Bedside Manners

We have a few tanks of squirrels in, nothing like what we were dealing with after Hurricane Ike. I guess that's a good thing. It's baby time in the squirrel world, so if we don't have many in, that means plenty of babies hopefully are with their mothers, growing healthy and strong in the wild, as it should be. We come in handy when something happens in that natural order.

I notice that they let me take care of the squirrel area, which delights me to no end, as miraculously I'm not allergic to them.

I'm finding differences in how some squirrels behave when it's not a crisis situation. Post-hurricane, so many of the squirrels were docile and limp -- probably because many were coming out of shock from that long, cold storm. Shaken out of cozy nests by 110 mph winds, being chilled and pelted by a dozen hours of rain and losing their mothers had them coming to us in droves sick and scared. There were also so many volunteers at any given time, and 20 babies in a tank, I guess those squirrels became a little more used to the commotion and being handled.

We effort to not imprint ourselves on the animals. You want to play with them, hug and hold them but that only hurts them when they go back into the wild. While they can adapt, the fact that they don't fear people might cause them to approach folks, or even innocently climb up their leg or arm -- and that can result in them getting hurt or killed (or shot, depending on how far out you live).

I have two tanks of siblings who seem pretty scared when it's mealtime. I try to move slowly and quietly, pick them up and put them back gently, but I notice they stay frozen and won't open their mouths to feed. The others smell the milk and grab onto the syringe and gobble the nipple with gusto.

So I learned that if I let the scared few sit on my chest, put a piece of fuzzy blanket over their head, and let them sit there for a minute under the covers, they relax. I can then slip the syringe of milk under the edge of the blanket and they are interested. As soon as they start drinking they get what's going on, and from there I can refill it and feed them normally, without any need for cover or cajoling, til they're full.

Here is one of those guys who has just finished eating and has gone back to being a little spooked. That's good, because he remains "wild".



You can see that he's a little nervous again because he's sitting so still... and it's not because he's pleasantly sleepy from a full belly. When I open my hand so you can see him, he starts just a little. But he seems to be more at ease once I swing the camera around.

I quickly put him back in his bed and watched him happily eat a few apple slices for dessert. He is getting old enough to be eating some softer fruits and nuts on his own.