~Week old pinkie squirrel - rehabber said not to feed/hydrate it until tomorrow?

[Pyrichoria]

I found a baby pinkie squirrel on the sidewalk near my workplace. (I’m like 80-90% sure it’s a squirrel but not 100% certain.)

I spoke with a wildlife rehabber on the phone, but their center was closed and doesn’t open until 9am tomorrow.

They told me not to feed it or give it water - but I’m concerned about it having no hydration for at least 17 hours…
I’m afraid this advice would be a death sentence but also don’t want to aspirate the little baby or risk putting it into shock.

Is it really okay to let it go without hydration for that long until I can take it to the rehabber?

Any advice is appreciated!

[Diggie's Friend]

https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?40584-Rehydrating-a-squirrel&p=881465#post881465

You need to provide a heat source as babies this age cannot support their own body heat without this support.


"No-shut-off heating pad (in a pinch, make a “rice buddy”

A for making a, 'rice buddy', this can be easily made by taking a clean cotton tube-sock and filling up the foot portion with rice and knotting it. Then placing it in the microwave to warm it up. You will need to cool it down till it is warm, but not hot. With a pinkie having a thin fleece material between the rice buddy and the skin is needful. Make sure the fleece has had all the string threading used for edging removed as well as any pieces left over; don't want the poor we baby to choke.

Warm the baby up first prior to giving it warmed hydration formula described in the post below.

Please read this and do what it says in regards to hydration.

https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?40584-Rehydrating-a-squirrel&p=881465#post881465

1 ml non needle syringe (basically a needle syringe with the head portion that holds a needle having been removed.

If you can't get a non needle syringe tonight, you can use ann eye dropper will also serve this purpose.

Slowly place one droplet onto the tongue at a time allowing baby to swallow it down well before placing another. This is a slow process; no shooting the mixture into the mouth.

https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?40584-Rehydrating-a-squirrel&p=881465#post881465

[Pyrichoria]

Thank you so much for the reply. I managed to find a .5ml syringe and am going to try to hydrate the little guy after reading through some of these posts on proper technique.