A couple of weeks ago, we received a baby squirrel, who we named Daisy. She was about 5 weeks old, so we had to feed her formula around the clock for a few days, but then she began to eat some solid foods too, like nuts and rodent block. A couple days after we got her, someone brought us another squirrel that was a little older, named Marvin. She had raised him for three weeks, and knew he needed to be released soon, but didn't know exactly when or how. So, we put him in our larger cage to let him run around until we can release him.
It's important for these little squirrels to learn how to be a squirrel, and not that they are people, so we always have two together if possible. So, we decided to put the two of them together, even though we were a little worried because Daisy is smaller than Marvin.
It's hard to see in this picture, but Marvin in in his box on the right, peeking out the back left corner into the other box that we set up for Daisy, who stayed inside at first. Not much happened other than a few peeks at each other the first day they were together. By the next morning, though, little Daisy had taken over Marvin's box! So much for being worried about her, she turned out to be the dominant one. After a couple of days they got used to each other and now they use the same box and play together all the time. Daisy is the pesky little sister, always running around, even hiding under the towels to surprise Marvin. We'll keep the two in their cage for another month or so until they can be released.
In case you were wondering what happened to Mr. Whiskers (see post from August 31), we are happy to say that he found a loving home with an Omni employee! He came back so we could take him for a vet visit. He loved seeing the squirrels that we are raising, but somehow I don't think they were as happy to see him! 
This is Maize, a Miami corn snake that we are "snake-sitting" at the nature center. She's just a few years old, and is similar to Gator, our Red Rat Snake, but is smaller and has lighter, orange markings. Her (human) Dad has one more semester to teach up in Ohio before retiring here on Amelia. Visitors to the nature center enjoy seeing this sweet girl, and we enjoy spending time with her too. She's a good house guest, which for a snake means she's not messy and is eating and shedding regularly. We will miss her in December when she leaves, but I'm sure something else will come along then. 
Meet Wild Bill. He's a fully grown Gopher Tortoise, around 30-40 years old. This lucky guy showed up, literally, on our doorstep one morning about a month ago. We came to work in the morning and he was sitting in front of the door with a few grapes. We do not know who put him there, if he was kept in captivity at all or was just found in the wild. His eyes were so sunken and cloudy that we weren't sure if he had any. He was pretty much just skin and bone and could barely move. After a week at the vet's office, receiving fluids, eye and nose drops, we picked him back up, and he looked much better!
We continued to give him the drops, and now his eyes look great and nose is cleared up. We put him in a large container of sand to roam around in, and every day he gets a little stronger and walks around more. The hardest part has been to get him to eat. He'll eat a few bites of banana, and sometimes we take him out to the dunes where he can eat his native vegetation, like dollar weed. He also likes to soak in a bucket of warm water.
So here we are, trying to put our heads together and plan things for the nature center, when Buddy the macaw and Buttercup the guinea pig decided that we should take a break and spoil them. Between Buddy's squacks and Buttercup's squeaks, they can be hard to ignore! (not that we mind).
A couple of weeks ago, we received a baby squirrel, who we named Daisy. She was about 5 weeks old, so we had to feed her formula around the clock for a few days, but then she began to eat some solid foods too, like nuts and rodent block. A couple days after we got her, someone brought us another squirrel that was a little older, named Marvin. She had raised him for three weeks, and knew he needed to be released soon, but didn't know exactly when or how. So, we put him in our larger cage to let him run around until we can release him. 
