken wire.

I know nothing about squirrels being housed with chickens, but it doesn't sound ideal considering the chicken poop that your little guy might get in. If I remember correctly chickens have pretty messy bowel movements. I think a cage that is just his would be better. It should have a box or cube for him to sleep in and some fleece to snuggle in. At this age you don't want his cage very big because it will take a little while for him to have good coordination and you don't want him to fall and get hurt.

If you give him Henry's blocks and he is eating (not stashing) the blocks, you don't need supplemental calcium. He should get two blocks a day.

You said that your cat had this baby in his mouth, did you give your baby some antibiotics? Cat saliva can kill a squirrel and many times the injury is not noticeable. Can you post a picture of your little guy? We'd love to see him.