Well, this is my one week-iversary with my little guys and gals. I’ve definitely become a lot more comfortable with the routine. And I’ve gotten much better at controlling their intake when I’m feeding them, which means they’re aspirating a lot less. That’s not only better for their health, but it actually speeds up the process quite a bit as well. Because each time they do inhale formula the wrong way, I have to stop, clean out their noses and mouths with a Q-tip, and blow into their nostrils to activate the little hairs inside to cause them to sneeze.

That’s not to say that there aren’t still challenges. So much of this is based on using your judgment and, of course, as a newbie squirrel mom, I’m still in learning mode. For example, since they hadn’t gained much weight as of yesterday morning, despite having been feeding a lot, I moved them up to a more concentrated formula. That seemed to work well and they all had gained a fair bit this morning.

And based on these new weights, they were actually ready to move up to a different formula (at a lower concentration while they get used to it), and a different schedule. Instead of 6 feedings 3 hours apart, they should now be at 5 feedings 4 hours apart, according to the guidelines. So that’s what I did. And I do have to say that the increased time between feedings has made a lot of difference for me in terms of feeling a little less frantic.

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This is going to be a short post because a) I’m pooped, and b) nothing especially notable happened today.

They hadn’t gained much weight since yesterday, so I’ve increased the concentration of their formula from 3-1 (3 parts water to 1 part powder) to 2-1. That means they’ll be getting more protein/fat/nutrients, etc. with each cc they drink.

I thought one of my girls might be getting a mild case of diarrhea (lots of stools, but still solid), but by the next feeding everything was fine. And my big guy whom I caught with the Tabasco around his mouth, indicating he had been sucking on one of his companions? He’s now become a suckee himself! But, thankfully, it seems to have slowed down/stopped during the course of the day. I’ll continue to keep an eye out, though, to make sure it doesn’t start up again.

Oh, and did I mention that I now know where the expression “squirrely” comes from? 🙂

Today was pretty uneventful (squirrel-wise; don’t get me started on my computer woes!). Thank goodness, because the last couple of days have had me a bit tense.

The female who had the blood in her mouth last night is fine. She had a little more this morning, but then I noticed a small cut on the inside of her lower lip. So I think that the sucking probably caused it to bleed. It only happened on the first feeding and not again during the rest of the day, so I think we’re fine there. However, I did catch her in the act of sucking on her little brother! She’d already eaten plenty, so I just dipped the nipple on the syringe into the formula to give her a taste and let her suck on that as long as she wanted. Hopefully that will remove the urge to use the poor lilttle guy as her pacifier. Tomorrow I’ll check on the situation again and, if it looks like it’s any worse, I’ll try some of the other possible remedies.

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Now that we’ve got the feeding routine pretty much down, I don’t think it’s necessary for me to try to report in after each one (not that I was always successful at that anyway!). Instead, I’ll just start reporting things that (I hope) are more noteworthy. 🙂

But first, here are a couple of pics of me feeding my charges. The first one is the largest and oldest male, who has both his eyes fully open:

They’re not always such neat little eaters—table manners are not so big in the squirrel world, I’m guessing:

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7:20 a.m.: Not a good start to the day today. The little guy I took in last night didn’t make it through the night. I had checked in on him again just before I went to bed last night and he seemed fine, so I’m not sure what happened. He had some scratch marks on his stomach and one on his back, so maybe he developed an infection. Or maybe he just wasn’t quite strong enough to make it.

If I seem a little cold in reporting this sad news, unfortunately it’s a defense mechanism you need to develop if you’re going to get involved in wildlife rehabilitation. I think the time I’ve spent at the center itself has helped in that way. So many of the tiny birds die, and other animals do too of course, that the only thing you can do is focus on the ones that you can help. I remind myself that the ones that don’t t make it wouldn’t have survived in the wild either and we at least gave them their best shot, and hopefully a little comfort before they go. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s not enough. It’s definitely harder when it happens with one you’ve brought into your own home but, again, I have to devote my energies to the five that are still thriving and do my best to keep them that way. (Don’t think that means I haven’t shed a few tears this morning, though.)

If you’re wondering why I keep referring to each animal as “a female” or “one of the guys,” rather than giving them names to identify them, this is one of the reasons why—I’m sure it would be that much more difficult if I had to say, “Charlie passed away last night.” But the more important reason is that it’s very important that we always remember that our goal is to successfully transition the animals back into the wild. So we do everything possible to ensure that they don’t bond with us by making sure we don’t treat them as pets in any way. So no names, no cuddling (in fact, no handling at all except when necessary, e.g. for feeding), absolutely NO talking to them, and no “Awww, isn’t he cute?” comments.

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8:00 a.m.: I’m starting to have a lot more appreciation for new mothers! If I’m this tired after only two days with my charges… Of course, (most) mothers don’t have 5 babies under their care at the same time. Today’s first feeding was a bit mixed. A couple of the squirrels seem a bit dehydrated (skin is wrinkling on one, another one hasn’t eliminated anything in over a day), so I’ll be giving them Pedialyte for the next couple of feedings. Most of them ate a little less than yesterday at this time, but not enough to worry about.

One of the biggest risks for these guys is that they take in too much formula at once and aspirate it (get it into their lungs). This can lead to pneumonia, so it is very serious. The sign that they’ve done this is that it comes bubbling out through their nose. This happened to one of my guys this morning, but I immediately cleaned out his nose and mouth, so he should be fine. Although we do our best to avoid the situation by controlling how much they take in, it’s not that uncommon for it to happen, so that’s why I’m not panicking (yet). I’ll be keeping a close eye on him though for the rest of the day.

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7:30 a.m.: Okay, well, as expected I woke up in the middle of the night to check on the squirrels. Fortunately they were all fine (although I’m not sure how peeved they were at me for waking them up from a nice long snooze). And they all took a decent amount of formula this morning, so I’m feeling a lot better. Now for my own breakfast!

10:15 a.m.: Things definitely seem to be going smoother. It takes each of them a couple of minutes to calm down, but once they do, they seem to settle in and become more relaxed for their feeding. The most stressful part now is listening to one of my cats scratching on the door, wondering why she can’t come in!

1:30 p.m.: Third feeding, no problems.

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Today’s the day! I got my first squirrels from the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley to raise at home until they’re ready to be released back to the wild.

I had signed up for the squirrel home care program when I first began volunteering at the WCSV. But by the time I had completed my initial training and put in the required hours at the center, all the squirrels that had come in had already been assigned to other volunteers. But one of the things I’ve learned since working there is that squirrels have two breeding seasons during the year, so the center started getting new babies earlier this month.

Because I’m a first-timer in the program, I had to wait until the squirrels were at least a few weeks old, because the really tiny ones (called “pinkies” because they have no fur for a couple of weeks) are the most vulnerable, so being tended to by more experienced volunteers increases their chance of survival.

But my time has come! I’m planning to chronicle my adventures in squirreldom on a daily basis, so my readers can learn about this fascinating process while I’m doing the same. So here’s what’s been happening on Day 1.

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