Dark urine

[Rachell1983]

Hi everyone

I noticed today my 6 month old female grey squirrels urine was very dark. It was a large amount and she did not appear to have issues going during expelling. She is eating well but not sure of how much water she actually drinking during the day while we are gone. She has a large house outside she stays in but we bring her in at night. She'll drink at night while eating her food. We give her 2 Henry blocks daily, 2 hard shelled nuts, mixed Romain lettuce packaged, cucumber, little mixed fruit, cabbage daily and things like avocado, carrots, sweet potato on occasion. She's active but seemed more sleepy last night and this morning but summed it up to cooler weather and rain that came in until I noticed the urine. UTI? Dehydration? I cleaned it up with wipe.

[redwuff]

Is there any chance sh has eaten any acorns?

[Rachell1983]

No I use ohnuts mixed nuts and there isn't anything but walnuts, pecans, almonds, Brazil, pumpkin seed.

[Rachell1983]

Disregard that my husband did put a branch that had them on it. What do I need to do now? Anything, it just remove what I can find and give her extra water to flush her out? Did we screw up real bad??

[RockyPops]

I'm not positive but I think if acorns were the problem it will straighten itself out as it gets flushed out naturally.

[HRT4SQRLS]

No, you didn’t ‘screw up real bad’. :tilt You do have to be careful with acorns though. Acorns from the ground can have mold inside. The mold produces aflatoxins that can be deadly. Of course the acorns still on the branches are safer but still not 100% safe. I know what you’re thinking.... wild squirrels eat acorns don’t they. Yes they certainly do. It is a primary food source in the fall and winter. We just try to minimize risks while they are in our care.

I’m not so concerned about the acorns but the nuts you mentioned are a much greater concern. Too many nuts has 2 bad effects. (1) It makes a picky eater that will reject healthy foods and hold out for nuts. (2) Nuts are extremely unhealthy for captive squirrels. Nuts fed in excess is the number one cause of Metabolic Bone Disease. I can also throw in a third in that if you have a group of squirrels they will start getting nut aggression. They will fight like little hoodlums over nuts. :)

Here is a link to the healthy diet for captive/pet squirrels.
https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?44440-Healthy-Diet-for-Pet-Squirrels



By the way, I have 3 that are about 13 weeks. They are in the release cage for about 3 more weeks. I have given them acorns pulled from the trees. I know when they are released the first wild thing they will eat is acorns.