Newbie emergency help

[Hopefulbaby]

Hello friends.

Sincere apologies for my frantic and uninformed post.

At 5pm today (4 hours ago), I came upon a baby squirrel in our community garden. He was crying when I picked him up and moving around, although he seemed sleepy and clumsy.

I put him in a basket and waited to see if his mother would return. At roughly 7pm with no sign of his mom and a rapidly approaching darkness, I came back. He seemed hungry and thirsty. I gave him some warm water out of my hand and he seemed to drink a little, but wasn’t very interested. I gave him a small tomato and he went to town eating it.

I would estimate his age to be roughly 6-7 weeks. I picked him up and since I will be leaving town tried to find someone to take care of him. The rehab center was already closed and a friend took him in.

After eating the tomato he curled up in my hand and went to sleep. He hasn’t really woken up since.

Around 9:30 I went to my friends house with pedialyte and fed him with a 3ml syringe. We put him on a heating pad and he took the pedialyte well but he is extremely lethargic and sometimes we wonder if he’s even breathing.

We keep feeling him pedialyte and I made some formula with goat milk, yolk, yogurt and cream but he won’t really eat, so we kept giving him warm pedialyte.

My friend needs to get up early tomorrow and we’re both setting our alarms for 3:30am to see if he’s still alive and to give him more fluids.

Is there anything else we can possibly be doing? I really hope he makes it through the night

Photo here:
https://imgur.com/a/Pzwrdkn

[CritterMom]

I can't tell from your pic - is this a little gray squirrel or one of your California ground squirrels?

Regardless, go here and read through this - it is 6 pages (the arrow to advance to the next page is at the top of each page) and packed with info. https://www.henryspets.com/1-baby-squirrel-care-guide/

Basically, they all follow the same rule: First, warm the baby thoroughly. Then, rehydrate. When you have done that, THEN he can have food. Their little bodies cannot process food until they are warmed and rehydrated.

Read through - it is fast - and come back with questions. He/she is just adorable!

[Hopefulbaby]

Thank you so much! I read through everything in that link once I got home unfortunately after attempting to give him formula. Thankfully and hopefully, I only managed to give him no more than 1ml, so I hope I did not do too much damage….

I don’t know what kind of squirrel he is but he looks like a typical brown California squirrel that we have a lot of here! He is really really cute…

UPDATE: it’s 3:30am and he’s still alive! I went over there after basically staying up all night and reading (I should have just taken him with me), and gave him warm water with a tablespoon of dissolved sugar until he wouldn’t drink any more.

There was what looked like some (a tiny bit) formula dried on the towel around his face that he might have thrown up. I am really hoping it was not from aspiration. I was careful when feeding him and no food or pedilyte came out of his nose so fingers crossed

What a wild ride!!! Who knew I would learn so much about baby squirrels in such a short amount of time! It’s been about 8 hours since I first came across this fella and now all I can think of are heating pads and formulas.

He weighs about 60 grams

[Hopefulbaby]

Sorry for the duplicate post but wanted to add that my questions at this time are as follows:

1) I am not positive that he is dehydrated- I did the pinch test and it did not stay up for very long.. not like the videos I’ve seen of dehydrated squirrels. Is it possible he is/was in hypoglycaemic shock even though he was able to eat a tomato 3-4 hours prior? He is not rearing his head but when he curled up, he twitched when sleeping. I first assumed he was dreaming (stupid, I know) but now I wonder if it was spasm / seizure… If he is hypoglycaemic, does pedialyte harm help or is useless?

2) are there any common diseases that may be causing these symptoms?

3) should I be sticking to sugar water or pedilyte or homemade pedilyte until he shows an improvement? I only have flavoured pedilyte at this time

[CritterMom]

You have no idea. You have heard about going down the rabbit hole? You have now entered the squirrel hole. It has a very powerful vortex and those who enter often just stay. Exhibit 1 - I have been here since 2009 when I stumbled on my first baby...

[island rehabber]

Good morning. Are you near Thousand Oaks? There is a rehab organization, squirrelmender.com,, that I have heard good things about, but it's been awhile. Give them a call and see if they can help. The best place for a baby squirrel is with his squirrel mom, the second best price is with an experienced squirrel rescuer 😊

[CritterMom]

And until you are (maybe) able to hand him off to a rehab, Do this. First, since you have the ingredients, remake your formula but omit the egg yolk. It is in there to provide protein, which they need, but it is also a little hard on their stomachs sometimes, and especially for a very first food, I would do without it RIGHT NOW. Make sure the formula is quite warm - warmer than you might think. If you stick your finger in it it should feel warm, not "lukewarm" like a human baby.

If you are unable to find anyone to assist you (don't give your name or any other info when speaking to rehab centers unless you find one that will take the baby and REHAB him, and NEVER turn a baby squirrel over to a rehab that does raptors), a change in formulas will be needed.

Just saw your other post. Any of the rehydration options you mentioned will provide sugar which will help if he is hypoglycemic. You can use any of them. If you are concerned, you can also put a drop of syrup - pancake, maple, corn, even a slurry of table sugar and water in his mouth. It will be absorbed by the mucous membranes. Skin should snap back quickly. But twitching while sleeping is very, very normal.

Can you take a pic of him when he is awake, showing more of his body and head/face? Need to know what type he is - ground vs tree squirrel - and get a closer look to determine age. The fact that he nommed down on a tomato makes me think he might be weaned or close to it.

Correct formula if he needs it - Esbilac Puppy Powdered Milk Replacer. No other brand will work. Don't get the "Second Step" formula - it is for older puppies. Do not get anything but the powdered. There will be either a fluffy little white puppy OR a tri color puppy on the label.

[Hopefulbaby]

Good morning my new-found squirrel friends!

Since my last update my girlfriend and I traded off feeding the little dude sugar water every couple of hours and today at 8 he finally perked up!

He’s now walking around and is holding his head up and snoozing without rolling into a ball!

To say we are relieved is an understatement! It got pretty squirrely last night! (Har har)

He was completely splayed out and barely breathing, cold, and very stiff, we really thought today was going to be a funeral so this is an amazing turn of events.

I’m going to call the Thousand Oaks rescue today and will start to slowly introduce the goat cheese formula without the yolk until I can get the puppy milk.

Here are some photos from just now: https://imgur.com/a/AazU5WE

[CritterMom]

My GOD he's cute! Yes, that is a little California Ground Squirrel. And I would definitely say he needs formula. He's just a little guy. I wonder why he is away from mama? I am so glad he has perked up. Make sure he stays with his heating pad. You guys have done a great job so far!

BTW, feel free to use flavored yogurt in the formula. Look for full fat yogurt, don't get sugar free, and obviously no fruit chunks (hard to pass through syringe :grin2). I have always relied on Yobaby from Stoneyfield - little cups of full fat infant yogurt - two different flavors, all of which were enthusiastically consumed.

[Hopefulbaby]

My GOD he's cute! Yes, that is a little California Ground Squirrel. And I would definitely say he needs formula. He's just a little guy. I wonder why he is away from mama? I am so glad he has perked up. Make sure he stays with his heating pad. You guys have done a great job so far!

BTW, feel free to use flavored yogurt in the formula. Look for full fat yogurt, don't get sugar free, and obviously no fruit chunks (hard to pass through syringe :grin2). I have always relied on Yobaby from Stoneyfield - little cups of full fat infant yogurt - two different flavors, all of which were enthusiastically consumed.

Thank you! I will go get that yogurt now and will start to slowly introduce formula.

Here is a video of the little dude chomping on the tomato yesterday just because it’s so cute: https://imgur.com/a/M6gPrJx

Btw I don’t mean to mis-gender this baby, even though I may be, I’m calling him him because there looks to be some space between the two holes between his legs