Welcome to August's Web Site

NOTE 5-27-2002: Squirrels are considered wild animals even if you raise them yourself because at some point in their lives they will revert to a wild behavior. Just as it is natural for them to fight for dominance in the wild when a squirrel becomes an adult they will fight for dominance in a house and will not differentiate between people and other squirrels when kept from their native or natural environment.

August moved Saturday 4/14/2000 to a new home in Hackett AR. He is living at the Deer Acres petting zoo where everyone can go see him and enjoy him. I will post more information soon.

These are two pictures of August in his new home. That's Kristy in the left hand picture and August is right at her finger-tips. The one on the right is August on his new "bucket house." I expect that Kristy will be going to see him every weekend at least for awhile. She has been asked if she would like to be a zoo helper and work at the zoo perhaps on weekends or at least on Saturdays. If this works out you can go to the Deer Acres zoo and see Kristy to. :-) I'll be posting new pictures as I get them.

August has another red squirrel living in the very next cage over from his so he has company. He has much more room to run around in and so far appears to be right at home.

Last Pictures taken on 4-22-2000

Hackett Zoo Website

The reason he had to move was because he was getting far to unpredictable and could go from being playful to attack squirrel in a moment without warning or reason. Kristy was the only one who could handle him and I was concerned that one day he might turn against her as well. Being bitten by a mad red squirrel is no fun at all.

Don't worry about Kristy, she loves going to the zoo and we bought her a new miniature Dachshund and I expect it won't be long and he will have his own website as well..

Meet Bazel, he's taking a nap now.

Site designed for animal lovers and people who discover an orphand baby squirrel who are looking for options as to what to do about it.

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August

August likes to lay on the top level of his tree in the living room and watch TV.
Click on the picture to see short AVI of August.

NOTE 5-27-2002: Links on this website have been fixed as of today thanks to one of those robots that browse the web and report links and such to the webmasters.

IF you are a Windows 98 user and you have Indeo drivers you will want to download this file of August. It's the same file and about the same quality but you won't believe just how small it is. It downloads much faster.

August Isn't a Baby Anymore

12-27-1998
As you can see here August isn't a baby anymore. He weighs in just over a pound and a half. He is a healthy happy member of the family. He just loves to tear up sticks and you can choose to give him sticks to chew on or he will find other things in the house to destroy, like your coffee table, furniture, cloths, blankets, towels, window trim boards, doors, entertainment centers, all the buttons on your TV remote controls and just about anything else you might imagine. A squirrel is a rodent and as nature would have it their teeth grow all the time. In order to keep them at a managable length a rodent must chew on things. You can't ever teach a rodent not to chew on things so don't even bother to try. What you can do is give them things to chew on and teach them that when they want to chew on something they should use the things given to them. The best way to accomplish this is to provide things for them that are natural for them to chew on. Things like this branch are found in nature and a squirrel need not be told it's there for him to tear to pieces. Just put it where he can get at it and leave the rest to him.

I have had some experience raising small animals since my granddad was a vet and over the years I have had quite a few opportunities to raise orphaned animals. Not every attempt was a success story though, but I am happy to say this one was.
Baby August was a pink little thing when I first found him but this picture was taken several days later. You might get some idea how small he really was when we found him laying in the back yard. At first eating and sleeping was about all that he did..

Raising and then learning to live with a squirrel as a pet are not easy things to do. Raising August was a regular night and day task for all of us. He had to be fed at regular times. If you find a baby squirrel and don't have the time required to raise it properly you should try to find someone else who is willing to take the time to do what needs to be done. If you don't have a friend or relative that can raise the orphan animal you should ask a local vet if they know someone who could raise it.

Two main tricks that must be learned early on when raising a baby squirrel is that in the nest the mother will frequently rearrange them and nuzzle them around. This process is nature's way of helping the baby's internal organs process their food and then expel the waste. If you don't handle the baby, hold it religiously when it is very young it will most likely develop digestive complications and die. One method I used to deal with this was simply to place baby August into my shirt pocket during the day and then go on about my daily activities around the house. This does two perhaps three things for the baby. First of all it keeps them warm. The baby animal is unable to produce the body heat required and when not being held should be in a warm nest that you can make using a number of different things. We used rags at first and tissue. Later rags become a problem when the baby starts to chew on things so tissue is the best choice. One day he chewed a hole in the rag just large enough to get his head through and had I not been there to hear him call for help he may have strangled himself to death. Tissues and such are warm while not being strong enough to choke the little squirrel when they get big enough to start teething.
The next thing holding the baby does is reassure it that it is not alone. The sound of a person's heartbeat is soothing for them, it reassures them they are not alone and it keeps their body moving just enough to keep their undeveloped organs working their food along their digestive track. All of these things are very important to the new baby. You may also gently massage the baby's tummy after the feeding. They like being rubbed and it's good for them.

Feeding the baby must be done at regular intervals about every 4 hours night and day. When the baby wakes up and looks for "mom" then you know it is time to feed. You should learn about how long it takes from one feeding to another.

Feeding must be done with a suitable formula.

    Cow's milk is not suitable. Tiny Tiger cat formula is what we used with August and can be found in some grocery stores and Wal Mart in the pet department, it's better than nothing and worked for us. NOTE! Tiny Tiger is a cat formula and is not the formula of choice for baby squirrels. You should go to a veterinarian and ask him to either make or recommend a better formula.
    A plastic "baby" bottle with a rubber nipple is also a good method to use to feed the baby, however if the baby is really small as August was when we found him the rubber nipple may be too hard for it to squeeze the milk out with its tiny jaws. The method we used at first was a soft plastic eye dropper. Later we alternated between the eye dropper and the baby bottle until the baby was large enough and strong enough to acquire the milk from the bottle.
    As with all babies the milk must be about body temperature. A squirrel's normal temperature is slightly warmer than a human but human temperature is good enough for the baby. After testing the temperature of the milk on a wrist you should soon learn that if you can feel it slightly warmer than your own wrist it should be fine. If it is warm enough that you really notice it being warmer it then it's too hot. Test it and be very careful that it is not to hot or not to cold. If it is to cold the baby won't want it. If it is to hot the baby may be burned before you realize it making feeding the baby an unpleasant experience that will have to be corrected.

When you are just laying around watching TV get the baby out of its box and let it lay on your chest. My beard provided a perfect blanket for baby August. Of course now that he is grown up you can't get him to lay still on someone long enough to go to sleep. Well Kristy can but then August is her squirrel and they get along real well. August likes to curl up on the back of the sofa, sometimes under a blanket we keep there and go to sleep. He likes to watch TV from there and sometimes just likes to frolic around on the couch when he is feeling playful.

NOTE: I have been updating some of my websites and web pages and it takes a good deal of time to get everything in order. I intend to get back to finish this area soon, but I wanted to give it a face lift and an update ASAP so at least I am getting started with it. I hope you find the page helpful to you and if you have questions feel free to send me an e-mail.

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