GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER?

[Jeff]

Hee, hee, hee.  This Mike sounds like my oldest daughter (almost 14 now) who has a big, big heart for furry critters.  If it was up to her every kitten, bug or bird with the slightest ailment would be living in or near our home.  Fortunately we have a very territorial older dog, so we explain to our daughter that bringing in other animals is not a good idea!

[janine]

Squirrel update:

They look so much better now!  Poor things had a bad time.  The more I think about it... I didn't hear that there had been an actual destroyed nest around where they were found.  I bet the mama was hit on the highway or caught by a predator, and Juniors One and Two came wandering out looking for food.

That's what they did, two or three times, when Michael stayed in bed & let them go too long between feedings.  They got out of incredibly small holes in their box & sat on his dresser, wistfully sniffing around for their milk.

I've sinced rigged a better enclosure with a tough plastic basket with holes smaller than their skulls.  I hope they stay in there.  One lapse may equal squirrel snacks!

They drink a half-and-half mix of puppy formula and Gatorade (per some web vet).  It's like people milk, sticky with sugars, but with even more fat.  Have you ever seen a bottle-fed lamb?  They go after their milk that way, with that sort of slurpy enthusiasm, tails a-twitch.

I'm not sure when they're supposed to be weaned; we keep some feed suitable for gerbils in the basket, and a drip bottle of water. They have shown a little interest in the feed, but act all deprived if their milk isn't there every time they wake up.

Really, if it turns out that Mike keeps them, I'd like for them to not be weaned, for an unnaturally long time.  That will foster greater ties between them & their Daddy Mike.

But, on the other hand, if we could successfully return them to \"the wild\", they need to be off the bottle and in a cage outside until they're ready to go.

I have an uncle with a pet squirrel.  Good time to contact him for pointers, eh?

[Nevertheless]

I'd suggest Chip and Dale, but, alas, they were chipmunks and we wouldn't want the poor little squirrels to get some kind of complex, would we?

;)

here's a list of squirrel names...

http://www.freevote.com/booth/petsquirrel

you can also check out squirrelstore.com for all your bushy tailed rodent needs!
:walkingdog:
(exactly where can i find one of these urinating balloons?)

[janine]

I can bet there are several names on that list which are NOT yours.  Heh heh heh.

Unless your mother had an insatiable desire for Fluffernutter while she was carrying you  :crackup: .

[janine]

It's a loooooong list, and it would require actual thinking on my part, so I don't think I'll guess it right now thankyouverymuch.

[Nevertheless]

Oooooooo . . .   SO close!!

:D

[janine]

According to an even more knowledgeable-appearing website, we are to cut them back now to two formula feedings a day, and give them nuts and fruit.  But no bananas and no citrus.

And we need to give them more exercise than storming their way 'round and 'round our bodies.

Get out the crimper - time to build a cage!

[Nevertheless]

Ok, I'll bite.  Why the teabag??

[janine]

So that they would bite.

[janine]

Middle child  Mike III, almost 18, called  me from his job a couple of days ago and asked if he could bring home some squirrels.

As much as he hates eating them, it took me no time at all to figure out that he wanted to bring LIVE ones.

A couple of babies had been blown out of their nest.  Tenants at the aprtment complex where he works had tried to put them back, but Mama either was lost, or rejected them.  So, they needed a home.

Around here, a found animal is usually welcomed, at least for the hour or day it might take to find it a home, put it down if it's  in bad shape, etc.  So I guess he called and formally asked permission because I'm the one that has to care for them while everyone else it as work or school.

We may not be able to let them go back to the wild (if living in the pines at a large apartment complex is \"wild\"!).  It will depend how much they \"imprint\" on us, I guess, if squirrels do that.  I know many animals and birds do.

So, off I go, after only a few minutes \"on the boards\" (I am being SO good!).  Gotta give the little \"rats with fur coats\" their milk.

[janine]

Ginger (60 lb red-nosed brindle pit) did well when we brought in our tomcat as a kitten.  We just made sure to emphasize that it was ours, our cat, as we would our food or our furniture.  He's a couple years old now.

But she hates squirrels so badly.  They tease, you know, worse than cats do.

So, Mike doesn't even want to attempt to train her to not eat them alive.  One lapse = dead squirrel kits.

[janine]

We're still squirrelly around here.

They're still sucking up their milk with the same eagerness and tail-twitching which lambs display...  But without the cute  :baaa: .  They haven't made much noise at all.  Maybe they'll be more vocal when they're grown.

Their little ankles turn backwards like bats' do... they'll hang off your clothing while each impatiently waits his turn.

They appear to me a male and a female.  That might be a good thing; two males might fight too much later.  I'll need to look up what males do when the females get broody.  Like, do they help with nests and babies, or will they eat the babies, or what?

They need names.  I told Mikey he ought to call them Hazel and Filbert. :p  Y'all have any ideas?

[janine]

My friend St. Sebastian told me I'd give 'em a complex, anyway, by worrying over their sex-gender and sex-breeding and sex-ual identity while they were still but kittens.

[janine]

Mad Max and B'Elanna?

[Nevertheless]

\"darryl\" got 747 votes??        

My name actually got 2 votes!  For a squirrel!  Hmmmmm . . .

:D

[Nevertheless]

Ah, but can you guess which one is mine??

;)

[marc]

[!--QuoteBegin--][/span][table border=\"0\" align=\"center\" width=\"95%\" cellpadding=\"3\" cellspacing=\"1\"][tr][td]Quote (Nevertheless @ April 02 2003,08:44)[/td][/tr][tr][td id=\"QUOTE\"][!--QuoteEBegin--]Ah, but can you guess which one is mine??

;)[/quote]
Smoky?  Crackerjack?

[janine]

Nut One and Nut Two are doing well.  Acting like squirrels, now.  Expressing themselves more.  Gnashing their teeth and sneezing with great expression.

I'll have to get my boy to look at that name list.  I can't just keep reminding him to go feed \"the rats\", I need names.

Never feed half-grown squirrels with light clothing on.  No low necklines, no sleeveless summer dresses.  You'll smart with the little scratches from their claws, they so earnestly cling to you.

[janine]

Now that we've cut them down to dawn & dusk milk, and all the raw peanuts & gerbil feed they can stand, they're getting more skittish.  More \"squirrelly\" than ever.

Kinda like when your little ones get more stand-offish & won't give Mama all the sugar they used to!

Ah, well.  Little Joe is home today w/ poison ivy.  I'll park him in the boys' bedroom & tell him to let them run around loose for an hour.

Would you believe they need bones to chew?  Not having a handy tree to gnaw on, y'know.  I bought them a pack of nice tasteless sterile store-bought bones meant for little gnawing critters.  I also prepared a pork chop bone according to the rescue website's directions (take off the meat, boil it...)

:D They like my bone better than the storebought.  Maybe 'cause I boiled it with a teabag.

[janine]

They now show only a little polite interest in their milk if they've eaten well.  Perhaps for the sake of the vitamins, I ought to feed nuts & gerbil feed only in the morning after they've had the milk.  That way they've the day to eat the solid food, & run out, & after a night they'll be ready to drink.  (They have a water bottle all the time.)

Only for another couple weeks, though.  Their teeth are really coming in, and they can balance up on their haunches pretty well now to hold a peanut or wash their faces.  They don't fall over too much any more.

They'd rather leap ten feet from person to person than wander around loose.  We're still \"food and security\", I guess.