Henry's Healthy Blocks or Squirrel Diet for Itchy Skin

[Kmanhare]

Hello,

We have a little 10 month old grey squirrel that is going crazy with itchy ears. She scratches her ears and the skin behind her ears. I read that a lot of times itchy skin it's due to diet. We've been feeding her ground up Squirrel Diet by Exotic Nutrition mixed in with Banana Baby Food. She devours it! She also gets the Squirrel Calcium from Exotic Nutrition mixed in. She's been treated by the vet for her itchy ears with cleanings, and anti-biotics and Tresaderm. She also gets Revolution treatments. But she still scratches her ears.

I was wondering if maybe we need to try the Henry's Healthy Blocks. I thought the Squirrel Diet was a pretty well-rounded, nutritious food. But has anybody tried comparing the two foods?

Also has anyone tried putting MSM lotion on a squirrel?

Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you.

[stepnstone]

Hello,

We have a little 10 month old grey squirrel that is going crazy with itchy ears. She scratches her ears and the skin behind her ears. I read that a lot of times itchy skin it's due to diet. We've been feeding her ground up Squirrel Diet by Exotic Nutrition mixed in with Banana Baby Food. She devours it! She also gets the Squirrel Calcium from Exotic Nutrition mixed in. She's been treated by the vet for her itchy ears with cleanings, and anti-biotics and Tresaderm. She also gets Revolution treatments. But she still scratches her ears.

I was wondering if maybe we need to try the Henry's Healthy Blocks. I thought the Squirrel Diet was a pretty well-rounded, nutritious food. But has anybody tried comparing the two foods?

Also has anyone tried putting MSM lotion on a squirrel? Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you.

"Exotic Nutrition's Deluxe Squirrel Diet is a top of the line Squirrel diet manufactured with the freshest high-quality nuts...NO peanuts.
Includes walnuts, pecans, pistachios, almonds, Pumpkin seeds, dried fruits and high-protein pellets.
Squirrels go NUTS over this blend."

I bet squirrels do "go NUTS over this blend," is it healthy? No! Too many nuts rob the body of calcium.
Adding calcium to this mixture is pretty much useless, it's certainly not going to turn it into a healthy diet.
Henry's blocks were specifically developed for a squirrel's daily nutritional requirements, I wouldn't even try
to compare this garbage with Henry's blocks.

It appears you have covered a lot of other avenues with the itching ears which could be leaning to the diet.
Personally, I would change the diet.
I'm attaching the link below for the recommended healthy diet.
https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/...-Pet-Squirrels

[CritterMom]

Yeah, Exotic Nutrition's squirrel foods are pretty awful. I have purchased mealworms from them when I needed to buy in bulk but I would never feed their squirrel diets. Absolutely get the Henry's. Once he is on that you can stop giving additional calcium as well because you aren't having to try to make up for all the bad ingredients.

It is sort of like marketing "Excellent Child Chow" made from gummy worms, lollipops, peanut butter cups, pizza and Chicken McNuggets with "they love it!"

[Kmanhare]

Thank you Step-N-Stone and CritterMom! I've ordered some Henrys!

I'll do a follow-up and let you know how it goes. Again thanks for your experience and expertise!

KManhare

[CritterMom]

Your adorable baby is a fox squirrel, not a gray squirrel. That gorgeous peach colored tummy gives him away!

In addition to changing his diet, make sure there isn't anything in his environment that could be causing problems. No air fresheners, no heavily perfumed laundry soap on things in his area that you wash (or do a second wash with no soap after the first), etc. Itching is usually food related, not atmospheric, but no reason to take chances.

[Mel1959]

No, I would not use MSM on a squirrel. I think it’s too strong and don’t know that it’s safe.

Why did you want to use MSM? Where on the squirrel and for what?

Does your squirrel get around ok? Does he have any problems with his rear legs?

[Kmanhare]

Your adorable baby is a fox squirrel, not a gray squirrel. That gorgeous peach colored tummy gives him away!

In addition to changing his diet, make sure there isn't anything in his environment that could be causing problems. No air fresheners, no heavily perfumed laundry soap on things in his area that you wash (or do a second wash with no soap after the first), etc. Itching is usually food related, not atmospheric, but no reason to take chances.

Thank you so much for this information. So she is a fox squirrel... thank you! We are looking at how we wash what we put in her habitat.

Thank you, again!

KManhare

[Kmanhare]

No, I would not use MSM on a squirrel. I think it’s too strong and don’t know that it’s safe.

Why did you want to use MSM? Where on the squirrel and for what?

Does your squirrel get around ok? Does he have any problems with his rear legs?

Thank you for your reply. We thought of MSM because we know people that use it for skin issues for themselves and their pets.
But we are not going to go that route.

Yes, she does have problems with her rear legs. She fell out of a tree when she was about three months old. That's why we have her. The vet said that her spine is malformed and that is what is causing her difficulty in walking. We're not clear if that happened in the fall or if she was born with the malformation. She gets around, but she is slow.

Thank you again for your reply.

KManhare

[Kmanhare]

Update -
Thank you all for your help with this. Special thanks to Step-N-Stone and CritterMom for your recommendation of Henry's Healthy Blocks. We've had our little Fox Squirrel, named Autumn, on the Henry's Healthy blocks for a week. It is amazing the change we are seeing in her, and I'll get to that in a minute.

First, we had trouble getting her to eat the Henry's. I tried feeding her bits of a block. I tried this several times and she just would not eat it. So I ground it up and mixed it with some baby food. She loves this!! She's been eating it for a week.

The change we're seeing is mostly in her energy and her behavior. She's acting like a squirrel again. She has a lot more energy and is running around like a squirrel doing "squirrel things." She's slow, due to the injury in her spine. But she is definitely different since we took her off of Squirrel Diet and put her on Henry's Healthy Blocks. She is still itchy. But expect that that may calm down over time. We shall see. We're just so delighted in the change in her energy and behavior.

Thank you all, again.

KManhare

[CritterMom]

I am glad I re-read this. It is just around the ears that she does this? Squirrels use their back feet to clean their ears - they will insert the claw and toe deep into the eat canal to dig debris and stuff out. If your baby doesn't have good use of her hind legs I bet she lacks the dexterity to do this properly. Rear leg handicapped squirrels often have ear problems because of this.

Get the most gentle ear cleaner for puppies or kittens that you can find at the pet shop and start using it. Put a drop in each ear and then rub and work the ears around to get it all over in the ear canal. Most squirrels LOVE having this done. I would do it once a day for the first few days and see if she stops messing with her ears. If so, make sure you continue to do it a couple times a week - forever.