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Coco_Bali
10-13-2022, 03:09 AM
Hi everyone,

I'm living in Bali right now and find myself caring for a little baby girl rather unexpectedly. On Saturday I saw her crawling out of the pool, soaking wet and crying. I wrapped her in a towel and got her warm and dry. I tried putting her out for momma to find; she cried for a long time and I even played the 1 hour loop of babies crying. No adults anywhere, several other babies were running on the roof though.

It was getting dark so I took her in and syringe fed her pedialyte over-night. In the morning she was crying very upset, but at least more perky and energetic than the night before. I looked outside one of the other babies was responding to her calls. The baby outside wasn't with any adults so I did take the her out to see if I could get the other baby to come closer.

Suddenly I saw an adult running towards us and calling to her. So I took baby Coco outside and let her go. She ran off with the adult and I thought all was well.

I'd been hearing crying still on and off and a few hours later Coco was all alone and actually came back. She ran down from a tree and we were able to gently pick her up. I haven't seen any adult squirrels since.

She's a plantain squirrel with eyes open, a furry tail, lower incisors, the uppers are growing in. I think she is around 6 weeks old, but her ears still seem closed which concerns me? I still need to find a scale for her (harder in Bali), plus I haven't found growth charts for this kind of squirrel.

She's been doing fairly well on formula (Esbilac) though we've had a tough time with the syringe. She eats fairly well when it's dark (late night or early dawn) but otherwise I'm often dripping formula through my fingers for her to lick up. I do have a miracle nipple, but we're only eating 2.5 ml at the best of times. Yesterday I did give her a piece of banana which she loves! I may try mixing formula and banana together to encourage her to eat...

I know fruits are normally too sugary but as a tropical squirrel I think her diet should have more fruits?

Mainly looking for advice on care right now, she routinely runs around the room and cries once or twice a day (for about 30 minutes). I hate to see it and wish she had a sibling to be with her.

Today we had an incident. I was going out to make formula with her wrapped in a towel, the kitchen is outside, and she was spooked by a neighbor dog barking and ran into the yard. I was too scared to be patient, chased her down and grabbed her. While wrong, my concern was for the dogs and cats nearby where she was running. She is snuggling with me right now, but I feel terrible for scaring her.

In a few days we're moving to a new home that's totally enclosed, so this won't happen again.

She's peeing and pooping all normally but I'm looking for support on how to do things better...

Charley Chuckles
10-13-2022, 08:35 AM
:Welcome
I looked up info about your type of squirrel. First she is absolutely BEAUTIFUL 😍 wish we had them here😀
I know Costa Rico Squirrels eat a different diet with lots of fruit, much different than ours here in the US.

I believe it's good to continue Esbilac as long as you can.

Does she seem to be in any pain possibly the reason for her crying or just lonesome for her mom🤷
I put safe small stuffed animals with mine, nothing with button glass plastic eyes.

Hopefully others will have ideas 💡

Diet I found:
(Its diet consists mostly of leaves and fruits, but it also eats insects and bird eggs. It is known to break open twigs that contain ant larvae to eat them. It can eat fruits much bigger than itself, such as mangoes, jackfruit, or coconuts)

Chirps
10-13-2022, 08:36 AM
Hi and welcome!

If you go to the Breed Specific section of this site, there are two threads on caring for plantain squirrels. It mentions their greater consumption of fruit, so the banana mix-in sounds like a good idea. I just glanced over it, but if you read those postings hopefully you should get good info. And yes they do eat less being smaller. I think 2.5 ml is spot on if I remember right. Read the postings and come back with any other questions you may have, and hopefully an expert can offer more guidance.

Also, if you can, we LOVE pictures! They are also helpful in assessing condition, etc.

Thanks for caring for Coco, and best wishes!

Charley Chuckles
10-13-2022, 08:45 AM
Thanks Chirps I forgot about that thread.
They are amazing squirrels and the part about not wanting to be alone and they cry I think it's what's going on with Coco 👍

CritterMom
10-13-2022, 08:53 AM
First, I am terribly jealous.

I usually try to keep babies in relatively dim light if I can - simply because that is what a squirrel nest provides. Also, babies found that have their eyes open are a lot more difficult to get nursing well - you just have to persist. They KNOW what mama looks like and you aren't even close! Try holding her in a loosely wrapped blanket or towel to feed and pull part of it up over her head so her eyes are covered - sometimes that helps, and once they get used to YOU and the new tasting food, they usually give in and start eating well.

Can you get your hands on a gram scale? Knowing her weight will tell you how much she SHOULD be eating, and will allow you to monitor her weight to ensure she is gaining daily (and that you are increasing the amount properly).

Coco_Bali
10-14-2022, 04:14 AM
Thank you everyone for all the kind messages. It’s such a relief she can have banana in her diet and a more fruit based and insect diet is much easier here.

Reading the plantain squirrel threads has been amazing and informative (and stress relieving 😅)

Coco is already putting on weight, which is great.

She’s 54 grams and I’m still trying to guesstimate her age, she looked much smaller than her siblings from what I saw of them.


And photos of course! 323366323367323368323369