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Thread: Raising 3 little girls. Worried about one of them.

  1. #1
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    Default Raising 3 little girls. Worried about one of them.

    This is our 5th batch of squirrels my husband and I have nursed/rehabbed and released over the last five years.

    Our current patients are three little baby girls, who we have had for almost two weeks now. Currently, they are about 5-6 weeks old. Up until yesterday, they have all been doing well ... eating 4 cc's of formula every 4 hours, crawling around, two of them have started climbing and checking out their cage. However, yesterday, one of them didn't eat very well. She had her 4 cc's of milk at 7 am, then at 11 am feeding she didn't want anything, struggled with her to eventually eat about 2 cc's. At 5 pm, she ate maybe 1 cc, but at the 9:30 pm feeding I couldn't get her interested in the milk at all. She seemed to have some diarrhea, so I thought maybe she was dehydrated and mixed up a batch of the sugar/salt water. She drank 2 cc's of that before bed last night. This morning, she was back to eating her 4 cc's of milk and had normal poop, but at 11 am it was a struggle again to get her to eat 2 cc's. And she's rubbing off on the other two because they hardly wanted any of the milk either. And now one of them seems to have some diarrhea also.
    Is it a teething issue? I've been reading about this all night and all day today, trying to figure out if there is something more/better I can do for them. I found out through my research on this site to not feed them Esbilac, so I have ordered two pouches of the Fox Valley 20/50 formula. I paid for expedited shipping so I'm hoping it will be here really soon. Should I continue trying to get them to eat the Esbilac? Switch to the homemade goat milk recipe until the 20/50 arrives? Any advice would be appreciated.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Raising 3 little girls. Worried about one of them.

    Are you using the powdered Esbilac? What is the expiration date on the package? Do you keep the powder itself under refrigeration (good) or in the freezer (way better)?

    What do these babies weigh?

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Raising 3 little girls. Worried about one of them.

    So, here's how our 4:30 feeding went. All three ate 4 cc's of formula. They all pee'd afterwards and they all pooped. Pretty normal, a little soft but not diarrhea. I was not able to weigh them because they all scurried off to play. I will weigh them at tonight's feeding before they eat.

    I keep the can of Esbilac in the refrigerator, and make up a batch the night before for use the next day. The expiration date on the bottom of my can says July 2022.

    Maybe I've just gotten myself worked up over nothing, and all the little squirrels we raised before were just "easy" and we were lucky. Baby A was found with her eyes already open, but she's just not as active as the other two. Maybe it's just her personality.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Raising 3 little girls. Worried about one of them.

    Quote Originally Posted by tarynl519 View Post
    So, here's how our 4:30 feeding went. All three ate 4 cc's of formula. They all pee'd afterwards and they all pooped. Pretty normal, a little soft but not diarrhea. I was not able to weigh them because they all scurried off to play. I will weigh them at tonight's feeding before they eat.

    I keep the can of Esbilac in the refrigerator, and make up a batch the night before for use the next day. The expiration date on the bottom of my can says July 2022.

    Maybe I've just gotten myself worked up over nothing, and all the little squirrels we raised before were just "easy" and we were lucky. Baby A was found with her eyes already open, but she's just not as active as the other two. Maybe it's just her personality.

    As long as it's the powered Esbilac and in date I would keep them on it to transition to the FV20/50.
    I suspect they are not given enough time between feedings to process their meals, 5-6 week olds can go 4-5 hours
    in between feedings, I personally would move them to 5 hours apart. Nighttime/am feedings are not necessary at this
    age and they can go up 8 hours with being fed once at night and first thing in the morning.
    Knowing their weight is very important to be feeding between the recommended 5-7% which reflects the capacity of
    their stomach. Eyes open babies should also be introduced to a good quality rodent block as their first solid food.
    Step-N-Stone
    State Licensed
    Wildlife Master Rehabilitator


  5. #5
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    Default Re: Raising 3 little girls. Worried about one of them.

    Baby A = 95 grams or 3.4 oz
    Baby B = 107 grams or 3.8 oz
    Baby C = 103 grams or 3.6 oz

    Baby B and Baby C were really hungry this morning. They each ate 6 cc's of formula.
    Baby A ate about 4 cc's. All she really wanted to do was chow down and teethe on my thumb. I gave her a piece of broccoli stem to gnaw on and she left lots of little teeth marks on it. I didn't expect her to try to eat it or anything but it gave her something to do while I fed her sisters.

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