Development Delayed

I am going to recap the post that was lost the other evening.

It appears that Baby Squirrel Oscar is developmentally delayed. His peers who are a week or so younger are already sitting up, holding food and their tails are arching over their backs. Oscar can barely crawl and he eats and sleeps most of his life away.

Squirrel expert, Donna, says that he will clearly not be able to be released this year which means that he'll need care throughout the winter. He'll still need to develop some big squirrel skills and to this end, we're begun on an infant-squirrel-stimulation-program.

In addition to carrying him in a pouch around my neck so that he gets motion and different sounds/smells, he is encouraged to use his limbs for balance and climbing.

Items in a plastic tray provide stimulation.

He is being handled more and exposed to different situations. A friend, ML, collected pine cones and these provide a semblance of the outdoors for him. Great texture for climbing, too.

We are going to see how well he comes along over the next two weeks.

Bit of an arch to his tail which is a good sign.