Appropriate weight?

[Legomom]

Christine is appoximately 6 months old & weighs 13 oz. She is an Eastern Grey, non-releasable. Any idea if this weight is good or does she need to be fattened up a bit? She's eating well, but seems kind of 'lean' to me & my mom.

[Anne]

That seems like a all right weight to me.
28 grams to an ounce, 28X13=364 grams.
364 grams is not a bad weight for a squirrel her age. If she is eating well, playing, and happy-I won't worry. After all she isn't able to build muscle with her mobility problems. You can always increase her volume of food a tiny bit. If she leaves food uneaten then she's getting too much tinfoil .
One of my year+ female squirrels weighed 682 grams when she was weighed at the vet's. The vet called her-"hefty" . You sure don't want her to look like Flower did before the diet!

[Tomo]

Don't most Eastern Grays weigh around one pound (16 oz). Perhaps she is a bit lighter because she has not gained muscle mass since she is less active than a releasable squirrel? Maybe now that she's moving around better, she will build up her muscle, which may add weight to her. Just a thought.

[Anne]

Oh-Oh, according to 4skewrlz 1-pound equals 450grams. Good thing Flower went on that diet

[4skwerlz]

Oh-Oh, according to 4skewrlz 1-pound equals 450grams. Good thing Flower went on that diet

1 pound = 453.59 grams

I usually say "around" 450 grams 'cuz it's easier to remember.

Henry Monster (he's 1 year, 3 mos old) weighed around 512 grams last time.... (Then I caught him reading an article on "How to Lose 20 Grams in 7 Days!" Silly boy.)

I always figure they should look about like a healthy wild squirrel in your area, or maybe just a tad bigger and sleeker.

[Sciurus1]

As noted in the book ** North American Tree Squirrels, by Drs. Steele, and Koprowski, E. Gray squirrels range in weight from (300-710) gm). I found another notation from another source that stated that E. Gray's weigh from (400-700). Personally, I would go with this first range. The wide range of weight listed is because the Northern and Southern subspecies are of different sizes, the ones in the North being larger than those found in the South.

Also noted in the book ** NATS, there are five subspecies belonging to the Eastern Gray Squirrel species (Sciurus Carolinensis), two of them in the North, and three in the South. From the range map of the five subspecies of the E. Gray Squirrel, made by Dr. Steele, printed in this book, I will do my best here to relate the location of each of the five subspecies noted therein. S. c. hypophaeus, is found in the western area around the Great Lake region and from there NW into Canada. S.c. pennsylvanicus is found east and south of the Great Lakes, to the border of the S.c. carolinensis territory, and east to Atlantic Seaboard, and north from there into parts of Southern Canada. S. c. extimus is found in the southern tip of the Florida pennisula and then the largest group. S. c. carolinensis inhabits the territory from the northern border of S.c. Extimus range in Southern Pennisular Florida, west to E. Texas, and north into southeastern NE, as well as east to the northern and eastern boarders of KY. and south to the NE corner of GA. and East to the Atlantic coast, and north along the Atlantic Coastal plain States including Eastern VA. . From the southwest boarder of it's range, S.c. fuliginosus, is found along the Gulf Coast plain from the heel of LA. to, and including the Panhandle area of Florida. I saw in a couple of websites online, that a sixth subspecies, S.c. matecumbei, was included in the list of subspecies for the Eastern Gray Squirrel, noted as having been found in Dade Co., Florida. I do not know the full extent of it's range as yet, or why it was not acknowledged as being a subspecies of the E. Gray squirrel, by Drs. Steele's and Koprowski in their book, but I will ask Dr. Steele about that in the near future, seeing he was nice enough to answer my questions on Fox Squirrels in the past. I highly recommend this **book that Dr. Steele has coauthored with Dr. Koprowski, NORTH AMERICAN TREE SQUIRRELS; it is a great book to have as a reference on N.A. Tree Squirrels.