Getting some weight on a skinny squirrel

[LaShae1995]

Hello everyone again. I have three squirrels Mikasa, Mr Q, and Crow. They are about 6 months old and was about to be released. The cage is so close to being done it isn't funny but I wanna get crows weight uo before release. Here are their weights.

Mikasa a female the biggest 591 grams
Mr Q a boy second biggest 545
And little Crow a boy smallest 453

The other two are feel like a healthy hand full of squirrel especially Mikasa (Meek) but Crow feels so skinny like a little bean pole. I have been feeding the adult rat food and healthy salads every night. The other three counting Sandy is doing so good so I honestly don't know why he would be so skinny. He is a very active boy so make it takes a higher quality food to keep him at his best? I also been feeding him special avacodo pecan balls every night. They don't have many pecans in them just enough so he is sure to eat it all. �� but still he skinny. If yall have any advice if appreciate it. Thank you.

P.S. I checked his teeth to my best ability and the seem fine ill have my sister to check them she knows more about that.

[LaShae1995]

He now seems to be doing better. I have been taking all three out and watching each of them eat so I can insure they all have their fill. I also give them less salads and fruits becuase I noticed they were getting upset tummies. Crow also had somehow injured his tail which I think lead him to be more sluggish and he probaly just didn't feel like competing for all the food he needed. His tail is now healed but it does have a bump where the tail had been broken. I still have no idea how he did that. He can still hold it up just fine and is back to his mischievous self. The cage we are building is now almost fully re-assembled and is in the woods. They will be getting into their release cage hopefully at least by the end of August or beginning of September. I'll also feed and water and care for them till they are 100% capable. We also installed a live feed security camera to help with watching for predator. When I say we tried to go all out on this cage I mean it. No corners were cut and any security we could add was added. I just hope they have happy long little lives. They are our babies. 🐿💕

[LittlestMonster]

I raised and released four squirrels this year. Rocket, Drax, and Yondu were from one litter, and Nebula from another. Nebula was the oldest by a couple weeks, and Yondu was the runt. They were raised together and fed the same. Weight gain was steady for all of them until about the 8-10 week mark. Then, even though she was older and bigger, Nebula didn’t fatten up the same as The Littles. She stayed slim and sleek, no matter what foods I gave or in what amounts. She still grew and was active & healthy, but she was never a butterball. On the other end of the spectrum, Rocketman was a little fattie. I fretted over Nebula for a time and watched for signs of bully behavior from the others. I didn’t see anything and finally just accepted it. She was the most active of the four, the nest builder when they were in the release cage, and she just stayed slim.

[Tashahaven]

I can’t wait to see this cage you speak of!! I hope you share photos!! It sounds amazing! Feel free to even share pics of the process…I know many folks would be extremely grateful to see it being built, being re-assembled, having finishing touches put on it! I know I would!

I’m happy to hear his tail has healed. That’s great news. Hopefully he starts putting on weight at a more satisfactory rate. You were probably smart to allow them “alone time” to enjoy their meal undisturbed. Lol

I had a couple cameras inside the room where I overwintered a baby for 7 months, and I’ve used them outside to watch and keep an eye out for predators, but also just to be able to check in on my lovelies whenever I wanted to see how they were adapting. It’s a great idea! With how cheap cameras are these days, everyone should do it. There are so many funny things they may or may not do when you are physically around, but you can watch and enjoy from the cameras. 🤗🥰

[LaShae1995]

I can’t wait to see this cage you speak of!! I hope you share photos!! It sounds amazing! Feel free to even share pics of the process…I know many folks would be extremely grateful to see it being built, being re-assembled, having finishing touches put on it! I know I would!

I’m happy to hear his tail has healed. That’s great news. Hopefully he starts putting on weight at a more satisfactory rate. You were probably smart to allow them “alone time” to enjoy their meal undisturbed. Lol

I had a couple cameras inside the room where I overwintered a baby for 7 months, and I’ve used them outside to watch and keep an eye out for predators, but also just to be able to check in on my lovelies whenever I wanted to see how they were adapting. It’s a great idea! With how cheap cameras are these days, everyone should do it. There are so many funny things they may or may not do when you are physically around, but you can watch and enjoy from the cameras. ����


I will definitely share the photos of the cage! I agree about the cameras I love them. We got the ebitcam from amazon it does require a subscription but it's pretty cheap I think like 15.00 a month and it has a spot light you can turn on or off and infrared. It's pretty cool. I also got a swing to put in the cage so I can sit in there with them. I am hoping they'll come back to hang out sometimes but who knows.

Oh and new weights are ... Mikasa 594, Mr Q 600 and Crow 516 (grams)

[LaShae1995]

Here is some pictures of the cage so far. Please let me know what yall think 🙂

[Tashahaven]

Ummmm…

OMG! You were NOT kidding!!! You guys SERIOUSLY WENT ALL OUT! Above and beyond!!! WOOOOOW!

I am without words! (Which if you read ANY OTHER posts of mine… is basically impossible!!)

That is an extremely impressive, very well built cage! Holy moly!

however you DO realize “if you build it…they will come” 😬

You will forever be a “rehabber” now! Intentional or not. Hehe 🥰🥰

[Tashahaven]

Don’t forget to build the “airlock”/vestibule with second door! All the time, work & love you have put into building that enclosure & raising your beautiful healthy squirrel, it would be devastatingly heartbreaking if he escaped/released himself before ready!!

It is difficult to tell from the photos…what size hardware cloth did you use? What sort of predators are in the area? If you have racoons they have those crafty little hands. Make sure the HC spacing isn’t enough they can reach their hands through and get your squirrel.

If you have any critters coming by at night (on camera), I suggest putting a solar security light on each side. HFT has cheap ones, that stick on (or you can screw on), put them down lower, like on the plywood wall part below the HC, they work great, are bright, motion activated, and by putting them lower they are less likely to disturb your sleeping squirrel, but should help potentially deter/alarm/scare off the critter.

Are you planning to overwinter your squee out there?

[LaShae1995]

airlock”/vestibule with second door. By this u mean the door for them to go in and out correct?
If so I'm doing that part last becuase I am still thinking about the best way of doing it. We have a hole saw I guess u call it which makes a perfect circle hole in wood I'm thinking about doing that route and making the doors so I can close them. It's hardwood cloth is I wanna say 1/4 x 1/2 if I remember correctly I can post a pic I got it from amazon. Thanks for the nice comment we are all very pleased with it I hope these storms don't blow a.tree down on it though that would suck. I took sandy out to play in today she's my little baby. She loved it! She's about a year or two now so she's fully grown you can tell more about the cage when you see her in it.


Oh and the camera I have has a built in spot light but that's also a great idea it would save the cameras battery.

Also we have so many predators it's crazy everything from a Raccoon to Panthers...

[LaShae1995]

Here is the wire

[Tashahaven]

The “airlock/vestibule” is one of the most crucial parts of the outdoor RC.

it is built around the outside of the full sized man door, you use for entering and exiting the enclosure. It is built the same way, with HC, and has a SECOND man door on the outside of it, and it just big enough so you can open the outer door, enter the “vestibule”, close the outer door, then open the main inner door into the RC.

This will prevent sweet sandy from being able to accidentally slip out and escape while entering/exiting the enclosure. They ARE all hoodinis! Lol

With this vestibule, you can always make sure she is safely inside the main cage, before exiting yourself. If she does get through the first door, she won’t be able to “hard release” herself!

There are tons of photos for examples in the cages, nest boxes, release enclosures section. 🙂

[Tashahaven]

A lot of folks that have as many predators as you have, put up a secondary layer of protection around the cage. I’ve seen many of them use chain link fencing panels.

You or a neighbor might even have some laying around you could use?

[LaShae1995]

Oh yes we are gonna build the second cage but we don't have enough supplies to go all around it so it has to be like this for a while. I maxed out my credit card just to do this lol. It will have the "room" thing like your talking about but just smaller scale. Right now I use a carrier to transfer them and I go inside the cage and shut the door before letting them out.

[Tashahaven]

That’s good! Glad to hear there is a plan in place.

If they are only out there sometimes right now, that works perfect. It becomes more of a concern when they are out there 24/7 for soft release. 🥰🥰