Questions - Weaning, Dehydration and Overwintering
Writing regarding our singleton grey squirrel, Brutus. (who happens to be a girl, *sigh* so I'm pretending it's short for Brutessa!)
I'd like to ask for some feedback and answers to a few questions please. We are first time squirrel parents, and quickly realized that caring for a squirrel is not easy, and I can honestly say that if not for this forum Brutus would not have made it! I have HUGE respect for those of you that rehab!
I was unsure which forum to start this, so please feel free to move it to another one if you feel it's appropriate.
For any that may remember and might be interested - The abscess on her shoulder cleared up after a few weeks on the antibiotic. Yay! And her fur grew back where she lost it, and is starting to fill in better and look more sleek like the images of healthy squirrels I've seen here.
We believe she is roughly 12 weeks old now (found her Aug 3, and it was 10 days later when she opened her eyes) The last time we were able to weigh her she was 307 grams. She is perhaps a bit behind, as she only started actually eating the Henry blocks about a week and a half ago. Prior to that she had been eating her formula very well, and was taking around 7-9% of her weight four times a day, but the last several days she has only been taking 3-6cc a couple times a day. I was thinking that sounded fairly normal since she is around the age where they wean themselves; is that correct?
We've been trying to follow the pyramid from Henry's, giving her two blocks a day, one in the morning and one in the evening and she seems to be eating the majority of them. She prefers the picky ones and tends to leave more of the healthy ones. Around noon we have given her a small handful of mostly lettuces or an occasional floret of broccoli or cauliflower. Tried cabbage but she didn't seem interested. Every other day maybe a baby carrot, (which she only recently actually began to eat and not just shred) or a small sliver of tomato, or a leaf of kale. Tried a brussel sprout yesterday but she only nibbled.
As for wild foods, she chews on small oak twigs, chews the bark off the maple branch we have for her to climb on in the cage, has chewed on a couple of small pine cones, and she has an antler but doesn't seem to chew on it much. She also has a lava block square we got at a pet store that she chews on occasionally. She has been licking and chewing on the hardware cloth of her cage, which I worry about. She is outgrowing her environment and any time the cage is opened she uses us as a human tree and it is getting more difficult to get her back in. (This wouldn't be so much of an issue, but we have a jealous little jack russel terrier to keep her away from and we have limited space) We have a safe, blocked off space in the laundry room with things for her to climb and jump on and take her in there for an hour or so each day. Most of the feedings from syringes tend to be through the hardware cloth now, otherwise she wants to run and climb more than eat or drink.
My concern is that she seems dehydrated. She has a water bottle in her cage and uses it often. I wish I could get a picture, but gosh when they start jumping and scrabbling around it is so HARD! Every time I try I get a blur! But to explain, her skin seems a little bit loose on her frame, and a little wrinkled under her arms along her tummy. We have tried to give her pedialyte but she takes maybe half a 3cc syringe and then isn't interested. Same with diluted apple juice, and honey water. I've also noticed that her urine is REALLY strong the past couple days as well. How do we get her to drink more?
Is there something we are doing that we shouldn't be? (Please be nice, we are truly trying!) Or anything we are missing that we should be doing?
The other questions are regarding overwintering, which to be honest, I'm kinda freaking out about. We live in northern MN which sees temps in the double digits below zero in winter. The leaves are about half gone from the trees already, so from what I've read the safest thing is to keep and release in the spring. But it's usually late April to mid May before trees have leaves again, and that is a solid SEVEN months! *insert terrified emoji here* With temps so low, and snowfall that the past couple of years has been four feet or higher in our yard, I don't think we have any choice but to overwinter inside. My husband is trying to draft out a larger cage on wheels, roughly 6 ft long by 6 ft high with a width that can fit through a door so we can hopefully use it in the spring for a release cage. Any advice on design?? and my other question is how to keep it clean???
In her current cage which is about 2ftx2ftx3ft we have a really big cookie sheet that we put a large dish drying mat on and stuffed in a pillow case to keep her from chewing on it, in the bottom of her cage that we clean out and change each night, but shes started doing more of a spraying stream when she pees that has been hitting the corner and soaking into the wood. Am trying to think of ways to make clean up easier in the new cage so that the whole house doesn't smell. I don't mean to sound awful, I really DO understand some things are unavoidable, but winter is SO long here and I want to do my best to try to make it bearable. What do you guys use to line the bottom of your indoor cages?? I was thinking maybe a kennel liner? but then wondered if it should be deeper?
Any suggestions/advice on how to help keep her occupied and not hating us by the end of winter would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you!
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