In addition to the first squirrel, as soon as I got it set up in a nice cage the day following its capture, its brother fell out of the same nest. So then, I had two, flea-covered, baby squirrels. I hand fed them both every three hours with a medicine dropper. The kids named the first one we found, Ike, and the second one, Tyke. Luckily for the squirrels, they fell out of the tree immediately prior to the big wind storms we had from hurricane Ike. The kids, Zule and I fed them, warmed them with a hot water bottle, and tried to take care of them both. Last Thursday, Dbot called me at work in hysterics. The second-to-fall squirrel, Tyke, was cold and not moving. He was never very strong, so I kind of expected it. We all went back to our round the clock squirrel care of Ike. At 9:30 last nite, he was as strong as an ox, scampering around, looking at stuff (his eyes opened the day before), and being generally adorable. I gave him some droppers of formula at 10 ish, and went to sleep on the couch, so that I could wake up if I needed to give him more formula. During the night, I heard him cry, which sounds a lot like a bird getting run over. This is nothing out of the ordinary, squirrels cry and chirp when they are hungry. So, I eventually woke up to feed him. When I picked him up out of the cage to give him his milk, he was limp, cold and damp. I got Zule up to help me, but there was nothing we could do. Ike died and I was devastated. See, he was really strong! I still don't know what I did wrong, but this morning, he was interred in my back yard in a chamomile tea bag box, on a soft bed of shavings, a paper towel for a blanket, and his medicine dropper. On the outside, I put the last rose I had from my rose bush.
If these animals don't quit dying, my yard's going to look like an archaeology dig.
I have a baby squirrel. its fate is not that rosy. Its probably diseased, but its very cute. I checked with the jefferson animal clinic, and they said I might as well hand raise it. I got it some puppy formula and a guinea pig cage. I feed it every two hours, and keep it on a sock filled with warm rice.
Dbot named him Ike. Sweatone is the only one who can massage its bladder to get it to pee.
Zule is not happy.