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Thread: Fat 8 week old grey

  1. #1
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    Default Fat 8 week old grey

    Just curious, my baby girl Reba is getting quite fat. She's active and plays, we take her out to play "jumping" several times a day, she's in a 3'x2'x6' cage and has lots of climbing toys. I'm feeding her according to the "Squirrel food pyramid" I found on this site, and she likes every food we give her. She's at 215 grams as of this morning, and takes 20ml of Esibilac 3 or 4 times a day, sometimes she doesn't want her noon feeding. Should I be concerned, or is a fat baby just a healthy baby? She seems in good health overall, and if she was a kitten I wouldn't be concerned, just want to make sure she will be in good shape for a Spring release.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Fat 8 week old grey

    Quote Originally Posted by Freja View Post
    Just curious, my baby girl Reba is getting quite fat. She's active and plays, we take her out to play "jumping" several times a day, she's in a 3'x2'x6' cage and has lots of climbing toys. I'm feeding her according to the "Squirrel food pyramid" I found on this site, and she likes every food we give her. She's at 215 grams as of this morning, and takes 20ml of Esibilac 3 or 4 times a day,
    sometimes she doesn't want her noon feeding. Should I be concerned,
    or is a fat baby just a healthy baby? She seems in good health overall, and if she was a kitten I wouldn't be concerned, just want to make sure she will be in good shape for a Spring release.
    With weight suggesting she could be somewhere around 7-8 weeks 3X a day is plenty, at 8 weeks she should be cut down to 2X.
    At 215 grams feeding recommended between the 5-7%, 7% of body weight would be 15cc's.
    How old is this baby?
    With following the food pyramid, what type rodent block are you feeding, HHB's or other?
    Step-N-Stone
    State Licensed
    Wildlife Master Rehabilitator


  3. Serious fuzzy thank you's to stepnstone from:

    Freja (10-15-2021)

  4. #3
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    Default Re: Fat 8 week old grey

    She's getting regular hard rodent block free fed, 1 henrys health block, red and green cabbage, organic white mushroom, a small piece of carrot, a dime sized piece of apple a day. She likes the hard blocks and eats bits all day long. She has oak and pine to gnaw on. With her skipping lunch some days, I think your advice on going 3 times a day is what I'll switch to. I want to start feeding her foods from where she will be released, but it seems to be lots of acorns, and there's so many warnings about them that I worry about giving them to her. I just want her to have the best chance when released, so if being a bit chunky isn't unhealthy for her, I won't worry, I'll just adjust her feeding times to suit her age.

  5. #4
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    Default Re: Fat 8 week old grey

    I don’t think being chunky is a problem at all. Is she in a release cage outside or still in the house? It’s been my experience that when they move to the release cage they tend to cut back on what they eat and lose weight, which is why I like my babies to be as plump as possible.

    Also they do tend to gain weight as winter approaches….and their fur gets denser.

  6. Serious fuzzy thank you's to Mel1959 from:

    Freja (10-15-2021)

  7. #5
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    Default Re: Fat 8 week old grey

    Quote Originally Posted by Mel1959 View Post
    I don’t think being chunky is a problem at all. Is she in a release cage outside or still in the house? It’s been my experience that when they move to the release cage they tend to cut back on what they eat and lose weight, which is why I like my babies to be as plump as possible.

    Also they do tend to gain weight as winter approaches….and their fur gets denser.
    Still inside, I'm going to overwinter her to release in Spring. Thanks for the advice, my first squirrel and I tend to fret.

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