Babies - human or animal, they are all so
cuuuute! As you can see, Karen and I are hand feeding baby squirrels. A kindhearted tree cutter was distraught to find a squirrel's nest in a tree he'd just cut down. He boxed up the 5 babies and rushed them to the SPCA for TLC. The high volume of squirrel babies is making it harder to find rehabilitators who have room and time for even more of the demanding little things, so of course, Karen offered to take them in. Little did she know how much time it takes, but she is sure (or at least desperately hoping) that things will speed up as she has more practice with them and they get older. So far it is taking about an hour, every 4 hours - Moms, does that sound familiar?!!
These little guys and gals are covered in such a find fuzz that they are practically still naked. Their eyes are still shut and from nose tip to tale tip they are about 5 inches long. They are kept in a fuzzy pouch, on a towel, in a plastic animal crate, on top of a heating pad. Before eating they must be stimulated with a warm wet Q-tip to eliminate waste and then quickly fed while still very warm. The formula must be baby-bottle warm and the syringe is tiny. If they drink too fast we have to blot their little noses to keep their airways clear!
An hour's work the first time or two, but we are whittling it down a bit each time. Thank goodness Karen only has 5, some caregivers have 20 - 30! As you can see by the pictures, the little ones are precious and I can't wait to start taking care of my own little group. Off to training on squirrel care :)
Karen, the scuba diving, bird watching, rehabilitating, teacher feeding a hungry little squirrel - wish you could hear the squeaking - almost sounds like baby ducks - eeep eeep eeep (imagine ear piercing high pitch)
Could anything be cuter? Me, in my Longwood Univ. T-shirt (courtesy of youngest daughter), holding a curious squirrel baby after washing it with a warm, wet Q-tip to get it to relieve itself before feeding. Somehow, this hadn't been on my agenda for the summer, but life is full of surprises!
