I left my squirrels with their “babysitter” this morning and I miss them already! But Connie is one of the most experienced members of the squirrel team, so at least I know they’re in terrific hands.
Since I don’t have much to report today (fortunately, they were all in peak health when I handed them over), and I won’t be posting again for another week, I thought I’d just share some more videos and pictures.
Spider Squirrel, Spider Squirrel
Does whatever a Spider Squirrel Does…
Everyone was in great shape today. Just in time for me to hand them over to someone else…
I have some friends coming into town on Wednesday, so tomorrow I’m taking the gang over to another volunteer’s house to look after them for the next week, then I’ll get them back. It’s going to be weird not planning my entire day around their feeding schedule!
I forgot to mention yesterday that my big guy has passed the 200-gram mark! Pretty soon we’ll have to start feeding him through the cage, ’cause they start to become unhandleable at about that size/age.
I’ll have some more videos to post tomorrow. I’ve been trying to take some more still photos as well, but it’s almost impossible now. They’re constantly on the move and my auto-focus lens can’t keep up with them!
My little girl is back to 100%, if not more. She’s completely full of beans, and I’m lovin’ it!
Instead, today’s worry was that two of the other squirrels weren’t taking in much formula for a few feedings in a row. They’re supposed to drink 10-15cc per feeding, based on their weight, but one was only drinking about 5cc and the other about 3cc. This isn’t unusual for a single feeding, but this happened at last night’s final feeding, this morning’s first one (when they hadn’t eaten all night), and the next one as well.
They were clearly healthy—very squirmy and pooping well. So my concern was that they might be eating too much solid food, and starting to wean themselves way too early. But fortunately they were guzzling the stuff down like crazy at 5:00, so all seems well again.
Whew… when I signed up for this gig, I had no idea there would be so many little things that could cause me so much stress. I have NO idea how parents do this for 18 years!
I spent most of today worried about one of my girls. She’s the smallest one of the group, although only by a few grams. She’s also the one who’s had occasional digestive problems, with some minor diarrhea and constipation. But recently she had been totally fine. In fact, even when she had those issues, she was always one of the more active ones when I would feed her. She would excitedly clutch at the syringe and when I reached for another one, she would run all around my lap until the next nipple showed up. And I’ve been saying all along that, as long as they’re running around full of energy, I figure they must be fairly healthy.
But at last night’s final feeding, when I picked her up from the cage, she was almost limp. She showed no enthusiasm for eating at all and didn’t struggle when I held her up to look at her belly—not like her at all. So I figured she must have overeaten during the day and by morning she’d be fine.
Now that they’ve all got their eyes open, they’re becoming a lot more active, as well as a lot more interactive, as you’ll see in this video. (By the way, you can right-click on the video screen and choose Zoom > Full Screen to get a better view.)
Also, based on their weight and the fact that each of them has been not hungry for at least one daily feeding, I’ll be changing their schedule tomorrow from every 4 hours/5 times a day to every 5 hours/4 times a day. They’re definitely growing!
Not much to report today (which is a good thing!). They’re now ranging from 126-186 grams, so they’re certainly thriving.
It’s funny though. Even though they’ve been doing so well and they’re all very energetic, I couldn’t help but worry when two of the males didn’t want to eat much at one of the feedings. But they both ate the normal amount at the next one, which I guess goes to show that, just like people, they don’t always want to eat the same amount at the same time every day. Especially since they’re now eating the solid food in the cage, so they’re not coming to each feeding with empty tummies like they were when they were younger.
I did take some more videos today, but haven’t had a chance to transfer them to my computer yet. So stay tuned…
Five squirrels. Ten open eyes. Woo-hoo!
I don’t have much to say today, so I’ll just post a few new videos.
This was how I found the gang when I went in for one feeding.
Another weird thing happened today, although this one was kind of funny.
At this morning’s first feeding, my little guy’s left eye was fully open. (Yay!) At the second feeding, his right eye was halfway open, but his left eye was closed again. (?) THAT didn’t happen with my other ones…
Then, at the third and fourth feedings, his right eye was fully open and his left eye was just slightly open. (!) But by the last feeding, they were both fully open, so I guess he isn’t regressing after all. (Whew! 🙂
AND… at the last feeding, my last little girl had one eye open too!
All in all, a very good day for squirrels.
Wow, has it been two weeks already since I brought home my little charges? It’s hard to believe I was ever worried about them not eating enough, seeing how much they love to toss back the formula now!
Even though they’re all eating more, the process goes much faster for several reasons:
Speaking of opening their eyes, I’m starting to get a little impatient for the last two to get there. They’re both in the right weight range, but so far no signs. Maybe tomorrow?
Just when you think you’ve got things under control…
I discovered my big guy is being sucked on again, and I caught one of the culprits in the act—the larger female. So in addition to the Tabasco technique, I looked up some other remedies in the manual. One of them is to remove the squirrel doing the sucking about an hour before a feeding and putting her in a separate shoebox with a big piece of apple to use as a pacifier instead. No problem.
I didn’t want to leave her alone in the box, though, so I put the other female in with her, thinking she wasn’t as likely a target. She’s one of the smaller squirrels whose eyes haven’t opened yet. So imagine my surprise when I went in later to feed them and discovered the little girl OUTSIDE the shoebox! She was sitting on the heating pad, smelling the cage.