Doing my normal morning walk Sunday. I always visit with a big dog in a fenced in yard. Daisy May and she is a 100 pound + Boxer. She wouldn't come to me at the fence so I walked up the drive to see her and she was playing with something. Of course closer viewing, it was a baby squirrel. I went in the yard and she gave it to me. I looked around the area and 2 more were balled up in the grass. I put them all in my shirt and looked for a mom, a nest, a hole in the tree, anything. There was nobody home, so I was on my own. I couldn't leave them or Daisy would have accidentally played with them till death. I brought them home and put them in an aquarium with a 40 watt light over it and a T shirt to nest in. Read what we could and mixed water, salt and sugar and with an eye dropper gave them some of that. Later that day I got some pedilac ( I think) and we gave them that Sunday. Monday I got Ebsilac in the can with probiotics and we started giving them that. Not dosing properly but making sure they were drinking it and trying not to give them too much. Had a terrible time trying to feed but no choke them with formula. Finally using a plastic eye dropper we were able to slowly let out a little at a time. I got syringes from the local pet store, but they were not O ring type and hard to control. Got an O ring type but it is big and that is what I used the last day. I got small O ring syringes at Walmart today so that should help. I have the small ones ordered from Henri's along with FV formula. I estimate these guys to be 5-6 weeks old.

2 are big and healthy, one is a runt. I guess that is natures way, the strong survive. Nature is not in control now, we are and we want that runt to grow and thrive. To keep the bad boys from stomping all over him, we put him in a separate cage next to the big cage. We allow them time together during feeding. The BB's are 115 and 126 grams. Runt is only 78, but he is eating good. He had a "sore" on his side which I think was a puncture from Daisy May. It has healed pretty good, although it is still kind of lump. We wish we could put them all together, but we don't want the runt beat up. What about that?

I got a rodent block and broke pieces off and put in each cage. We also put in carrot and bread crust, but so far they are not eating any of that. After reading here, I took out everything but the block.. I would like to get them going with some solid food so they are not so dependent on formula. Would they or should they have a taste of peanut butter? How about a Reese's Cup? How about for me?
Should they have a water bottle or any other nutritional stuff besides formula? Possibly they are getting on to 7 weeks old.

I do have a light for warming, is that really bad, it is outside the cage and just shines into a corner of each cage where they snuggle in a T shirt. How long will they need extra heat? I guess we could use a heating pad if this is risky. I'll put some pix in a follow up thread.

My daughter is a doctor and says we should wear gloves, be aware of rabies, etc. Is there any concern for rabies? Will they bite as they get bigger? Any and all tips are very appreciated.

mattb