Baby is a 10 week old squirrel. My parents' neighbors were cutting down a tree, they didn't realize there was a nest of baby squirrels in one of the tree's branches. Fortunately the rest of the babies remained in the nest, and the entire thing was able to be placed close for the momma squirrel.
Like a good momma, she began taking care of those babies right away. Poor Baby fell out of the nest, and had to be picked up. Knowing the momma squirrel would reject him and possibly the other babies, my family decided to raise Baby!
Not having anything else but a leftover frozen bag of breast milk (courtesy of my nephew deciding he didn't want lunch), they quickly thawed it and began feeding Baby with an eye dropper.
He was only about two weeks old at the time. He is now thriving! At 10 weeks he looks just like a miniature squirrel. He is completely tame. My parents' pomeranian, Pooh thinks that Baby is her "baby". It is absolutely precious. Baby loves to play with his Mom, Pooh Bear the pomeranian!
Watching Baby grow has been a miracle. It opens your eyes on the greatness of God and his creations. It also goes to show the power of the female and our ability to love and nurture even if it isn't our biological child. Love is an amazing thing.
By Mistie
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This is a lovely story. I wouldv'e done the same thing. I rear baby birds so I too would have tried to save this little critter. We don't have these little guys in Australia, would love to see a photo of your little pom with the squirrel, best of luck for the future.
Happy bottling and you can burn them too.We had the same experience years ago. Our squirrel loved to eat frozen corn, plus nuts. He would also scratch on the sliding door to go potty. We had a large branch extended from our drapes where he would sleep. But he use to crawl underneath our pillows at night to sleep with us, and he would watch my husband shave in the morning.
Our vet was not to happy with our decision to keep him as a pet. However we loved this little guy. And he did become our wonderful pet. We lived in a wooded area and had lots of large trees in our yard.
My husband use to clap his hands to get his attention and he would run down the tree and crawl up his leg to sit on our shoulders. We have pictures of all the wonderful experiences we had. Winter set in and he went on his way. But we will never forget the wonderful moments we shared with him. They are very intelligent, and loving.
Good for you. I would like to clarify one thing though mama will take baby back if it is ok and falls from the nest. A hawk knocked 3 out of their nest that had just opened their eyes and we picked them up and placed a barrel next to the tree and put them on it and she came down the tree and took them back up one at a time including the one with a broken foot. She raised them and we fed them on the barrel and he lived broken foot and all.
I too have a squirrel and he is now 5 years old but he couldn't be turned out because he fell 40 feet when the kites hit his nest. He was her only baby and she wasn't there and when I found him it was dark and he was injured pretty bad so I took him in and put him on a heating pad where he was fed by and eye dropper and stayed on the warm pad for 5 months or more. He finally started to grow up a little and I put him in the dinning room in a large dog box (I have 4 cats in the house and the dog box was safe.)
I named him Sam and to him I still am mama even though he can't get out anymore. He started to have grandmall siezures at 8 months and I thought I would lose him but I kept him quiet and everything about his life is calm and he hasn't had a siezure in 2 years now. He loves canned peaches, persimmons in season, bread with butter on it and pecans (shelled only) as he never learned how to get into them. It is good to know a lot of folks feel the same about animals and take them in because we get made fun of so much because we raise wild cross hogs and have a squirrel on the dinning table we never used anyway.
What a wonderful thing that you rescued this sweet little thing! Bless you! My major word of caution and concern for Baby now is to keep him as an indoor pet only because he will be too trusting and won't know that other dogs or animals (and, sadly, even some humans) are his enemy that might kill him for sport or for food.
That is a beautiful story. I am glad Baby seems to be doing so well, here is a link to wildlife rehab, a great lady who does this all the time..I am not sure why this squirrel did not get sick off of milk. Most of the time, they can die and get really ill over being given milk, but as this is not my area, I could be wrong. It was so sweet of you to take care of this baby. Here is the link to the Rainbow Wildlife: www.rainbowwildlife.com/
Have fun with your baby, and remember that it is not good to post it on places like Facebook, etc, since you don' have a permit and could end up getting fined, it is not right, but it is the way it is most of the time. Love to see happy wildlife. I have never been so happy to see wild birds as I have been after the many years ago when I started taking wild injured birds to rehab. It is a beautiful thing to see an animal thrive!
On the other hand, and the complete opposite side, my aunt, bless her soul, used to have a squirrel that she raised and it lived in her house her whole life. I once asked her where it went to the bathroom. She looked at me and said she had no idea, but it lived in the clothespin bag in her laundry room.
Bless you and the darling you are taking care of.
Robyn
Hey! Was he at the Cardinals v Phillies game last night? : )
I just remembered the word for what I was mentioning yesterday! It's called "Imprinting"!
This is a good article and not too long:
www.britannica.com/
Wildlife babies won't be rejected if you put them back in the nest. I used to think that too, but it's a myth. Your baby squirrel is cute, but you're lucky it's survived with what you fed it, some animals aren't supposed to have any milk at all.
Anyone who finds an orphaned or injured animal can find a wildlife rehabilitator at this website. They can help you find out what to do with it & get it to someone who is experienced in their care & eventual release if it's possible. Not only can it kill the animal if you don't know the proper care of it, but in some areas it's illegal & can get you into a lot of trouble.
www.nwrawildlife.org/
Fantastic photos and story - wonderful of you to save him. :) My mother has squirrels as pets, she's going to love this!
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