New Squirrel Mom!

[Klfox0219]

I have found a baby red squirrel. I am guessing he is approximately 7-8 weeks. I've had him for about 5 days now. Started with pedialyte and puppy milk replacer. Ordered a Henry's kit as soon as I found out about them. He is on fox valley now. I need tips on weighing him. He is very fast and very slippery. My scale is too small to put him on it in his carrier. I just want to make sure he is eating the correct amount and growing properly. I was thinking of maybe letting him crawl into a tube sock and weighing him in that? Also, he is currently living in a mesh pet carrier which I know can't be long term, where can I get something adequate for him until he gets closer to release age? Everything I find seems like something he can escape since he's so dang tiny. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Also... how do I add photos to this post?!

[Scooterzmom]

I know what you mean by fast... trying to hold a baby red of that age is like tryiing to hold sand or water inside your fist! :rolf

One thing you can use to weigh him is a small tupperware container with a lid. Since you won't keep him in there for more than a minute or two I don't see that you'd have to make holes in the lid. Make sure to weigh the container by itself first ;) before you weigh him in it. For safety's sake, to make sure he doesn't scoot away from you, I would wrap the container with a towel when you're done and very carefully open it to retrieve him. If you slip your hand in the towel and then slide hand annd towel inside very and hold him in your hand - move carefully under the lid and cover him with the blankie preferably so he doesn't see anything - and you can place him back in his carrier.

Until you can get your hands on a proper cage (say another week or two), you might want to consider a bird cage, or rabbit cage - or some sort of parrot cage even? He's at that age when from one day to the next he could chew his way out of a soft carrier in no time. The sooner you get something more secure, the better.

You can look up on kijiji or Craigslist for cages. You should be able to find something used that will suit his needs.