Welcome to the Wildlife and Pet Forum

[MissDolittle]

I'm MissDolittle and run my non profit wildlife rescue. I'm 45 years old and
live in Texas.

I rehab wildlife for 4 years now, including songbirds, the occasional raptor
(just to hold until the raptor rehabber can come and pick him up), grey
squirrels, cottontail rabbits, opossums, and I also raise the orphaned
kittens for the local animal shelter if the wildlife rescue is not full.

I hope this forum gets a good response and help animal lovers and rehabbers
find a place to meet and ask questions, learn and share their experience.

[Tuckersmom]

[B]Hi Miss DoLittle, I am Tuckersmom. I am a new squirrel mom. My husband brought her home from his job. I really don't know what happened to her real squirrel mom.
Tucker has been with us for about 4 weeks now. I am guessing that she is about 7 weeks old. I tried to register on the squirrel board. I see my name, but it says I cannot post. I never got an email for conformation.
Do you have any idea why I didn't get the email? I really wanted to post there. There are a lot of questions that I would like to ask. Is there any way that you could get in touch with the administrater and see what the problem is? I tried to contact them twice and still have not gotten a response. I sure would appreciate it if you would pass this along to them?

Thanks so much!

[MissDolittle]

Howdy Tuckersmom and welcome!

I contacted Squerly, the Admin on the Squirrel Board. He is a member here
too, so hopefully he can help you out with that.

I have 2 squirrels of about 8 and 10 weeks..named them Maggie and Lulu :).
Do you have pics of Tucker that you can post here?

[Tuckersmom]

:dances: I am so glad that I got through to someone...THANKS SOOOO MUCH! I did get the email confirmation but not the notice yet. Hopefully I will be able to post with them soon. I don't have any pics of Tucker yet. I don't have a digital camera. (I am so far behind the times) My daughter has one. Maybe I can get her to take some of her. She is so adoreable. I talked to Chris from the Squirrel store and she said she was too young to release. I took her in the yard yesterday, in her cage because I heard somewhere that they need natural light to be healthy. I made the mistake of putting her cage on the ground.....ANTS!!!! I asked my husband to take her inside while I cleaned her cage. When he reached in to get her, she leaped out of the cage on his shoulder & then started climbing down his back. He accidently grabbed her in the wrong place because she squealed and ran from us. I was so afraid that she was going to run into the woods and get killed that I started chasing her. Well, then that startled her even more. She ran up a pine tree in our yard. I stayed out there for about four hours trying to coax her down. We left her cage right by the tree , thinking that she might come to it for water or food. When I was about to give up hope that she would ever come to us again, there she was! I coaxed her with a pecan and she came up to me. I gently reached for her and put her back in her cage! What an ordeal! I sat out there for 4 hours in the hot sun while all kinds of terrible things that could happen to her was running through my head! My hubby felt so guilty for scaring her. My hubby said that she looked like she was trying to build a nest in the tree. Does that mean that she is getting ready to be released?
I thought that the squirrel mommys taught them how to survive in the wild? Chris told me that it was instinct. I want to release her but I am so afraid. I think that is why most people don't want to release them. I am so torn etween keeping her & releasing her, but I know that she needs to be free. I want to do what is best for her. :smt089 I have only had her for such a short time but she has captured my heart! Thanks for letting me share about her.
How did you get Maggie & LU LU? What cute names!

[MissDolittle]

Your account on the squirrel board is activated now :).

I'm glad to hear that you found the cage on the ground not to be the best
thing fairly fast! I had a few babies that were bitten by ants and didn't make
it..one had over 60 bites and not even fur yet! That was so terrible!

I just pictured you chasing after Tucker, :laughter. But 4 hours, pheeew.
I'm glad you got her back.

Chris sounds right..Tucker might be able to climb and run and play, but I
doubt she'd know where and how to find food. That's what pre-release cages
are for..getting used to the outside world and learn all the essentials for
survival.

Chris from the squirrel store is the best person to talk to! She's just awesome :).

I got Maggie and Lulu from the animal cops..when they get a call for
wildlife they let me know and I get everything ready..be it a squirrel, bird,
opossum, rabbit..you name it. I'm not allowed to take in skunks, coons,
foxes, bats or larger wildlife like deer (no facilities for that), but I take in
everything else. Including orphaned puppies and kittens from the shelter
that are too young to be adopted out. Got 3 pups and 4 kittens too. I'm
not getting bored here at the moment hehehe.

[Tuckersmom]

Wow! You DO have your hands full! LOL! I took care of 4 puppies that had coccidia. Whew! Talk about a handful! I lost one of them, but the others survived. Then we found homes for them. If you can imagine, 4 little puppies running around in the bathroom with that nasty poop all over the place. I was constantly moping up and cleaning them up. I would get up around 3 in the morning to clean up the bathroom so hubby didn't have to step in it...He was so understanding though. I almost lost two more but I kept giving them the meds and that tubed stuff that gave them energy..I forgot what it is called. I would take one at a time and lay them beside me on a towel to keep a close eye on them. I took them to my vet. He was so wonderful with them. He charged me very little because he appreciated what I was doing for them. He didn't charge me for the visits...only the meds. WHAT A GUY! :lol:

Do you know how much time Tucker should spend outside to get the natural light that she needs? I try to take her out a couple of times a day (in her cage of course) I heard that they needed that to stay healthy.

[MissDolittle]

Boy do I know what you are talking about! These were the last 5 foster pups
I had. I'm sooo glad I have a big yard and a puppy pen! Even though they
weren't sick..but the shelter had a parvo outbreak and brought some of the
youngens that weren't exposed yet to me:

http://www.amazes.us/album/albums/userpics/10001/puppyall.jpg

[MissDolittle]

I forgot about the squirrel and daylight doh. I'm not sure about that to be
honest, but I think the diet makes up for it. Enough Calcium and Vitamin D
should be alright. It's the birds that definetly need direct sunlight, but I know
of pet squirrels that never see the light of day.

[MissDolittle]

Well, get a good look at Miss Dolittle here, hubby just took those pics and
I thought they are worth posting LOL:

http://www.amazes.us/album/albums/userpics/10001/normal_missdolittle1.jpg

http://www.amazes.us/album/albums/userpics/10001/normal_missdolittle.jpg

[WingedCat]

Pretty as always Miss D.

You need some more kittens and puppies around you though. :rolling

[SnyperKat]

You look awefully comfortable in those pyjamas! :D

Hehe, I agree with WingedCat... it'd be funny if there was a picture of you with all different types of animals around. ^_^