The squirrels are growing fast!

The squirrels are in one big group of 12 now and in a bigger cage. They have all kinds of hammocks and boxes in their cage but they all have to sleep in one! The hammock on the left....

 ....I can't believe all 12 fit in there....along with all the shredded newspaper they drag up in there!

 Then they hear mom coming with food! Yayyyyyy...and everyone is up and about.

 Cute little Spot is usually the first to come running.

 Walnut isn't far behind.

 After their formula everyone gets a treat....yummy nuts to exercise their growing teeth on! Some are not patient enough to wait for their own and try to steal someone elses.

 Most have learned to grab it and run to a private corner to avoid illegal seizures, LOL!

 Hey....where's mine!

 Once everyone has a nut, they settle in somewhere to hide and eat the treasured treats.

They all range from 150 to 300 grams now and are growing like weeds. Even little Acorn has finally overcome the issues he had and is gaining ground on the rest. Now it's just a matter of time before they are weaned and moving to a large outdoor release pen.

The Squirrels

The three youngest squirrels, Acorn, Almond and Walnut, are doing well. I was a little on the fence with Acorn for a bit. He was still having terrible gut issues and loosing weight as opposed to gaining and just down right sickly, but I think he's finally turned a corner. Last weigh-in he actually gained weight! I'm still keeping a close eye on him, but the weight gain was huge!

The original six maniacs are great! Eating like pigs and playing around like crazy now.
Three of the little ones, Atty, Stripe and Whistler, stop wrestling long enough to pose for a picture.

This is Foxer (one of the 2 big girls) with Spot, the smallest of the little ones.

They are having a blast climbing around and playing.

Little Spot, my sweetheart. She may be tiny, but she huge on energy! No problem keeping up with her siblings and her 2 larger step-sisters.....and she loves her momma too!

Playtime is not restricted to inside the cage either! Trying to keep them in order during feeding time is crazy! When I go to put one back in, the rest are waiting at the door to slip by when I open it...

....grabbing the empty syringes to try to suck down more formula.....

...or heading right for the source....the cup of warming formula....

...or just teasing the younger 3 in their cage.

It's almost time for a bigger cage. Once I see a little more improvement in Acorn, everyone will move up to a bigger cage together to make one big happy family.

Got a call from work on my day off about a squirrel found laying on someones porch. I picked him up and brought him home. He's doing fine! No idea what happened to him. No external injuries and in good shape. He's not a baby, maybe an older juvenile. Basically old enough to want to kill me though. My guess, he had a fall or got a good whack by a car, enough to daze him but not hurt him. Instead of releasing him back near the busy street where he was found, this lucky guy will go out into the release pen and get a soft release here where he has a better chance of avoiding deadly run-ins with cars and humans.

Hurricane refugees.

OK...I'm fed up with Dell....never again! I won't bore you with that. I'm also fed up with Blogger since I just wrote a whole long post here and it didn't save it! So short version....

Here are the cute little babies I got almost 2 weeks ago when their tree was cut down... 

....and here they are with 2 monster babies I took off Laurie's hands (she seemed to get the brunt of the calls for displaced babies from the hurricane) They are refugee's from hurricane related tree issues.

All are happily snuggled in safe and sound together...and how cute are they!?

I lost all my email contacts when my computer fried....so if I neglected to get in touch with anyone, you know why! Melinda & Maddy....I have squirrels...email me! :)

Fun with foraging!

Bear with me! My computer is slowly but surely up and running again. It's been nothing but a nightmare since the hard drive they replaced mine with is not loaded with the same things. Having trouble working with pictures and files of course. Oh and when I right click a picture to "rotate clockwise" when they are upside down......they disappear never to be seen again! WTF!!!!!!! I am annoyed beyond words and to be honest, I shouldn't have to be calling Dell every freaking day and wasting hours of my time getting all these little glitches worked out. It's making us all miss out on the cuteness!

Thanks to my cell phone, we have these though. One of many ways to keep babies busy. This happens to be a suet feeder. I fill it with chunks of goodies like apples and sweet potato and hang it in the pen. They have to work at it to get the food out...keeping idle paws busy. And it's fun to boot!

Add in the fact that it's hanging over the pool and anything that falls out means it is bobbing for goodies time!

I've got 4 cute little baby squirrels. I'll get those pictures on here when I get my computer to start cooperating. The 5 possies were released a couple weeks ago and 5 new ones have replaced them! They'll be here until they are big enough to go on their merry way....soon I hope!

Gibby, Scrappy, River and the kids and the rest of the regulars continue to pop in for a visit here and there. I'm hoping they all have secure places to hunker down and ride out hurricane Irene scheduled to hit us Sunday sometime. I'm a little nervous about the high winds and falling trees out here. Lets hope the ones that fall are all empty and miss the pens!!

The squirrel update!

I have to say I've been getting a little frustrated with Blogger! Seems every time I try to update it is not working. So better late than never....finally an update on the squirrels!

Sweetie, Luci, Wombat and his sister have graduated to the outdoor release pen with some of JoAnn's squirrels. One big happy family they should be ready to go in about a week!

The three little kids, Pee Wee and his sisters, are doing great! They've graduated to a bigger cage with trees and climbing room and will probably go out to a release pen in about a week with JoAnn's next batch. Pee Wee has done amazing and caught right up to his sisters. He's not the tiny little man any more!

It's been crazy with coons here lately and I'll get their update on here soon!

A lot of updates!

Here is the new kid on the block. His tree was cut down and the gentleman that did it didn't realize there was a problem until he heard this little guy screaming and clinging to a branch. Unfortunately the rest of the family did not make it, but the man was kind enough to scoop this guy up and get him to me. He's a monster squirrel...huge for his age. He basically weighs what Peewee weighed when he came in, and Peewee was 4 weeks older!

Chunky was in perfect condition when I got him, having only lost his mother 3 hours prior, and amazingly not a single injury from the fall. He's doing great and eating like a pig. Speaking of Peewee.....he is doing great as well! Although still smaller than his sisters, he's growing like a weed and gaining ground fast...especially since he's not competing for mom's milk anymore. He's going to be just fine.
Sweetie, Luci, Wombat and his sister have already moved from this cage into the larger pre-release cage. They have graduated to bowls of formula and are eating solid foods well.

2 squirrels that came in from McGrath Animal Hospital where I used to work and 3 squirrels that arrived just before heading out to Laurie's birthday party have all be relocated with another rehabber who amazingly had none yet! She said she would take 10, so we took a look at the hoard we all had and mixed and matched and got a group together for her, including a couple of Lisa's and some that came in while we celebrated Laurie turning 29 (again...LOL).

Now for the raccoons.

Lucky & Ducky are doing great. Not having had mom at all, they are a little behind the 8 ball...smaller and slower to develop, but they are thriving. Stony's 2, Pebbles and Porcelain, are doing great as well. They had mom's milk for a whole day and what a difference it makes. They are larger and although a week younger, their eyes opened much sooner.
Here we have Lucky and Ducky on the left (Ducky being the smallest little guy in the middle) and Pebbles on the right.

Porcelain so named because she is almost white...not even a light blond tint like the light ones usually are, but white. She's beautiful and the biggest and fluffiest of the group.

Actually they are all a little fluffier now after getting baths. Someone decided to poop in there and of course they ALL had to roll in it! Lucky was less than thrilled I think! LOL

On to Trooper the monster coon! A perfect example of how much better mom's milk really is! He had mom for over 2 weeks and it shows! Weighing in at over a pound now(560 grams).....he's not fat, he's just big boned!

He's at the puppy dog stage...where his ears look more like a puppy's.

He is now in with the 2 sisters rescued from the evil homeowner, Doc and a yet to be named sister. Doc is missing part of an ear so it will always be easy to identify her! Both girls are about the same age as Trooper, but about 200 grams smaller. Like I said...he's a monster coon!

They love to snuggle with their fur from coats for cubs....thanks to Pat cutting some of the coats up into usable sized pieces for them!

I have wonderful news about River and her babies! I finally got a peek at all 4, very adorable and playful kits with River. Since putting her in the enclosed section of the pen, I have not been able to check the babies due to her murderous attempts to kill me anytime I tried to open the door! I could only hope for the best and quickly toss food and water in there and slam the door shut just before she could reach me and maul me...hehe. Now that the main part of the pen is vacant and cleaned.....she's had some more breathing room and has been out exploring.....

She is also much less murderous towards me when I approach the pen on this side....she has even calmly sat there on the other side of the door while I toss some food in to her.

Well, a couple nights ago all 4 were out with mom hanging out on that top shelf and in that den box! I had the very extreme pleasure of watching her gently play with the very mobile and curious kits. I'm happy to report that Tigris, Amazon, Nile and Howell are perfect and adorable as ever. As soon as I see them out when there is enough light for pictures, you'll see for yourselves!

Dad is making great progress on the isolation room. What used to be an empty corner that collected junk is quickly becoming a very useful area.

Frame, fluorescent light and door is up, some electrical outlets are going in as we speak and it won't be long before it's in use I'm sure!

I think that pretty much brings us up to speed...gotta go help dad bring up the new microwave....mine of course s#!t the bed the other morning...just as I was rushing around trying to get everyone fed before leaving for work of course! Grrrrrr