Poor squirrely. When I woke up this morning Doug was dehydrated based off skin tent test. I'm fairly certain it's because he went a couple extra hours overnight than usual. I've spent all day trying to get as much fluid in him as possible, so he ate: 1cc 1.5cc 1.5cc 1.6cc [one feeding left]
I'm working on upping his intake, he's supposed to be up to 3cc by like the end of next week, and down to 4 feedings (that'd be even easier on my schedule). He's growing nice and big, getting furred and everything. I have some pics I'll share at hte end of this update. I need to add some more hindmilk into his supply. I express in the morning so I get all foremilk, I need to start adding some hindmilk after R feeds. I can see the difference in his poops, they get foamy just like R's do when she gets alot of fore. I need to go read some more on what I need to start doing for Doug, my guess is he's close to 3 weeks now, so in another few weeks his eyes will be opening and I need to be prepared for that. I can see the slit deepening so I know it's coming soon. It's kinda exciting in a nerve racking sort of way. Once his eyes open... oh boy. I better have a cage ready for him. I'm hoping he'll be big enough to fit in the crate, but I'll probably need to line it with NICs. Crap, he's a chewer too, which means he'd chew the zip ties... Hmmm...
Don't worry, he's ok, but he did have an accident this morning. It was 2a and Pinky and I heard him squeaking. Being half asleep my brain tried to convince me he was fine and to go back to sleep. I tried to listen until Pinky said to check on him. I get up, move his fur blanket and he moves with it. WTF? I see his tail is wrapped in the fur. How he managed that is beyond me. I had to carefully cut him away, then there was still fur wrapped fairly tightly around his tail. As I was beginning to work that away without hurting him R starts stirring. I ended up having to lay back down to nurse her and almost fell asleep. Once I was able I got back to Doug. I initially thought it had lacerated his skin, but it just bruised it pretty badly. He's doing fine today. Last night I weighed him and he was 27.1g this morning he was 26.7, so only a .5g loss, better than previous days.
I better end here for now. Apparently I'm so tired I[m falling asleep.
Sort of. I went to my favorite store yesterday, Joanne's, specifically to get little D some fur to make him feel more cozy. I, of course, rummaged thru the remnant section as well. I got a few fabrics for me, and a fleece for the animals (or whatever I decide to do with it), as well as the fur [full price]. Since Doug like to snuggle up to the water bottle I thought a cozy to slip onto the bottle would be great... and it was. I also cut an extra piece as a blanket for him, and used some of the fleece for the floor and a bumper in his box. He really seems to enjoy it :)
Doug obviously approves :D
After doing a bit of reading last night I discovered I really don't need to wake up to feed Doug. I also learned I should only be feeding him about 5 times a day at this age (somewhere around 2 weeks). So I've begun down the path to feeding more less. The site I was looking at last night had a better feel to it than the others I've seen. It wasn't all "rawr, you must feed formula or else it will die!" It actually goes the other way and claims more squirrels die on formula than, say, scalded milk (the food they happen to be pushing). I'll stick with my milk thankyouverymuch.
OK, that's all for now. R has been a royal pain in the emeffing A over napping and try as I might to get her down for more than 20 mins, she just won't have it and is awake again.
I decided to make squirrel Doug a blog to help chronical his journey. He has generated a lot of interest so I'd like to have one place to update that way I'm sure not to forget something in all of my cross posting.
Doug's Story
Doug came to us the afternoon of August 08, 2009. I made an unexpected trip to Toys R Us to meet another AP mama for a Melissa & Doug responsibility chart she no longer wanted/needed. Had I not made this trip I may not have found Doug... which is why I named him after the brand.
When I arrived back home I saw our adopted stray cat Ninja playing with something. I thought "Oh great, she killed something else." I unloaded R and everything else, and as I approch Ninj I bend down to get a look at this critter she brought us. Then I saw it's sides moving. "Sh*t, it's still alive." I hurried inside, put R in her highchair, dropped everything else, got a rag from the bunny room and went to fetch this critter. I had no idea what it was yet, no idea what to do with it, just that I had to take care of it and make every attempt I could to ensure his survival. I had nothing on hand to feed it, much less did I know what I was supposed to feed it not knowing what it was. So the only thing I had was breastmilk. I expressed a small amount and began feeding it to him.
Day 1 with Doug was pretty much a wait and see game. Day 2 Doug squeezed out a little bit of poopie. Day 3 he began to pee and poop regularly. Day 4 he began eating more than .5cc. I finally managed to weigh him on day 4 at which time he weighed 27.6 grams. Day 5 (today) Doug eats anywhere from .3cc- 1cc each meal. he eats roughly every 2 hours during the day. I feed him right before I go to bed and as soon as I can manage to get up.
Some pictures since we've had him:
Day 1 (080809)
Day 2 (080909)
Day 3 (081009)
Day 5 (081209)
...and some video of Doug
Day 2
(yes that's my daughter screaming in the background)
Day 4
So far Doug has been doing great. I have no plans on changing his food, quite honestly I can't afford to buy him artificial milk, nor would I want to. Besides, if my milk is good enough to grow a human baby, it's good enough to grow a baby squirrel. (For those who don't know, of may have stumbled across my blog, I am dairy/soy/egg free right now because my daughter has food allergies. I mention this because in my research I have read that rodents cannot tolerate these things.)
That's all for Doug's intro. I do hope you'll follow us on his journey. I most hope that it's long and uneventful up until his eventual release.
