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Thread: My NR is still overweight, I think.

  1. #1
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    Default My NR is still overweight, I think.

    So I have had a hard time finding something to weigh her with. Came up with a solution on my own that I don't believe anyone else has thought of yet, maybe some folks might want to switch to this method…

    Anyway, I purchased a portable luggage weight calculator thing, it's basically just a little plastic handle with an on button and a digital display to tell you the numeric weight, and attached below is a little strip of fabric with a clasp that you can loop around a luggage handle and hook back onto the weight calculator in order to see how much something ways. So obviously the squirrel won't stay still for this. So I put her in a lingerie bag and hooked that to the luggage weight calculator and finally managed to get repeated consistent weight readings.

    She's 1.26lb. I'm gonna post some pictures too. She seems to have gotten fatter since I reduced her nut intake and she's also gotten rather obnoxious around food. Grunting and swatting and stuff. I can still hold her in my hands as she eats and tickle her belly and pet or kiss her head but she grunts her little "disturbed noises" the whole time. Even when I give her food and leave her alone in the cage I can hear her grunting from across the room. Not sure if it's something I should be concerned about or not.

    Anyway I thought one pound was a good healthy weight. But she's 1/4 over that and very round.

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  3. #2
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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    She doesn’t look exceptionally fat to me. I’m not sure what the average weight is for northern squirrels, though.

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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mel1959 View Post
    She doesn’t look exceptionally fat to me. I’m not sure what the average weight is for northern squirrels, though.

    I agree, she looks healthy to me too. MoB, our NYC squirrels are normally about 450-550g, which would be right in her range, plus a few more grams in the winter. (Her body responds to the light outdoors as far as fur density and body weight, not necessarily what you feed her or the temperature of her room.) The grunting behavior is what squirrels who are wilding up do. They become extremely posessive of their foods and will sit there muching on a nut, complaining loudly to whomever that they'd better not come near.
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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    She looks fine to me too (but I'm no expert). My little bud's weight fluctuates between 650 - 680 grams, which is ~1.43 lb. And I feel like he needs to fatten up even more. He still looks smaller / less filled than the wilds that we have in our backyard.
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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    Ok thanks everyone

    Quote Originally Posted by island rehabber View Post

    I agree, she looks healthy to me too. MoB, our NYC squirrels are normally about 450-550g, which would be right in her range, plus a few more grams in the winter. (Her body responds to the light outdoors as far as fur density and body weight, not necessarily what you feed her or the temperature of her room.) The grunting behavior is what squirrels who are wilding up do. They become extremely posessive of their foods and will sit there muching on a nut, complaining loudly to whomever that they'd better not come near.
    Uh oh wilding up. She better unwild herself. Lmao complaining loudly. I mean she just grunts and doesn't really do anything about me or the dogs coming around. Like I said I hold her and pet her while she's grumbling. Do you think I need to worry about her wanting to be released? I mean she can't with her teeth the way they are.

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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    Looks like she is peeing in the second picture.
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    Smile Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    OMGOSH that face...and belly. She looks like she's gonna be a handful.
    When mine wilded up, and I wasn't sure if he was going to attack my hand when I opened the door to put out food, so I trained him to jump "up" onto a chair by tapping the window, then I'd place his boo ball on the ground and praise him. Now he LOves the trick. If I just put the food on the ground first, he'll still jump on the chair, like c'mon mom, I want to do my trick.

    I might give her distance since she seems to be to communicating that she'd like it, at least around mealtime during this high hormone season. It's Really depressing when they decide to attack, so if you can do anything to prevent her from feeling she needs to, I might.

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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    She looks fine to me. Although that face is saying.... what are you doing mom?
    See my wild squirrel adventures in the thread "Squirtle's yard!":
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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    Quote Originally Posted by Buddy View Post
    Looks like she is peeing in the second picture.
    That's the handle of the washer machine. Hadnt noticed that it could look like a wee.

    Quote Originally Posted by sundoesshine View Post
    OMGOSH that face...and belly. She looks like she's gonna be a handful.

    I might give her distance since she seems to be to communicating that she'd like it, at least around mealtime during this high hormone season. It's Really depressing when they decide to attack, so if you can do anything to prevent her from feeling she needs to, I might.
    😮 What about the face and belly? And I will probably get chewed out by you guys pretty hard for this... but I made the video earlier today before reading this just to demonstrate her behavior... it's me definitely not giving her space >.< I agree it would be horrible for her to start biting. But she seems to just grumble and quiets down when I pet and kiss her as she's eating. I know everyone will probably lecture that I shouldn't put my face so close especially when food is involved but she steals food from my mouth, I give treats from my mouth, and gives kisses on command (did twice in the video here even with an almond in her mouth) so I really don't fear her the way most people probably feel I should.

    https://imgur.com/a/ZhnHSWH


    Quote Originally Posted by TubeDriver View Post
    She looks fine to me. Although that face is saying.... what are you doing mom?
    Yea lol that's the "stop taking pictures of my privates for your crazy squirrel friends on the internet and feed me" face lol

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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    Quote Originally Posted by MotherOfBadgers View Post
    😮 What about the face and belly?
    ...so I really don't fear her the way most people probably feel I should.
    https://imgur.com/a/ZhnHSWH
    That face and belly are just so cuute is all ! Our interaction with our jr. was exactly the same and I miss it so much. Hopefully your girl will remain friendly as she won't have the outdoors to trigger the wild in her.

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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    Quote Originally Posted by sundoesshine View Post
    That face and belly are just so cuute is all ! Our interaction with our jr. was exactly the same and I miss it so much. Hopefully your girl will remain friendly as she won't have the outdoors to trigger the wild in her.
    Ab ok. Thank you. She's so cute it's disgusting. And she hates the outdoors. Most spoiled pet I've ever had lol.

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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    I can't hear the video.
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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    Quote Originally Posted by Chirps View Post
    I can't hear the video.
    Hard to see as it blends in to the background, but the audio icon is in the upper right hand corner...

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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    Quote Originally Posted by MotherOfBadgers View Post
    Sooo cute!!
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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    As far as aggressive behavior about her food, do not feed her by hand, but place her food in a non plastic or non-metal dish in her enclosure and don't handle her while she is eating. Also, don't allow her to take nuts or other food outside of her enclosure; for then they become her personal stash, that squirrels protect out of their innate survival instinct.
    .
    Last edited by TubeDriver; 02-24-2021 at 07:09 AM.

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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    Quote Originally Posted by Diggie's Friend View Post
    As far as aggressive behavior about her food, do not feed her by hand, but place her food in a non plastic or non-metal dish in her enclosure and don't handle her while she is eating. Also, don't allow her to take nuts or other food outside of her enclosure; for then they become her personal stash, that squirrels protect out of their innate survival instinct.
    .
    Thanks for the advice. Could you elaborate a bit more on why I should not feed her by hand at all? Usually I will give her three Henry's blocks and the first one I gave her from my fingers through the cage bars and the last two I drop into her food Hamic and whenever I give her a nut it's always, now, a treat so I give it from my hand after I give her a kiss on the fore head

  29. #17
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    Default Re: My NR is still overweight, I think.

    That isn't what I'm referring to here. Some have this problem some don't, yet their instinct to dominate the food supply is common to their species. Kind of like chickens, they also have a pecking order. When you give a squirrel food through the bars they cannot demand food using aggression, as the cage doesn't allow them to. Squirrels fed outside of their enclosure come to rely upon being hand fed; yet they are fed by hand without bars between, it may be a different story. They may react to those in a family that they aren't bonded with, and see them as unwanted intruders into their space, which is anywhere they are fed, or bury nuts given to them.

    As a friend told me, their squirrel became very agitated, even scratch and nipped her husband prior to hand feeding ceasing. Upon putting this change in place, their squirrel no longer attacked their husband, as they i.e. took back the dominance of the rest of their home by not offering food other than in their squirrels nesting cage.

    Nuts with squirrels are objects of contention; to squirrels nuts are their top survival food source. Nothing brings out the, 'Nut monster' like nuts fed by hand; this especially when they either want more when you don't offer more.

    Our other girl squirrel housed in a separate enclosure I didn't teach this to, and it was she that popped me when I offered her a 2nd piece of a wild food source I had given, as that was how I hand fed our first girl. Yet with our first girl unlike the 2nd, she was taught first by her sibling that took walnuts right out of her mouth, that he was dominant; I just continued this so she wouldn't become dominant and aggressive, and it worked. She protested verbally, but never bit me over a nut being taken away then given back to her. It's no use though trying to enforce it with a squirrel that sees themselves as dominant over you from hand feeding them nuts. as they will will fight you over nuts. Best just to give them their space while eating,

    Magnesium deficiency in the diet can lend to agitation. When the same squirrel's diet was raised in magnesium the agitation lower, as magnesium is the calming mineral. Magnesium Threonate is a form that crosses the blood brain barrier is perhaps the best choice to add to the diet to bring the whole diet ratio of Calcium to Magnesium up to (3:1): it was this same ratio that a study in rats found increased bone density.

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