Rescued Baby Squirrels!

Coconana

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 21, 2015
Messages
105
Hey guys! I'm back with more unusual animals and an interesting story.. Yesterday, my momma contacted me asking if I could take care of some baby squirrels. Workers were over near her house cutting branches away from the power-lines, and they accidentally knocked loose a Eastern Grey Squirrel nest. The mother chittered at them for a while, but the workers manhandled the babies, and she decided to vanish. They kept an eye out for her, but after four hours, she still didn't return.

This species of squirrel is invasive to our area, so if we were to turn them over to a center, we were told that they would be euthanized. I happen to know some very knowledgeable people who would have no problems housing and taking care of adult squirrels for the duration of their lifespan, so these guys are pretty much destined to be pets since it would be irresponsible to release them back into the wild. The poor things are in a bit of an awkward situation, but I just couldn't let them be euthanized with a good conscience; they're not illegal to keep in this state since they're not native. The question really fell to 'who had the time to raise babies', and since I'm a housewife right now and I'm not getting much sleep to begin with thanks to a few personal problems, the task fell on my head! So I thought I would share with you all here on AB some of these adorable cookies.

They're 2-4 weeks old, so they've not opened their eyes yet, but nobody has any injuries or external parasites. The babies are being quarantined from my other animals, but they're eating their formula wonderfully, are hydrated, and are finally starting to go pee when prompted. They need to eat every one to two hours at this point. Yes, I wash my hands and arms very thoroughly before and after coming into any contact with them!

Anyway, please enjoy some adorable baby squirrel photographs from last night :happy:

(1.0.0 Sciurus Carolinensis)


(1.0.0 Sciurus Carolinensis)


(0.1.0 Sciurus Carolinensis)


(1.0.0 Sciurus Carolinensis)


(3.2.0 Sciurus Carolinensis)


(3.2.0 Sciurus Carolinensis)
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,044
Suggestions. Get them vetted and if required, vaccinated. Squirrels=vectors.
If keeping them, you have to be constantly alert to their hyper metabolism. Full of food to nearly starving within an hour sometimes, healthy to deaths door in as little as a few minutes. Read up! Get experts info.
 

Coconana

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 21, 2015
Messages
105
So sweet! I'm with you on that decision. I raised a starling myself for the same reason.
Thank you! It's always nice to give something a chance that wouldn't otherwise have had one :happy:


Suggestions. Get them vetted and if required, vaccinated. Squirrels=vectors.
If keeping them, you have to be constantly alert to their hyper metabolism. Full of food to nearly starving within an hour sometimes, healthy to deaths door in as little as a few minutes. Read up! Get experts info.
They have already gone to the vet, thankfully --the day their mother abandoned them. They were deemed healthy and formula was recommended. I also lurk on many helpful forums.

I've raised squirrels before, and the litter turned out healthy and fit enough to be released again, so I'm crossing my fingers with these guys! It never, never hurts to keep reading and gaining knowledge though :embarrassed:
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,044
Fingers crossed. And regular updates are expected. Mandatory even. Recalling a squirrel raised by a friend. Apparently going pee on her pillow was the squirrel's method of getting attention or expressing it's opinion.
 

Coconana

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 21, 2015
Messages
105
Fingers crossed. And regular updates are expected. Mandatory even. Recalling a squirrel raised by a friend. Apparently going pee on her pillow was the squirrel's method of getting attention or expressing it's opinion.
Oh, of course! I couldn't not share these guys, even if I really tried. They're just too cute!

I'll attach some of my mobile photos below, but I swear I have better ones incoming! :happy:

They're peeing and pooping frequently now, thankfully. The first day they got here, they seemed constipated, or like they weren't hydrated enough to 'let loose'. Added more pedialyte to their formula, and tada!

Their eyes are starting to twitch more frequently behind their lids, and their personalities are starting to become prevalent. I have a little boy who likes to grab onto my fingers with his back feet when he nurses, and a little girl who likes to scream at things (if I hold her too long for her liking while feeding, if she crawls off the 'done' mat at night in the bathroom while I'm feeding a sibling and her feet touch the cold floor for a second, if I laugh while holding her). I've been getting a surprising amount of sleep --I sleep in intervals of two hours at night--which is really good! I feel pretty alright, surprisingly.

Anywho, pictures below! The male who likes to hold his face and my hands is first up.

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I had a buddy over the other day who was happy to help with feeding and cleaning, and I left her alone for five seconds to heat up their heat pack and I come back to this sight, ahaha!

Everybody should get a chance to be covered in baby squirrels at least once in their life :angelic:

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Coconana

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 21, 2015
Messages
105
So cute, thanks for doing this.
Absolutely!! Nobody else was up to the task, and I couldn't let them be turned over and euthanized on good conscience.

It's been tough keeping up with their feeding schedule, but we officially made it to five weeks, so the amount of time in between each one has increased a little --thankfully for me--now I can sleep in reasonable chunks! Go little squirrels!!

Unfortunately, we did lose one baby. The workers who cut the branches told us that one fell 20 feet down onto the concrete, and the smallest girl, Banshee, started acting really unusual in her last day or two. I think something may have been wrong with her, internally. She simply couldn't eat without choking and getting formula in her lungs. Poor girl.. I did my best, but there's really only so much your best can do in such a situation.

As far as good news goes, the other babies are starting to open their eyes! The other little girl, Indigo, popped her right one open on Thursday night (the 11th), and the other followed the next day. Hours later, I noticed that the big boy, Carbine, had a little dot on he middle of his eye --as you'll notice in the photo below. He was next!

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I've made a little pouch to carry them in when I go out for walks --it's just a drawstring backpack with an inside-out pillow sheet inside of it, as well as a buffer layer or two for warmth. They love it though! In the box, they squirm around and cry a lot, but in the pouch they cuddle up and sleep, with one occasionally climbing up to poke their head out.

My cousin and I took them on a walk to the park the other day, and they were allowed to touch the grass and smell all of the new smells. One little boy, Rocky, hated the stuff with a passion! He got so alarmed when we let his front feet touch the grass that his tail went up over his back and he fluffed and made a distress noise, so I placed him back in my lap until he calmed again.

Here are some photos of these little guys at the park. I promise good Canon photographs will come soon! Indigo, the female, is the one with her eyes open in these.

Also, my cousin is the squirrel whisperer :rofl:

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Tarantula20

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Joined
Oct 19, 2014
Messages
93
So just wandering I got confused from the pictures there were five in the litter but 2 passed?:(:angelic:
 

Coconana

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Joined
May 21, 2015
Messages
105
So just wandering I got confused from the pictures there were five in the litter but 2 passed?:(:angelic:
Oh no, only one passed --the littlest female. In many of these photos, I was either holding one or two, while my cousin held the rest, so that's why they don't all pop up in the pictures.

Sorry, I didn't think about that! :dead:
 

Coconana

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 21, 2015
Messages
105
Great ya I was confuzzled so many squirrels! RIP Banshee:angelic:
Sometimes I get a little confuzzled too. These last few days have really helped to assist me in identifying each individual baby! Indigo is my little adventurous girl who's starting to look rather adorably scruffy, Carbine is the pudgy silver boy with giant eyes, Scarf (might be renamed later) is the relaxed and very red boy, and Rocky is small and hardly has any red pigment in his fur in comparison to his bigger brothers.

These photos are my favorite of Banshee. The last one was taken the morning that she passed away on the 12th. She survived for an extra week exactly in my care, and had she lived, she would have been with me until the end of her days. I take solace in the knowledge that I did what I could for her, and that she is no longer in pain. Had I not adopted them, they would have all been euthanized a week ago when the workers turned them over to the center, but this right here is the hard part of ownership and assuming responsibility for tiny lives.

R.I.P Banshee; you were small and sweet, and even if I couldn't have saved you in the end, I did everything I could to make you comfortable and care for you. Thank you for making me realize during the quiet hours of the night that I stayed up with you on the bathroom floor that there's always room in my heart for more love.





 

Coconana

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 21, 2015
Messages
105
Hey guys --got another update to drop, along with some nicer photographs! :happy:

The babies are really, really fluffing up now! They're incredibly soft to the touch and, as a bonus, their facial features are getting more and more individual by the day. Everybody but Rocky has their little eyes open, but all are feeding really well. Every day, they're flopping around and getting more nimble and attentive about where their feet and hands are being placed. The three with open eyes are starting to recognize when I come and go with food. They will claw frantically at the clear side of their box whenever they see me (though I do still use their little build-a-bear sling to haul them around them house and when it's not too excruciatingly hot outside). I'm so happy to report that they're already chewing on and investigating the rat lab blocks that I put in with them a few days ago.

Week seven, here we come!! We're just about ready to transfer them from their original nesting box and into their temporary weaning cage.

The first two photos below are Rocky, while the third and forth are fantastic snaps of Indigo diving into a small pile of her brothers (Rocky and Scarf/Red) and then getting lost in their tails. The last is the one good photo I shot of Carbine, who did not want to sit still or cuddle down into the fabric at all.









 

Coconana

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 21, 2015
Messages
105
Hey guys! This is going to be my second to last update for everyone here regarding the squirrels, because I have the most amazing news!!

An accredited refuge agreed to take all four of the babies in for rehabilitation and relocation. I cried in relief when I got off the phone with them, because I've been going back and forth with the ODFW for the last week trying to figure out the exact legality of keeping these squirrels. The woman on the phone told me when I first took them in that they were perfectly legal to keep considering that they were a non-native species, but the second that I called and spoke to didn't seem to know. Again, I called last week to try to get someone on the phone that knew what they were talking about and could give me a definitive answer since I couldn't find a clear answer online, and unfortunately, my definitive answer turned out to be that there was just no way for me to keep these guys in this state; not even with the proper permits that would be required for a giant list of other squirrel species. I was understandably devastated, because that put me in a really difficult position, so I upped my efforts to contact local refuges to see if anybody could help me keep these animals from being euthanized, and give them a fighting chance --legally. I needed to check into every option.. If there was any other way that these guys could be saved, then I was going to find out, for their sake's.

Finally, a week ago, I got a call back from a well respected refuge that was willing to take them. They were delivered there on September 3rd, and I can't hardly describe the utter relief that I felt when we drove back home. It's been a wild month, but I feel so happy to say that it's come to a happy ending --better than I could have even anticipated at first! I hope more than anything that the refuge can see four healthy Eastern Grey squirrels released successfully into the wild this coming Spring.

Below are some photographs I took with my cousin in one of the last evenings that we had with these little guys. I couldn't stop smiling when I looked at them; they're looking forward to a brighter future than I could've ever imagined possible when I picked them up a month ago, and even though I can feel them missing in my home, they'll never be far from my heart.

(Carbine, the biggest, most handsome boy who had the magical ability to fall asleep anywhere, anytime...)







(Rocky, the spastic little gymnast with the cute buggy eyes!)





(Indigo, the big fluffy girl who was fascinated with human noses and loved to wrestle with her brothers --especially when they had no clue what was going on :rofl:)





(And finally Red... He was the sweetest little fluffball of a boy who loved to cuddle and has always been the calmest of the bunch.)




 

magicmed

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jun 4, 2016
Messages
404
OMG so adorable, love it! I wanted a squirrel for the longest time, adorable Littles ones :)


You didn't teach any how to waterskii?
 

spiderbesideher

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jul 17, 2015
Messages
76
Oh how cute! I have always wanted to foster a baby squirrel...but you know here in the South I know a few people who have and they've all ended in unfortunate endings with family pets or injuries. Glad yours are doing well!
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
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Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,044
Excuse me OP but in a couple of pictures I see a double coil neck pickup and two humbuckers. Yes, no, what be that critter?
 

Coconana

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 21, 2015
Messages
105
OMG so adorable, love it! I wanted a squirrel for the longest time, adorable Littles ones :)


You didn't teach any how to waterskii?
So unfortunate that I ran out of time! And to think; I was planning on getting them all the way to the Olympics too!! :arghh:

Excuse me OP but in a couple of pictures I see a double coil neck pickup and two humbuckers. Yes, no, what be that critter?
Aye, I thought initially that they be but wee snausages. Imagine my surprise! :rofl:
 
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