When you find a baby squirrel alone in your property, the first thing you should do is try to find its mother. Don’t try to find it something right away. However, if the baby squirrel is injured, it is already night time, or the mother doesn’t come back within two to three hours, then what you have is an orphaned squirrel, and it needs your help.

Get the Baby Squirrel Warm

It is important to keep the baby squirrel warmer than your skin. If the baby feels cool to your touch, then it is cold. You should never try to feed a baby squirrel that’s cold. What you need to do is to provide it with a heating source.

Wrapping the baby squirrel with a blanket will not work because it can’t warm the blanket itself. It is important that you provide a consistent heat source. If you have a heating pad, then use it. A temporary solution is to fill a bag with hot water and placing it under the blanket. Make sure that you cover the box where you place the baby because it can climb up and get out of the temporary nest.

Keep the Baby Squirrel Hydrated

Aside from warmth, a baby squirrel also requires rehydration. It is important that you rehydrate the baby first before feeding it with anything. Water is needed by the baby squirrel to digest food and allows its body to perform functions required to sustain life.

One rehydration option is to use fruit flavor Pedialyte, which is a rehydration fluids found in grocery and drug stores. It can replace the lost electrolytes and body fluids. If you can’t go out of the house, you can create your own rehydration solution by combining a quart of water, a teaspoon of salt and three teaspoons of sugar. Keep in mind that you should not mix the rehydration fluid with formula.

You should see a positive response to the rehydration in a couple of hours. The baby will gain weight, want to eat, has a stronger grip, and urinate a lot. Once it is rehydrated, then you can introduce formula to the baby.

Formula for the Baby Squirrel

According to studies, powder milk replacer for puppies with heavy whipping cream is similar to the milk of a mother squirrel. You should avoid giving human infant formula, evaporated milk or cow’s milk because they don’t have the right nutritional content required by the baby squirrel.

The baby squirrel must be fed every two to three hours from the time you get up until you go to sleep at night. If the baby is unhealthy, then you should feed it twice a night until it is fully recovered.

As the baby squirrel grows, it will need more formula each feeding. The amount of formula given to the baby squirrel will increase until it gets to around five weeks old. Then you will need to feed it every four hours. As it starts to go through weaning and able to eat solid foods, then decrease the amount of feedings each day until it totally rejects the formula. This will happen when the squirrel is around ten weeks old.

Read the How to get rid of squirrels page for helpful information and to learn more about Should I Feed a Baby Squirrel I Found?