Choking and gagging

[Stanley1234]

Honey (eastern grey, over-wintering, currently 18 weeks) chokes and gags on soft food. She can usually clear her airway without intervention, but has needed a little heimlich squeeze four times. I only allow her soft foods when I am here to watch her.
She has never choked on blocks, harder vegetables, or nuts.
I hope she will be safe to release because I can’t imagine there are many soft foods out in the wild.
Any thoughts on cause or intervention to help Honey?
Thanks!

[Rock Monkey]

When Helen was younger I had problems with some soft foods. Bananas were the worst. She choked on them on multiple occasions. A banana is soft but it stick together. Cutting it into really small pieces helped.

She would eat yogurt really fast so I would pull the yogurt up into a syringe and dispense it in little dollops around the perimeter of a plate and just dispense another drop as she was finishing the previous one. If she showed any signs of struggling to swallow, I stopped immediately dispensing any more. Sometimes I would wait a few minutes and give more, sometimes I concluded that had been enough for that meal.

Does Honey have siblings with whom she is competing with? Sometimes this can lead them to eat too fast, but usually they outgrow this inclination. I think the closer you are physically or the more attention you pay them as they eat, this awakes their instinct that somebody might try to take the food away from them.

Helen will sometimes take the food and move away a few feet.

In general, I learned not to stare at her. It always seemed to make her uneasy.

What specific foods is Honey choking on?

[Stanley1234]

When Helen was younger I had problems with some soft foods. Bananas were the worst. She choked on them on multiple occasions. A banana is soft but it stick together. Cutting it into really small pieces helped.

She would eat yogurt really fast so I would pull the yogurt up into a syringe and dispense it in little dollops around the perimeter of a plate and just dispense another drop as she was finishing the previous one. If she showed any signs of struggling to swallow, I stopped immediately dispensing any more. Sometimes I would wait a few minutes and give more, sometimes I concluded that had been enough for that meal.

Does Honey have siblings with whom she is competing with? Sometimes this can lead them to eat too fast, but usually they outgrow this inclination. I think the closer you are physically or the more attention you pay them as they eat, this awakes their instinct that somebody might try to take the food away from them.

Helen will sometimes take the food and move away a few feet.

In general, I learned not to stare at her. It always seemed to make her uneasy.

What specific foods is Honey choking on?

Thank you! Honey is a singleton. It’s usually avocado, banana or soft pear. These are treats and not staples, so easy to avoid. I do watch her eat (those early chokes scared me). I’ll give her some more space to see if she slows down and has fewer issues.
(On another note.... I didn’t know yogurt was a good squirrel food!!! Just plain yogurt?)

[Mel1959]

I give a spoonful of vanilla full fat yogurt to my flyer everyday. I also put a spoonful in the formula I mix up for babies. Yes, many squirrels love yogurt and it’s an additional source of calcium.

[Rock Monkey]

(On another note.... I didn’t know yogurt was a good squirrel food!!! Just plain yogurt?)

For me, Cabot's Whole Milk, Greek Yogurt has been well received. It has no added sugar, but it has heavy cream added so it has a good fat content, which squirrels need and like. Yogurt also has probiotics which help with digestive health. Sometimes I added a drop of honey.

If you give avocado cut it into small pieces, mouth size or smaller. It is a good source of healthy fat.