Baby Indian Plam Squirrel Pooping Blue-Green

[Arjun Karfa]

One of my baby indian palm squirrel (2 months old) is pooping blue-green semi liquid poop. Also he is pooping a lot. He is just sitting at one place. He eats solid food and don't like the formula even a little. Today he ate a good amount of cabbage (he started eating it day before yesterday only) and rice flake with little formula (he loves this).
All of them were running and playing around but suddenly I noticed that this one has pooped blue-green liquid poop. And now he is just sitting and not moving at all.
What should I do? Is it because of the cabbage or some kind of infection?
Please help 🙏

[CritterMom]

The color is odd for sure. I think that eating a ton of cabbage is part of the problem though. Try to get him to take some hydration by syringe. You can use plain water or water with a little bit of honey, and warm it like you would formula. He is losing a ton of fluids with poop like this.

Is there ANYTHING this color he could have gotten into? I remember another person here who had a totally unnatural poop color with one of hers and it turned out that he had been able to access and eat some of the artificially dyed parrot food...

[Arjun Karfa]

Yeah your intuition was right. Today morning after the squirrels left their nest, I saw two of them going to the cabinet and dragging my blue pen colour from the pen stand and chewing it 🤦🏼*♂️. Also they have chewed the "orange" colour a bit.
Now what should I do? Yesterday night I gave them pedialyte solution only. Should I go back to normal formula?
Update on poop: It has become a little solid bluish colour.
Please help 🙏

[CritterMom]

I would start with formula again. The blue will last until all of it has gone through her digestive tract and out the other end!

You said "solid blue" - do you mean that the poop is starting to become more solid and not as runny, or that the COLOR has become more solid??

If the poop is becoming more solid then YAY! You are halfway there. Keep hydrating (give it in between formula feedings, not at the same time) and introduce new foods in very small amounts and one at a time...and lock EVERYTHING up! They will fuss and argue and tantrum over eating their healthy food but let them have a TV remote control or a pen and look out!

If it is still runny and you were referring to the color, do you folks have anti-diarrhea meds for children available? We often use human meds for squirrels, and Pepto Bismol and Kaopectate in the US are both very useful. If you have anything like that, if you could put a link for it in your post so we can look at the ingredients it would be helpful.

[Arjun Karfa]

I would start with formula again. The blue will last until all of it has gone through her digestive tract and out the other end!

You said "solid blue" - do you mean that the poop is starting to become more solid and not as runny, or that the COLOR has become more solid??

If the poop is becoming more solid then YAY! You are halfway there. Keep hydrating (give it in between formula feedings, not at the same time) and introduce new foods in very small amounts and one at a time...and lock EVERYTHING up! They will fuss and argue and tantrum over eating their healthy food but let them have a TV remote control or a pen and look out!

If it is still runny and you were referring to the color, do you folks have anti-diarrhea meds for children available? We often use human meds for squirrels, and Pepto Bismol and Kaopectate in the US are both very useful. If you have anything like that, if you could put a link for it in your post so we can look at the ingredients it would be helpful.

The poop is normal again!! Yayyyy :grin2 They are all healthy now and playing around. I am giving them apple, carrot and cabbage as solid food and formula too. Should I add or subtract something?
Thanks again 😄

[CritterMom]

Well, squirrels aren't straight vegetarians by any means. Your little guys likely eat plenty of insects, plus bird eggs, when they are in the wild. They have a higher requirement for things like protein and calcium than many animals do. Here in the US we can rely on food made for pet rats - because rats and squirrels are quite close in dietary requirements. We are also lucky enough to have a food that was designed SPECIFICALLY for squirrels (by one of our members), so feeding them once they grow past the formula phase is fairly easy.

But I have tried to help many people here on TSB from India, and have yet for anyone to be able to find anything commercially available that they can feed. In case you want to hunt for some, it is like this: https://www.amazon.com/Nesom-Distributing-Envigo-Formerly-Harlan/dp/B00N0DEDT8/ref=asc_df_B00N0DEDT8/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312179425600&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11346440573708865099&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9002579&hvtargid=pla-633183501837&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=67678947728&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312179425600&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11346440573708865099&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9002579&hvtargid=pla-633183501837. There are many brands, and they make multiple shapes - some are little "rods" like this, but they make other shapes. What they are NOT is rat food that is a mixture of corn and sunflower seeds.

You will likely find stuff that looks similar for rabbits, and guinea pigs, and chinchillas - it looks the same but is NOT the same and can't be substituted. Those animals eat almost an all grass diet not suitable for a squirrel. You need rat or mouse manufactured food...