Introducing solid food question

[MeganRaye2020]

Hello wonderful squirrel mommies and daddies... I have a question. I have an almost 7 week old baby squirrel(7 weeks old in 3 days) she has a great appetite when it comes to her milk. She LOVES her milk. But I have been trying to get her to eat solids since right after her eyes opened and she wants NOTHING to do with it. I've heard several times that squirrel block should be the first solid food she eats but she's so picky and I'm worried she's not getting the proper nutrition so I've tried literally everything from an assortment of different nuts and even different types of baby food and she literally wants nothing to do with any of it. The only nut she will have anything to do with is peanuts but she chews pieces off and spits them out. Should I be worried? Maybe she's a late bloomer? She has a plump belly and is getting more active every day and is like a 'real squirrel' now besides the food issue. Can someone please give me some advice?

[Spanky]

Hello wonderful squirrel mommies and daddies... I have a question. I have an almost 7 week old baby squirrel(7 weeks old in 3 days) she has a great appetite when it comes to her milk. She LOVES her milk. But I have been trying to get her to eat solids since right after her eyes opened and she wants NOTHING to do with it. I've heard several times that squirrel block should be the first solid food she eats but she's so picky and I'm worried she's not getting the proper nutrition so I've tried literally everything from an assortment of different nuts and even different types of baby food and she literally wants nothing to do with any of it. The only nut she will have anything to do with is peanuts but she chews pieces off and spits them out. Should I be worried? Maybe she's a late bloomer? She has a plump belly and is getting more active every day and is like a 'real squirrel' now besides the food issue. Can someone please give me some advice?

No nuts, period! If you continue to offer other foods before she is eating block you are choosing the hard and treacherous path.

She should be getting rodent block and only rodent block as her first and only solid food. When she is eating the rodent block, not just shredding, but eating, then other healthy foods can be introduced from the healthy food pyramid.

As long as she is on proper formula, she is getting proper nutrition... which formula are you feeding her?

Henry's supplement blocks (stock with the picky) are the most successful IMO:
https://henryspets.com/picky-blocks-food-for-squirrels-flyers-rats-and-mice/

Here is the healthy food pyramid:
https://henryspets.com/picky-blocks-food-for-squirrels-flyers-rats-and-mice/

[Mel1959]

Stop offering ANY nuts. It’s counter productive to what you’re trying to accomplish. Contrary to popular belief nuts are VERY BAD for squirrels. They have a very unhealthy calcium to phosphorous ratio.

At 7 weeks she’s just beginning to learn that food comes in different forms. Continue feeding her formula as her age and weight dictates. She will wean herself when she’s ready usually around 10-12 weeks and once she is consuming enough other foods. Many squirrels will still drink formula from a bowl when they’re placed in a release cage at 14-16 weeks, so there’s no hurry for her to wean.

I’m not sure what rodent block you’ve offered but go online to Henry’s Pets and purchase either some Picky or Hazelnut Block. This block is the tastiest and best received. Store the block in the freezer and offer her one half of a block initially. She will shred it until she figures out that it’s food. DON’T PUT ANY OTHER FOODS IN THE CAGE until she’s actually eating the block. Only then do you offer other foods off this list. https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?44440-Healthy-Diet-for-Pet-Squirrels

I personally never offer nuts until the squirrels are in the release cage. They’re like kryptonite to them….they will almost always choose a nut over any other food and that’s a recipe for disaster when you’re trying to get them to eat good healthy foods.

Edit: I see Spanky and I are on a roll posting the same thing. Lol.

[MeganRaye2020]

Thank you so much for the advice. I guess I'm just being a worry wart lol I got the rodent block from the exotic pet supply website. I got her formula from the same website. It's exotic pet formula in the powder form. The directions states to use 1/4 cup powder to 5.5oz boiled water. When I followed those directions, she literally woke up every hour and a half screeching until I feed her and continued this behavior until around 4 weeks she started to lose weight even tho she ate every hour and a half or every two hours (around the clock) so my mom suggested that I add just a bit more powder to thicken it up to maybe give her more calories and she has been good since then. Gaining weight well and don't want to eat so often. What do you think about split feedings? (I'll explain) so she's a very active girl. She chug's down about 7ml (very aggressive eating) and then she wants to run around. She climbs my body like a tree at 100mph lol so I allow her to do so but I know that's not enough for her to eat so after she calms down about 15 to 20 min later she comes to my chest to get in her blanket for a little snooze. I try to get her to eat at that time but she will only eat 2ml or 3ml and falls asleep. So that's 10ml at most. So after around 30min later I can get her awake to eat about 4ml more and then I put her in her cage. How can I break this behavior or should I even try? It don't bother me to feed her this way but not sure if it's okay for her to keep this up. Also she is blind in one eye so I'm not sure if she should be a release or not (we can decide that at a later time because she will have to be kept for this winter (Ohio is too cold) I know this is long, but one more question (please don't think I'm being rude or a jerk) but squirrel don't get rodent block in the wild, they eat nuts,crickets,mealworms, rose hips, etc. So why is it that that's not what we try to feed them? Again thank you Mel and Spanky for your time and patience.

[Spanky]

Squirrels in captivity get only eat what we humans give them... and there has never been a documented case of MBD in wild squirrels. Aside from Aspiration Pneumonia (AP) killing tons of baby squirrels in the care of humans, MBD is the leading killer of squirrels in captivity (e.g. under human care). Aspiration Pneumonia is not something that happens to wild squirrels either.

Keep in mind a squirrel's diet is completely dependent on it's environment and the seasons. Nuts and seeds are mostly a fall fare... the crickets ans meal worms don't exist in the dead of winter in Ohio.

We really don't know everything a wild squirrel might eat... they obviously know how to handle their diet (and get tons more exercise as a wild). What we do know is what can kill them when they are dependent on a human for all their food.

The EN formula is a huge problem IMO. I suggest you get some Fox Valley 20/50 (this is specifically for squirrels older than 4 weeks) and change over to this proven formula.