I love this picture :)

squirrels and caffeine

Squirrels manufacture their own caffeine. As soon as they wake up in the morning, they get hit with a surge of it. This enables them to be so hyper all day. People do not manufacture their own caffeine. They must start their day with an outside source, to even TRY to keep up with the aforementioned squirrels. Make sense? I tried to explain this to Butchie after he stole my tea bag (yes, still in cup), and later tried drinking my actual tea.

I was walking down the street after putting on a new shirt; and there is chewed tissue coming out of the right sleeve. Peanuts fly when I shake out blankets. And remember the scene in A Christmas Story with all the toys in the teacher's drawer? I HAVE a drawer like that! Everything I have pulled out of their mouths :P.

random videos

These are from June, 2011, I think? Butchie was smaller, has more red, and also a slightly rounder head/face: Butchie on the left in the beginning; Joey has the leaves: Butchie looking for that perfect hiding spot for his treasure :) : Butchie and Joey wrestling (Butchie on the left). Joey is a full month older but he was always so very gentle :) : I missed the first part of this, but pure genius on Butchie's part; what better place to hide a peanut then UNDER all the other peanuts in the dish! NO ONE will think to look there!!

AWWWWW :)

One of the first videos of the boys together :)

Meet the Boys!!

These are just a few of the first pictures of Butchie, taken in March 2011. THe fourth picture is the girl I believe is/was Butchie's Mommy. Butchie was probably at about the three week mark; eyes still closed; very little fur. He was very cold and barely breathing/moving when I found him.

These are some of the first pictures of Joey, taken in March and April 2011. JOey was quite a bit older and was found by a very kind gentleman who called me the next morning after I met him. Rehabbers told me he was probably 8-10 weeks old when I first got him.

April 10 diary -- videos :)

04-10-2011, 02:02 AM


The boys are doing great  . Bad me, haven't weighed them in two days, but will later today. I have been sucked in to their "What do you mean we hafta sit still in this bowl?! Don't you realise we are STARVING?!?!" It's sad, poor starving boys  .


Took me abit to sort out videos. Butchie looks more like Joey every day. He is almost 6 weeks now. I have to look at the pictures and videos at what color the fleece blankie is. It's all sorted now so here they are:


Butchie sampling a rodent block . He REALLY wanted to hold it all by himself , but wasn't quite sure what to do with it.:





The never ending wind knocked a small branch off the neighbor's tree. Saw it and instantly thought of Joey . Butchie's Mommy and the other squirrels love to nibble this particular tree.; it's a willow of some sort:



I am behind on pictures but will try to get some up soon. Working on getting Butchie to take more at each feeding (he is more then happy to help in this venture, starving, remember??). He was at 6 then 6.5, then 7 yesterday and today I think we will go for 7.5. He took 28 cc's yesterday . Joey took 40, up from 14. Seems every other day Joey likes to mess with me and not want formula  . Good news is he will drink it out of a bowl. Though sometimes he decides after it's in the bowl he wants to try out the syringes. Next feeding "Why would I eat from a syringe? Put it in my bowl!"  . Ah squirrels. Butchie, he doesn't care, jhe ust wants it NOW .

With Butchie being at 6 weeks and Joey maybe a month more, what should they be getting each day and how would I work that out? They eat approximately every 5 hours, a little longer at night. Joey does eat other foods as well, but as long as he begs for formula I figure it's fine; according to what I have read here and at other sites he can stay on as long as he wants, right?

I wanted to try the Boo balls, but don't have the baby food or pecans. Any variations that would be acceptable? Could I add pureed fruit like apple or banana? I have the formula and (I think  ) proper rodent blocks (picture on previous page). I do have the coconut oil as well as coconut milk.

Oh! Butchie also tried some yogurt a couple of days ago! Licked it off my fingers/thumbs. So cute     . I kinda cheat to get them to be interested in the rodent blocks; I lightly coat them with coconut oil. I give them to Joey in the mornings; he dismantles them quite well, but whether he eats them later I am not sure?  . He also dismantled apples at first then would go back and eat them. Butchie also dismantled his block a bit, but he did swallow some I think. What else can I offer him? I give him solids only after he has eaten and it's registered that he has eaten. You know how they run around wildly after feeding, snorting and grunting and still acting half starved? Or maybe that's just my boys? Then a couple few minutes later it hits them "Oh yeah! She did feed us!", and they get all sleepy .

April 7 diary -- pictures/video :)

 04-07-2011, 09:24 AM


Baby Pictures 


Butchie:












Joey:








Never noticed this before, he looks like he is sucking his thumb!  Too sweet!!






Videos in a bit .






04-07-2011, 03:07 PM


Is this the right rodent block for the boys? No Mazuri or anything else  




04-07-2011, 09:41 PM

I was going to post earlier short video clips, but at the last feeding, I managed to get video of each one eating. These were taken a bit more then an hour ago :


Butchie:



Joey:



Wild how noisy they are  

Butchie now weighs in at 153 grams, and I think will move up to 7cc's per feeding soon. He gains 2-7 grams/day .

Joey weighs in at 254 grams and may need more then the 10 cc's he takes. Sometimes he drinks well, sometimes not. But he gains steadily, maybe 10 grams/day for the last few days.

Both are eating every 5 hours; a bit longer at night.

04-07-2011, 10:05 PM

Hi **  . I actually did try the nipples with Joey when I first started feeding him. They don't fit his current syringes so for a time I had him on the 1cc syringes. Problem is he really tried nibbling them, and that's when I panicked a bit. Even with Butchie now I worry he might pull them off and swallow them. I am hoping the new nipples I ordered are a bit tougher.

Do you think the rodent blocks I bought will be ok? I haven't opened the bag and thought about bringing them back if they aren't ok, but I may offer them to my mice and gerbil, even if they aren't ok for the boys.

Never heard from the vet. My guess is whoever called was a one time type; maybe they found help for the baby? I know my friend who works at another vet says they don't hear back after the initial call. I did update the nice guy who gave me Joey a few days later. He has my number in case he comes across any. Not sure he would call but one never knows. He apparently is in the tree trimming business.

April 5 diary

04-05-2011, 01:09 AM


Butchie and Joey are doing well. Butchie weighed in at 140 grams - double what he was 23 days ago . Joey weighed in at 233 grams .


Butchie had no interest in playing with Joey, except to pounce on him once and scold him several times. Joey was pretty crazy yesterday evening; maybe he was too much for Butchie? I haven't had them together much because Butchie does seem overwhelmed by Joey. Butchie will play with me (complete with an assortment of the coolest noises     ) , and loves to snuggle and climb and explore. I wonder if he is developing normally but only having Joey as comparison and Joey being so much older I can't really tell. I do have videos of Butchie and can get more. Butchie actually jumped out of his 5 gallon tank Sunday night; little bugger is fast !! He plays some, pees and poos on his own now, is taking 6cc's each feeding (HIS idea to move up so fast ). Mostly he just sleeps but that's about right for his age, right? At six weeks he would still be tucked in the nest with his littermates? I noticed he is going through a spooky phase now too? Usually he is fairly calm, but last week and now this week he spooks easier then he used to. He always scolds if he hears sounds he doesn't like; he has been like that from the beginning. If it is just me and him, he is very calm and sweet, snuggly and friendly. I noticed when Joey was playing last night he would freeze or curl up and try to snuggle under his blankies. Joey did come over to him and groom him and try to snuggle a bit, and Butchie kinda protested and wasn't as interested as he used to be. Hopefully just a phase? Maybe I should try giving them some time together when Joey is calm and sleepy? (No, really!! It happens!! Sometimes Joey stops playing and SLEEPS!! I have pictures to prove it!!).

Joey was EVERYWHERE yesterday!! Wow, I want that energy!! Came and played with me, bounced and made his own assortment of the coolest little noises; I swear he giggles sometimes   . CRACKS me up!! Scolded me when I picked him up to put him back in his bin (he needs a new cage; will work on that later today). He didn't want formula today; just couldn't coax him to take more then a few cc's. He ate well on his own, cereals, veggies, banana, yogurt, a few slivered almonds. I mixed some formula in with the cereal; I think he tried a bit. He is not into brocolli, cauliflower or sugar peas, so I mixed those with yogurt and banana and he ate some. He does seem to like leafy greens like dandelion (safe, from our yard), and kale. I didn't go out and pick weeds because the wind was too cold, and I was feeling wimpy yesterday. We have had crazy weather; record high on Saturday and snow Sunday. Tuesday should be nice but always with that wind .

My mom took one of our kitties to the vet for pre-dental bloodwork. Vet mentioned they had someone call about a baby squirrel. Mom told her to give them her cell # if they or anyone calls again, then she will give the phone to me. (she told the vet I have all the supplies and food). Somehow I have become a squirrel expert, how scary is that? With the exception of the lady ** told me about, and one more I happened upon on this forum, I know of no rehabbers in this state  . Maybe the vets don't know either? Both the ones I know about are pretty far away; no one in this city.

**, I ordered some bigger syringes from Chris. My order is still in the processing stage so I hope my card info went through ok. Butchie does NOT like switching syringes so often, poor guy (he gets VERY attached to them!!). I ordered 3cc syringes for him, and some actual 5cc ones for Joey. I also got some different nipples one was listed as Chris' favorites. Also ordered another bag of 32/40, sigh, just in case. I have no issues raising more babies; what freaks me is the actual release. If it's not cats, or dogs, or people, it's cars. I also saw some pretty good size hawks flying overhead last week  . I try not to think about releasing. I have no cage, and no idea how to build one. Money is still tight right now. Hoping I still have a few weeks to figure out what to do.

I need to get my pictures uploaded to photobucket; then will post those and some videos. 

Oh! For warming syringes, I use the heating pad. Problem is the other morning I didn't tuck them under far enough. Sometimes if I am in a rush, I keep them in the hot water cup. Then I have to feed Joey first, because his leak out into the water  . Butchie's usually don't because of the silicon nipples.