[SIZE=2]Hi everyone! I'm AJ and I live in Malaysia with my family and we're from New Zealand We recently found a pair of baby squirrels. An American pal said that one of her friends used this site for help on squirrel raising so she thought it would be good for me to join to help me out ☺️
So the story... last week, on Nov 1, we found a baby squirrel in our backyard in the morning. It had no injuries, only cold and quiet. We warmed it up and gave it some rehydration fluids. We tried to reunite it with the Mom but she didn't turn up. In the evening, we found another sibling close by! I found some good websites to help and we've had experience handraising kittens/puppies/a rat before so that helped. They were fully furred, two bottom teeth there, but no eyes open so around 4 weeks. We kept them on the fluids to boost them up.
I contacted the local wildlife center, and they said they'd come by to pick them up before the weekend. But come Friday evening, they didn't contact us. So we bought some puppy formula made from goat's milk for them, and they loved it! We did it gradually so no diarrhea or bloating.
They did well over the weekend, and we fed them every 3 hours (thru the night too), about 2.5ml, also stimulating them for bathroom, and keeping them warm in a shoebox. They weighed about 50 grams when we first got them, but they're around 100 grams now. They opened their eyes this week, and growing really fast! They're drinking about 4ml and 1-2ml for alternating feeds, and wanting to play more. We've called them Dek (male) and ChiChi (female). We think they're grey-bellied squirrels, as we'd seen a pair running around our garden for the past few months... But we've not seen the pair in the past two weeks :/
I called the wildlife center again on Monday, and they said they should pick them up later that day.... Unfortunately, it's already Friday (Nov 9), and I've not heard back from them. They do pick up critters, as we rescued a baby civet cat a couple years back and the wildlife center did come and pick it up within 3 days. They may not be interested in a pair of squirrels as they are common here, and on the menu in some South East Asia countries around here, and the wildlife people are pretty busy running around for endangered species. I might call them again on Monday and see if they'll come, or we can find a way to drop them off at the center if the wildlife people would accept them.
I don't want to keep them as pets because I've seen the articles, and it's not a good idea at all (I have cats and dogs too... So they wouldn't probably get along). We're doing our best to find an expert who can take them... but I'm sure if we will. In that case, we might have to try to rehabilitate them for release.
So the wildlife people decide if they can take them, here are my questions!
1) I think they're ready for solid food now as they're around 5/6 weeks, but I don't know if I should give them the petshop rodent food, as they won't find those sort of nuts and fruit here in the tropics. The web also said they ate insects... The squirrel pair ate bananas and their blossoms, palm fruit, and figs, all from trees in my backyard. Should I start them off with tropical fruit and the fruit in my backyard? Or should I use the petshop one? Would mealworms be okay for them?
2)At the moment, I'm keeping the shoebox in a cat carrier to keep them safe. When should I upgrade them from their shoebox to a cage to live in? Also would it be okay to give them sticks from my garden to climb on sometime?
3) Does the goat's milk formula I'm using have enough nutrition for them?
Nutrition info per 100 ml:
Kcal - 460
Protein - 22.3g
Fat - 18.5g
Carbohydrate - 51g
Calcium - 885mg
Iron - 1.1mg
Vit A - 540 IU
Vit b1 - 0.1mg
Vit B2 - 0.2mg
Sodium - 225mg
Potassium - 117mg
Also I've read they need a rodent block, but I've only be able to find "nutrition blocks" for sugar gliders. Is this the same thing?
4) When would we be able to stretch the time between feedings? And during the night?
Any other information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!
I'll post up some pics later.
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