Saturday, March 16, 2013

Orphan squirrel buddy


A new guy came into my life on Thursday. 

Meet Chester.

He was huddled up next to a flower pot near my back door. 
By dark, mom had not come to rescue him. I brought him in, got him warm and hydrated, and promptly fell in love.

5 comments:

Vicki Hudson said...

Okay, I am officially passing out from this unbearable cuteness!!

Wolfie said...

My sister has rescued and released three squirrels. They are so cute! Her first one, Charlie, would sit on her shoulder while she was driving...he went everywhere with her!

KIM said...

I would love to get in touch with her for squirrel advice! I'm also curious how you contain a squirrel who goes everywhere with you. Don't they like to scramble around? This one is still a baby so he just eats and sleeps for now.

Wolfie said...

I will check with her and get back to you.

Wolfie said...

Here you go! From my sister....good luck!!

You can let Kimberly know that when I had my little guy, I just kept him in my kangaroo pocket of my sweat shirt. When he got a bit more active, I left him in the van. He would sit on the seat and wait for me. If you don't want him running all over your vehicle or house, a guinea pig cage works well, or any cage that has small enough 'bars' that he/she can't get through.
As for feeding, you need to use puppy formula, available at Petsmart or any pet supply outlet. A 1ml dropper should be used as you have to be very careful that they do not aspirate the formula. This slows down the feeding but makes it safer for the squirrel. When they start to consume 15ml or more of the formula, you can see if they are interested in shelled sunflower seeds or raisins, things like that. If they are then you can start providing more of those items and less formula.
When I released my fosters, I had them in a chicken wire cage outside for about 2 weeks before letting them loose. I put a squirrel house up in a neighbours tree and I know at least one of them used it for awhile. Then they were away.