Water - when and how?

[rrenner]

Sandy is now between six and seven weeks old. Her eyes opened last weekend, and we moved her into a large cage a couple of days ago. She's doing great, peeing and pooping on her own now. I've started giving her small amounts of food (peeled grapes, apples, spinach, and a half a peanut or so and she's enjoyng it - trying to hold it and sit up to eat, but has not quite mastered that yet!
I feed her between 7 and 8 cc's of formula five times a day at this point.
As for water, I wondered if she needs it yet, and if so, how to give it to her. I've seen recommendations to use a water bottle, but was not sure if that was a good idea as she won't find that in nature, but I'm afraid of her aspirating or drowning herself in a small bowl of water. What's the best solution?

[thundersquirrel]

i usually give my squirrels a small ceramic bowl filled with water with a rock in it. if it's ceramic, or at least heavy, it's harder to tip over. if the rock is big enough, then they shouldn't aspirate. the tricky part is finding a rock that almost completely fills the bowl.

and keep in mind that if she does aspirate, don't get worried the first couple of times. i find that my squirrels often aspirate three or four times, and then learn how to drink the right way. if sandy is old enough, she'll teach herself after a few trials and errors.

if you're concerned about dehydration, you can always offer warm water in a syringe. you could also test her a little by putting a few drops of water on a small plastic lid or something.

good luck.