Multiple Questions - personality change, slow/lethargic, getting clumsy, losing fur
Hey, all. I first want to state that not all of the issues in my forum title are related, and after reading these forums for hours, I'm seeing some of them are completely normal. Quick overview of my situation:
I rescued a squirrel from a stray cat last year. I'm guessing she was that year's spring litter, making her about 3-4 months old when I saved her. She is almost a year old now (maybe 10-11 months) assuming my initial assumption was correct about her age when I saved her. We have sugar gliders in my home that DO NOT get along with the squirrel. We made a few attempts to introduce the two, but the sugar gliders are very territorial, and drove the squirrel away. Trixie (name of my squirrel) stayed in a cage that was about 3ft tall, 2.5 feet wide, and 1.5 feet deep for about 5 months. My wife stayed home during most of this time, so she got plenty of time outside of the cage through the day. I recently (within the last month) built her a new cage that is 6 feet tall, 6 feet wide, and 2 feet deep. It is made of wood and standard caging (metal wire with 1/4 inch spacing) that you would see for rabbits or some other small critters. Her diet is a mixture of fruits, veggies, and nuts. She doesn't have weight issues and her feces is normal.
1. After just a few months, she started getting bald spots. It started on the base of her tail, but now are on her legs. The bald spots on her tail have already regrown. Based on other posts, this appears to be normal (malting I guess?). There are no sores. I can post photos if needed.
2. She recently started becoming hostile towards my wife. I primarily care for her, as you all probably know, casual playtime with a squirrel can be very painful because of their sharp nails. I always look as though I've been mauled by a bear! I've read posts that this can be normal for squirrels approaching the one year mark. Based on other posts, it seems like Trixie may also be going into heat?
3. We have not had to groom her nails for a few weeks, as the new metal cage appears to be doing that for us. She does need them trimmed now, but before this cage, we cut them almost once a week just to get the points down. It has been about a months since we trimmed them. Her nails are shorter than they used to be, but the point is still very much there. While on the subject of her feet, the pads on both the front and back started peeling the last few days. I won't have a photo of this now, as it's already all peeled. No blood, no sores, no cuts. Just the outer layer of skin on the pads peeled off.
4. She seems to be losing her balance and coordination more. We have plenty of videos of her playing where she jumps very far, very fast, and doesn't have issues. Now, she sometimes jumps too short on small gaps, and hits her face/head. She has even fallen off my shoulders a few times. Sometimes, she won't even land on her feet. This particular issue is one that scares me the most. At first, I thought she was losing her balance and falling off my shoulder due to her shorter finger nails. The more she falls and misses her jumps, the more worried I get.
5. She has been much more docile the last few days. This was great at first, but now I'm getting worried. Prior to about a month ago, if she was out of her cage, then she wanted to run. Now she'll come straight out of the cage and fall asleep in my arms. I really REALLY like this, but I'm afraid it is a symptom of a bigger problem. In general, she has been sleeping a lot more lately. A change worth mentioning: about a month ago, my wife started a job where she is out of the house a lot. My squirrel is now home alone from about 12:00 noon - 7:30pm when I a get home. My first order of business is to get her out of the cage and have some play time. This is also when she gets her not-dry food. She gets a lot of grapes, cucumber, blueberries, nuts (variety of types), and veggies. In her cage is always an abundance of nuts and we got her some deer antler to chew on. I've been told this has a good bit of calcium.
Finally, due to our schedules, she does not get much sunlight. We have her cage a few feet from a window, but in the winter months, it's dark before I get home. We have taken her outside a few times (no leash, she hates harnesses), but I only do it during daylight hours.
I apologize for the length of this post, but I figured it would be best to get it all out of the way rather than create multiple posts. Let me know if any photos will help
I'm really hoping you guys can help me out!
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