My 1.5 year old female squirrel, Twiggy, has been acting weird for about 2 weeks now... with things escalating within the past few days. I have had Twiggy since October 2009, when I found her as a young one. She always been really playful and fun, but does not like to be held much at all. Lately, she hasn't been eating as much as usually and is really picky to what she eats. She even has left pecans sitting in her cage, untouched! Within the past few days I've noticed her breathing is a bit weird sometimes. Like, she will start breathing sort of heavy, when she hasn't even been running around, and rocking back and forth a little. Not to mention, she hasn't wanted to play hardly at all. She doesn't even come out the cage that much, even if I leave the door open, and she sleeps a LOT more. One more thing that is a little weird, but could just be squirrel nature, is the noises she's been making. She has never barked before, but since she's been acting weird she kinda has. It's not very loud, but she will sit in cage in a crouched position (on all fours), and bark/groan.
The only thing I could find with some of these symptoms was MBD, even though it seems this is usually found in baby squirrels.. but she doesn't seem to be in much pain or have much soreness which is one of the main symptoms. I've attempted to up her calcium intake just in case, but like I said she isn't eating as much. My parent's say they think she is in heat, but I've read that it usually only last 1-5 days.. and it's been at least a week. Does anyone have any ideas of what could be wrong?
I hate seeing her like this!