Wellcome to the Squirrel Forum

[Black Squirrel]

Welcome!

After reading the welcome information below PLEASE register and post something. We need members and traffic to get this up and running!

Warning to potential spammers on the forum:This forum is intended to help animals and good people in need. Damage to the forum by hacking, spamming or virus will be dealt with by Anonymous

IMPORTANT! When viewing a forum and waiting for a response to something you or someone else posted you must refresh the page to see responses and new posts - page is static.

If you have a life threatening emergency skip this page and proceed to Basic Care page on the main website for answers The main website can always be reached by clicking Home in the top left hand corner of the Forum. Please return to the forum for follow up questions

The Squirrel Forum exists to help squirrels in need of medical care, re-homing, finding rehabilitation facilities and educating captive squirrel holders on proper care of non-releasable squirrels. The portal to the Forum is through our website for a reason. We encourage new members with emergencies to read our Care & Resource Links Page first. This avoids confusion searching though endless posts, sticky's, and archives to find basic emergency information or waiting for someone to post answers. Licensed rehabbers, sub-permittees, vet's, & vet tech's are encouraged to participate and frequent the forum to assist those in need of expert advice. We do encourage those who keep squirrels to learn about proper care and enrichment so their squirrels can live long and happy lives. The forum does not recommend keeping healthy releasable squirrels as captives. With that said we realize many people do so for various reasons so the goal is to assist them with the best possible information regarding proper care.

How to use The Squirrel Forum

Once you have registered we prefer you enter through our main website URL www.squirrelforum.com and use this URL for all social media links. The first stop for all newcomers should be our home page and skipping that by using the squirrelforum.com/forum/ subdomain circumvents that important step so all web traffic SEO is driven to the website first and foremost.

To post photos use the following link to convert your photo to a URL: https://postimages.org/

Please put your location but be general like "Florida", "Pac NW" or "South Carolina" but do not give specifics like addresses or cities. Your IP address or other information cannot be accessed by anyone, so unless you post it your privacy is 100% safe

There are no "stars", "senior members" or other incentives that create divisions. Everyone is an equal member. Admin does not "rule" the board and simply owns the site domain, website, forum and runs the control panel. Moderators are the ones in charge and are responsible for decisions such as flagging inappropriate comment, banning and making corrections to posts that deleterious to the health and well being of squirrels. Corrections are done in a kind and compassionate way. If a Moderator corrects your post consider it a valuable learning experience. Remember only EXPERIENCED rehabbers or Vets with an open mind to proper captive care are selected by Admin to be Moderators.

Rules and Regulations

Bashing and denigrating members who hold properly cared for captive squirrels will not be tolerated. The forum focus is the proper care and enrichment for captive squirrels and voicing your personal feelings regarding the ethics of keeping squirrels in captivity only alienates those in need of help. Example: "My 7 year old family pet squirrel is exhibiting signs of Metabolic Bone Disease what should I do"? The goal of the Forum is not to encourage that person to get that squirrel to a rehabber for treatment, rehab, and release. We need to show support and give references for MBD protocol, vet care, proper diet, caging, enrichment etc. On the flip side of the coin when someone comes onto the Forum with a found squirrel that has zero experience, supplies and resources our first goal is to help that person find a rehabber ASAP while giving instructions for triage and immediate emergency care. In the event there are no rehabbers available we are here to help that person provide care until a rehabber or skilled member can be found or educate that person on how to care for the found squirrel.

The only diet the Forum will endorse is presented on the Care and Resources page on the main website. Posts espousing so called "Scalded Milk" deadly diets will be deleted. There is no room for opinions when it come to proper care and certain standards have been established due to hard work and trial and error by experienced rehabbers.

We discourage the posting of your personal information such as: full name, address, phone number, or town/city you live. It is against forum rules to post the name, address, phone number of any vet, squirrel holder, or other member without express permission from that person. We suggest all such information be shared via private message or Email. Make sure you trust the person you are dealing with before sharing such information. If you need a vet use the contact form on the main homepage,

Foul language, racism, discrimination of any kind, or bullying will not be tolerated and that person will be considered for being banned temporarily or permanently depending on the seriousness of the action. There is a huge difference between exercising your 1st amendment rights and posting language that is hurtful or cruel. This Forum was created to help squirrels and will not be allowed to degrade into a petty group of sharp tongued individuals that do not respect others. Bickering is human nature but in the end we need to agree to disagree, respectfully. Remember at one point all of us started with zero knowledge of squirrels and we have to be patient with basic questions. You may have been using a technique that you learned from a rehabber 20 years ago. Procedures and products change and we all have to be open to new ideas that work and accepted by the rehab community at large.

Administration

Admin (in Maroon) is the web/forum designer, technical support and legal owner of the website, forum and domain name.
Moderators (In Green) actually run the board and edit posts for proper content. Moderators are always experienced rehabbers, sub-rehabbers, vets, & vet tech's. If you have technical difficulties with script or other issues please contact Black Squirrel (Admin)

What is phpBB? It's a banner we wear proudly as members of the open source community. We didn't buy a "pre-packaged" bulletin board with bells and whistles. phpBB is an Open Source Internet forum package in the php scripting language. The name "phpBB" is an abbreviation for php bulletin board. phpBB is free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. Why do we use the simple template and phpBB over Vbulletin Etc? Admin runs Linux on servers and forum access computers. Open source represents the spirit of the Internet - free and open for all. It is also less likely to be hacked and does not support corporate greed. The phpBB forum was built from scratch by admin so we know how to deal with issues - no need for down time and paid customer support.

Terminology used on the Forum

As a newcomer you may see strange terminology that is unfamiliar. Here are some examples with clarification:

Rehabber Terms
NR: Non-releasable into the wild for a variety of reasons
Captive: A squirrel in captivity. We do not refer to them as pets
Holder: Person responsible for care of a squirrel(s). It is illegal to "own" wildlife in all states including squirrel "friendly" Florida
Para: Paraplegic squirrel. Some paraplegic live happy lives as captives. Quadriplegic squirrels MUST be euthanized.
Neuro: Neurologically impaired squirrel due to head injury or congenital defect.
Mals: Malocclusion or disruption of normal teeth pattern causing inability to eat and swallow without human intervention (trims)
Foster: Someone who commits to hold a squirrel for short or long term

Medical Terms
MBD: Metabolic Bone Disease
q.d. Prescription term - dose once daily
b.i.d. Prescription term - dose twice daily
p.o. Prescription term - administer orally
I.M. Intramuscular injection
Subq: Subcutaneous - injection under the skin
mL: Milliliters - a unit of measure usually found on a syringes
gr: Gram
O2: Oxygen
SMZ-TMP: Sulfamethoxazole & Trimethoprim (safe antibiotic)
Note: Squirrel weight is measured in Grams not Ounces