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tyrannicalrex
Strange R



Registered: 04/24/03
Posts: 38,331
Loc: subtropics
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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: Patlal] 1
#26698056 - 05/26/20 09:34 PM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Yeah, put it back outside, it's best even though you may feel pangs of sadness.
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Fiery
Sword of Fire


Registered: 12/24/12
Posts: 36,574
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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: tyrannicalrex]
#26698076 - 05/26/20 09:47 PM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Yeah I caught a baby rabbit living under my collard greens this spring.
It was 3 weeks old just old enough to survive. I wanted to keep it but I set it free.
And then a week later that little fukker was eating my clover! But I let it.. HAHA!
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koods
Ribbit



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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: Fiery]
#26698108 - 05/26/20 10:03 PM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Look for the nest. It can’t be far. How did that thing end up in the driveway tho?
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NotSheekle said “if I believed she was 16 I would become unattracted to her”
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Patlal
You ask too many questions


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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: koods]
#26698753 - 05/27/20 07:01 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Well, here's an update.
They got their heads ripped off and ants have swarmed them.
Yay nature...
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Tantrika
Miss Ann Thrope




Registered: 03/26/12
Posts: 17,138
Loc: Lashed to the pyre
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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: Patlal] 1
#26698772 - 05/27/20 07:13 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Patlal said: Well, here's an update.
They got their heads ripped off and ants have swarmed them.
Yay nature...
In the future, do not pick it up unless it is in imminent danger it is possible the mother was carrying it, panicked and ran away, then found it later with your scent on it and killed it herself
yay the road to hell being paved with good intentions
if it is in imminent danger, get it to a vet immediately
am aware that you wish you had a pet squirrel, but you are a thoroughbred city boy who does not have the skillset to see that aspiration through
hell, even as someone who grew up around farms and helping birth goats and stuff would not consider myself to be in a place to raise and tame a squirrel it is not impossible, just an animal of a different nature
(the woman who babysat me on the farm in my youth even had a pet raccoon at one point that drank from a bottle and wore a diaper when it was young)
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1234go
Ban Lotto Champion


Registered: 07/08/09
Posts: 54,399
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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: Tantrika]
#26698787 - 05/27/20 07:21 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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All that "the mother will reject its young if they smell human" is an old wives tale from what I've learned over the years.
Quote:
Old Wives Tale: "If you touch a baby the mother will smell the human scent on them and will reject or kill it." This is one of the most common myths we hear and it is absolutly untrue. This is most commonly heard in reference to birds. The reality is, very few birds in the world have any sense of smell at all and those who do smell either do not live in the US, or use their sense of smell to find rotting flesh, so human smell would not really bother them. With mammals this is not true either. The mom may think their baby smells gross, and give it a huge bath, but she will not reject or kill it.
In most cases, the best help you can give to a baby is to put it back where its mother can find it.
Quote:
Bunnies: Many people think they have found orphaned bunnies when they find babies alone. Mother rabbits leave their young most of the day, only coming back to feed them a few times, mostly at dawn and dusk. If you find a bunny that you think is in need of help, try to locate its nest. If the nest is intact, put the bunny back. If a bunny is fully furred and has its eyes open, its probably old enough to make it on its own. If you find a baby bunny who does not have its eyes open, and you cannot find its nest, it does need help.
If you find a nest that is seriously disturbed, try to put it back together, but DO NOT move it! Mother bunnies expect their nest to be exactly where they left them. Moving them as far as just a foot can ensure that mom won't return.
Understand that raising orphaned bunnies without experience is very tricky. Even many experienced rehabilitators will tell you it is nearly impossible to keep them alive. This is due to the fact that they need the cecotropes from a female rabbit each day. This is the reason that only rehabilitators with adult female rabbits in permanent residents are usually successful at rehabilitating bunnies.
Also, if you find an orphan in need, please do not keep it in temperatures above 80 degrees as this can be deadly.
https://www.nc-claws.org/index.php/rehabilitation/found-a-baby
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Tantrika
Miss Ann Thrope




Registered: 03/26/12
Posts: 17,138
Loc: Lashed to the pyre
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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: 1234go]
#26698794 - 05/27/20 07:26 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
1234go said: All that "the mother will reject its young if they smell human" is an old wives tale from what I've learned over the years. ...
Thanks for the update am familiar with a lot of mammalian species that eat their young for various reasons but the bath if able to find it makes good sense
the eating of just the head does not make sense from a predation point tho cats will consume lesser bones and organs and eat 90% of a corpse (my cat Bits does it all the time with mice, small birds, and the occasional bunny when the weather is nice enough for her to be out) dogs will more or less eat something that size whole owls eat everything then vomit the bones and stuff back up in a pellet
but yeah, birds are another good example of typically don't go near them often the age that they seem to have "fallen" from the nest is the age they are learning to fly
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koods
Ribbit



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Posts: 106,332
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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: 1234go]
#26698796 - 05/27/20 07:27 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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What about the one you found?
You didn’t say how their heads got ripped off. You said it in a suspiciously passive tense, like maybe you ripped their heads off then “oh look their heads got ripped off’
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NotSheekle said “if I believed she was 16 I would become unattracted to her”
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koods
Ribbit



Registered: 05/26/11
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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: koods]
#26698801 - 05/27/20 07:29 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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It was probably a hawk of some kind of bird. Too heavy to carry off in one piece so they shredded them.
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NotSheekle said “if I believed she was 16 I would become unattracted to her”
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Tantrika
Miss Ann Thrope




Registered: 03/26/12
Posts: 17,138
Loc: Lashed to the pyre
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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: koods]
#26698803 - 05/27/20 07:31 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
koods said: What about the one you found?
You didn’t say how their heads got ripped off. You said it in a suspiciously passive tense, like maybe you ripped their heads off then “oh look their heads got ripped off’
if this means the one I found in my youth ran over a nest that was in long grass using the town's riding mower going through the lot that became the ice rink in the winter was doing another lap and saw the dead bunny cut into pieces on the ground; it was pretty horrible, it's head was half sawed off its body, the front of its nose had been cleaved off and its guts were spilling out of cuts in its torso but it was laying there with a look of intense fear in its eyes and seemed to be still breathing somewhat so I backed up and ran over it with the tire to crush it with the weight of the mower

looked around, saw another running in panicked circles in the last patch of grass due for me to mow carefully scooped it up, drove the mower back to my house, put it in a kennel until Mom got home to help care for and feed it then drove the mower back out and finished up
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Tantrika
Miss Ann Thrope




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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: koods]
#26698807 - 05/27/20 07:32 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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that could be feasible actually, come to think of it possibly even a city crow would go in for a bit of easy meat
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1234go
Ban Lotto Champion


Registered: 07/08/09
Posts: 54,399
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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: Tantrika]
#26698812 - 05/27/20 07:35 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Tantrika said: the eating of just the head does not make sense from a predation point tho cats will consume lesser bones and organs and eat 90% of a corpse (my cat Bits does it all the time with mice, small birds, and the occasional bunny when the weather is nice
I don't think that's a sure thing all of the time. I find quite a bit of headless birds, and mice that my cat brings onto the porch. Other times she'll eat more, and only leave the back end/legs.
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Tantrika
Miss Ann Thrope




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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: 1234go] 1
#26698817 - 05/27/20 07:37 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
1234go said:
Quote:
Tantrika said: the eating of just the head does not make sense from a predation point tho cats will consume lesser bones and organs and eat 90% of a corpse (my cat Bits does it all the time with mice, small birds, and the occasional bunny when the weather is nice
I don't think that's a sure thing all of the time. I find quite a bit of headless birds, and mice that my cat brings onto the porch. Other times she'll eat more, and only leave the back end/legs.
Fair Bits is a fat ass, all she ever leaves is a blood stain, an organ or two (think the liver for birds?), and some scattered feathers/hair am honestly under the impression she just eats the majority of the feathers in the process even
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larry.fisherman
shoulda died already


Registered: 11/03/12
Posts: 36,294
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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: Tantrika]
#26698838 - 05/27/20 07:46 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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I wouldn't say that scent based rejection is an old wives tale as much as it's not as common as it is suggested. It's definitely real, it happens. It's the weighing of risk that is the issue. Don't wanna maybe take care of a baby bunny for weeks and weeks? Maybe wear some gloves. Which is fairly common practice in cuniculture(rabbit husbandry) because rabbits can and will consume their young if necessary. Especially the males. This is very common among rodents and rodent-relatives(yes I know bunnies are lagomorphs not rodents)
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1234go
Ban Lotto Champion


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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: Tantrika] 1
#26698851 - 05/27/20 07:53 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Lol, cats can have some pretty odd quirks. I used to have a cat that'd catch what looked like the same mouse almost every day over the span of about a month or two. My cat was fat, and couldn't move fast, but so was the mouse...I kind of get the feeling it was a game they played, because my cat (Toonces - RIP) never killed it, but just gently held it in his mouth, and would then drop it, and watch it run around some more.
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Tantrika
Miss Ann Thrope




Registered: 03/26/12
Posts: 17,138
Loc: Lashed to the pyre
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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: 1234go] 1
#26698859 - 05/27/20 08:00 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Bits was feral for a few years at least before Mom and Merlin took her in so she's got that background of hunting to survive the winter and stuff just now she'll kill and eat something in the garage, then come inside and beg for canned food on top of it
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1234go
Ban Lotto Champion


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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: Tantrika] 1
#26698922 - 05/27/20 08:25 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Ha, yeah the cat that I was referring to had also been feral (I think) before showing up at my door.
Also, I used to have a cat named Merlin!
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Magenta
I care!!


Registered: 06/14/09
Posts: 20,322
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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: Tantrika]
#26698944 - 05/27/20 08:38 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Tantrika said: a bunny, and at that age prolly as good as dead in civilian care
Agreed, just give it to your dog for a snack so that it at least doesn't go to waste.
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The Blind Ass
Bodhi



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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: Magenta]
#26698974 - 05/27/20 08:53 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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My bunnies cannot eat meat & even certain veggies and fruits without dying. Their digestive track is different, delicate and specialized. Just farting can be a big deal & the buildup of gas can kill them at times.
-------------------- Give me Liberty caps -or- give me Death caps
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Patlal
You ask too many questions


Registered: 10/09/10
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Loc: Ottawa
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Re: i have a baby squirrel in my hand right now [Re: The Blind Ass]
#26698978 - 05/27/20 08:54 AM (3 years, 8 months ago) |
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Killer farts.
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