spinach and released squirrels

[astrll]

hello!

we released eight squirrels last august and three of them still visit! one of the squirrels (pochi) is now a mama and her nest is right above our house. her babies are about 7 weeks old right now so she’s still nursing.

my question is about spinach! pochi was a really good eater in the enclosure and she still really likes to eat the same foods we would give her. we followed the henry’s guide really closely and they had HHB’s daily.

we never gave them spinach when we had them with us but once we released them we were less strict about the greens we were putting out. at first pochi would eat anything we put out, though she really liked arugula and kale.

in the past couple weeks though she has become OBSESSED with spinach! to the point that she will refuse a nut! at first we didn’t think anything of it, but lately she has several leaves a day.

we’re wondering if we should cut her off? i know she’s nursing and maybe she’s trying to get calcium to supplement what she’s losing, but should i be worried about her kidneys if she’s now wild? she eats lots of other foods of course and her main diet comes from the wild. she also gets lots of exercise. her pee is usually a clear, pale yellow and her poop seems normal too. so she seems fine but i don’t want to create a future problem.

what do you folks think? is it fine to keep giving her spinach?

here’s a pic of her right now just cause she’s being cute (yeah that’s spinach )

[BigNibbler]

A MOMMY squirrel, Great! I can relate to that. Love her color!
I would offer her more HHBs, she is probably feeding many babies, so she needs a lot more nutrients.
Others can chime in on their opinion of how much HHB intake should or could be ramped up per baby during nursing Mommy-hood and for how much longer before (if her condition is known) and after she has nearly weened the kids. I say nearly, cause she may have one favorite that she can continue to nurse for many weeks longer.

If she is consuming so many greens she may like some extra water too.
Not going to comment on spinach, because I hardly ever feed spinach.
Mine love Romain lettuce, Escarole, Dandelions, and Endive.

[astrll]

I would offer her more HHBs, she is probably feeding many babies, so she needs a lot more nutrients.

i wish we could get more HHBs! i live in canada and thankfully the usa border wasn’t so tense while these babies were in our enclosure so we were able to sneak HHBs across. right now it’s a bit too tense to cross the border — they’re checking cars and bags more thoroughly i wish henry’s could ship to canada! or be sold in canadian stores.

we’ll have to try our hand at making our own HHBs but i’m not too concerned about her nutrition, more just concerned about if i’m creating a problem due to the high oxalates in spinach. this girl really loves her spinach but we’ll cut her off if it’s not something to encourage!

we’ve given her calcium carbonate covered nuts and some coconut oil but other than that she gets all her food from the wild. we always have clean water stations outside so she drinks from those as well!

my sister mixed up some fox valley last night to see if anyone would like it and pochi actually took 3cc’s of it today

[BigNibbler]

Surprised Henry's is not sold in Canada? Not even through Amazon? Just a few months ago Jay the owner, was telling me how many countries they ship to.
And here, Canada is the closest. You know what the issue is ?

I don't serve spinach specifically due to the oxalates. Don't believe a short term excess is a huge risk. Which makes it easy for others to say au'contraire!

To help my outdoors get more calcium, to compensate for the peanuts that I feed the wilds over the winter, which absolutely has helped them deal with the dearth of trees, I started serving them my ground almond calcium citrate powder. They love it. I usually hand feed it - holding the bowl. For those who have been raised and released, or know us. Don't want to get a competition going.. as the powder cannot be quickly grabbed and carried off. They would have to do that with ME!

My recipe is simple. Re-grind Calcium Citrate until it is talcum powder soft.
Add 6 grams of that ground calcium citrate to each 100 grams of unsalted roasted almonds.
Use a food processor blade on medium for about one minute.
You want mostly very fine nut chips, but not yet churned into butter.

It is truly amazing how much a mommy and nursing squirrel will want to eat. Anyone who has not experienced this up close couldn't imagine it. In most habitats - urban habitats, areas where trees are not in abundance, babies have to get much less than they want, even as litters are smaller.