Balancing Calcium and Phosphorus ratios

[Little girls mom]

Where do i find a list that tells what foods (veggies) are calcium and which ones are Phosphorus? How do i know how to balance the calcium to phosphorus ratios? And how many times a week can they have the veggies that are NOT in Group 1 and Group 2? Example grape tomatoes and sugar snap peas. I havn't given little girl any nuts or fruit yet. She still drinks her fox valley 20/50 3 times a day from a saucer and has 2-3 henry's blocks a day plus romaine,cauliflower,broccoli,cabbage,brussel sprouts. She has a mushroom zucchini grape tomatoes sugar snap peas carrot about 2-3 times a week. She don't care for sweet potatoe,bok choy,red cabbage or radicchio or any lettuce but romaine. She is getting bored with her veggies. She wont touch them when i first put them out, then she eats most of them but not all. She just acts like she is wanting something else. Any suggestions on what i am feeding OR what else to try with her? And she does have water in a saucer also because she doesn't like a water tube. Thanks for any and all advice. She is 5 mths old and weighs 365 grams. She started out at 66 grams at 5-6 wks old. She has out of cage time everyday. at least an hour 2 x a day. Her cage is 5x6x7 ft. She has just started pacing back and forth on one side of her cage and even when she has out of cage time she will get out of the cage and run around but go back in the cage and pace. What can i do to help her with this?? Thank you all.

[CritterMom]

Where do i find a list that tells what foods (veggies) are calcium and which ones are Phosphorus? How do i know how to balance the calcium to phosphorus ratios? And how many times a week can they have the veggies that are NOT in Group 1 and Group 2? Example grape tomatoes and sugar snap peas. I havn't given little girl any nuts or fruit yet. She still drinks her fox valley 20/50 3 times a day from a saucer and has 2-3 henry's blocks a day plus romaine,cauliflower,broccoli,cabbage,brussel sprouts. She has a mushroom zucchini grape tomatoes sugar snap peas carrot about 2-3 times a week. She don't care for sweet potatoe,bok choy,red cabbage or radicchio or any lettuce but romaine. She is getting bored with her veggies. She wont touch them when i first put them out, then she eats most of them but not all. She just acts like she is wanting something else. Any suggestions on what i am feeding OR what else to try with her? And she does have water in a saucer also because she doesn't like a water tube. Thanks for any and all advice. She is 5 mths old and weighs 365 grams. She started out at 66 grams at 5-6 wks old. She has out of cage time everyday. at least an hour 2 x a day. Her cage is 5x6x7 ft. She has just started pacing back and forth on one side of her cage and even when she has out of cage time she will get out of the cage and run around but go back in the cage and pace. What can i do to help her with this?? Thank you all.

Go to post #17 in this thread: http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/s...sphorus-Ratios

Ideally, the total daily food intake should be approximately 2:1 calciumhosphorus. Most foods have both minerals in them. That means you CAN feed higher phosphorus foods as long as they are fed in conjunction with higher calcium foods - you are going for a balance.

The HHBs are fortified higher than the 2:1 ration for the express purpose of balancing some of the higher phosphorus foods we feed. Many have vital nutrients in them that are GOOD for squirrels, so you don't want to never feed them; you just don't want to ONLY feed them. They allow you to not obsess quite as much about the whole 2:1 ratio. I feed sugar snaps every day - Mister P would kill me in my sleep if I didn't.

You don't have to be quite as crazed a Food Nazi when they are eating the HHBs. You don't want to also feed gobs and gobs of super high phosphorus food like corn and pine nuts but as long as you use a little common sense, you will be fine. When you see people that come on the board with MBD squirrels, they have normally been weaned off their formula (which is properly balanced) onto a diet devoid of blocks. Worse, if you walk into a pet store or even purchase from an exotics food site and buy "squirrel food" it is frequently made from corn and sunflower seeds which are two of the really bad high phosphorus foods. Squirrels may LIKE them - like a child may LIKE ice cream, but that doesn't mean it is all they should eat!

[Little girls mom]

Go to post #17 in this thread: http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/s...sphorus-Ratios

Ideally, the total daily food intake should be approximately 2:1 calciumhosphorus. Most foods have both minerals in them. That means you CAN feed higher phosphorus foods as long as they are fed in conjunction with higher calcium foods - you are going for a balance.

The HHBs are fortified higher than the 2:1 ration for the express purpose of balancing some of the higher phosphorus foods we feed. Many have vital nutrients in them that are GOOD for squirrels, so you don't want to never feed them; you just don't want to ONLY feed them. They allow you to not obsess quite as much about the whole 2:1 ratio. I feed sugar snaps every day - Mister P would kill me in my sleep if I didn't.

You don't have to be quite as crazed a Food Nazi when they are eating the HHBs. You don't want to also feed gobs and gobs of super high phosphorus food like corn and pine nuts but as long as you use a little common sense, you will be fine. When you see people that come on the board with MBD squirrels, they have normally been weaned off their formula (which is properly balanced) onto a diet devoid of blocks. Worse, if you walk into a pet store or even purchase from an exotics food site and buy "squirrel food" it is frequently made from corn and sunflower seeds which are two of the really bad high phosphorus foods. Squirrels may LIKE them - like a child may LIKE ice cream, but that doesn't mean it is all they should eat!

Thank you CritterMom for the advice. I just had to laugh when you said Mister P would kill you in your sleep if you didn't feed sugar snaps everyday!! So funny!! lol So how often would be ok to give say walnuts or some fruit? I am scared she wont want anything else when i start nuts or fruit. lol Any suggestions maybe on her pacing?? She looks like she is trying to get out but her cage door is open when she does this also. Thanks again so very much!

[CritterMom]

The pacing with the door open is a new one! It is normally a sign that they want out, but I also believe that young squirrels will do this to simply burn off energy. Sometimes, just moving things around in the cage will help. Try placing something right in the middle of her pacing spot so she can't go back and forth. When my guy was young, I had him in a huge enclosure in my basement and he used to pace all the time. When I built an enclosure for him upstairs in my guest room, it was set up very similarly to what he had downstairs and is also huge, but when he got in that cage he abruptly stopped pacing and has never done it since. I am not sure why he did it downstairs and don't know why he stopped! I can only assume he liked his new digs upstairs better...or he grew out of it.

I feed the blocks in the morning, along with a bunch of veggies. When I am home during the day he gets out several times and regards MY bedroom as his. When he is in there he gets more veggies and I will cut wither a half an almond or a half a hazelnut into teeny little fragments and hide them around the room to hunt down. I prefer almonds and hazelnuts because their calcium to phosphorus rate is the most favorable of all the nuts.

When I return him to his cage in the evening I usually give him either a hickory nut or a little less frequently, a black walnut. They are not quite as healthy as the almonds and hazelnuts but I consider their ridiculously hard shells to be invaluable for keeping his teeth worn down and I am confident enough of the rest of his diet that I trade away the ca : ph rate for the benefits of the super hard shell. By evening, his HHBs are long gone so I don't need to worry about him not eating them because he has a nut.

I feed almost no fruit at all because he doesn't particularly like it! If I could buy ONE strawberry, or a half dozen blueberries I would but typically he will eat one or two when I buy them and then turn his nose up at the rest!

[Little girls mom]

The pacing with the door open is a new one! It is normally a sign that they want out, but I also believe that young squirrels will do this to simply burn off energy. Sometimes, just moving things around in the cage will help. Try placing something right in the middle of her pacing spot so she can't go back and forth. When my guy was young, I had him in a huge enclosure in my basement and he used to pace all the time. When I built an enclosure for him upstairs in my guest room, it was set up very similarly to what he had downstairs and is also huge, but when he got in that cage he abruptly stopped pacing and has never done it since. I am not sure why he did it downstairs and don't know why he stopped! I can only assume he liked his new digs upstairs better...or he grew out of it.

I feed the blocks in the morning, along with a bunch of veggies. When I am home during the day he gets out several times and regards MY bedroom as his. When he is in there he gets more veggies and I will cut wither a half an almond or a half a hazelnut into teeny little fragments and hide them around the room to hunt down. I prefer almonds and hazelnuts because their calcium to phosphorus rate is the most favorable of all the nuts.

When I return him to his cage in the evening I usually give him either a hickory nut or a little less frequently, a black walnut. They are not quite as healthy as the almonds and hazelnuts but I consider their ridiculously hard shells to be invaluable for keeping his teeth worn down and I am confident enough of the rest of his diet that I trade away the ca : ph rate for the benefits of the super hard shell. By evening, his HHBs are long gone so I don't need to worry about him not eating them because he has a nut.

I feed almost no fruit at all because he doesn't particularly like it! If I could buy ONE strawberry, or a half dozen blueberries I would but typically he will eat one or two when I buy them and then turn his nose up at the rest!

At what age can they start having nuts in the shell and where do you buy yours? I give her oak branches, deer antler but she acts as if she is tired of those and hasn't been shredding branches like she normally has. This concerns me because i know she needs to be chewing on wood and such. I havn't been able to open the file you told me to go too.

[Little girls mom]

I did get the file to open finally. Thanks for that link CritterMom!!