Carie Here!

[Creatureluvr]

I'm a small animal veterinarian, but do not have experience with wildlife. Now that I'm semi-retired, I have a little more time and have found myself in the situation of caring for a pinkie who nest was destroyed when the limb fell. Reuniting was unsuccessful, so I've taken on this wonderful responsibility and love learning all about these little guys!

[CritterMom]

Well, the link I am sending you to is an excellent tutorial. The only thing that you want to disregard is the formula info, unfortunately the companies change their formulas for formula so often that no written document could hope to keep up!

https://henryspets.com/1-baby-squirrel-care-guide/ It is 6 pages.

Welcome! Ask any questions.

[Creatureluvr]

Thank CritterMom. I was fortunate to find this info as soon as I realized I would be nursing this little guy. Of course I looked up rehabbers in my area, but the only one here is a very busy Veterinarian clinic I know well. I figured he'd be in better hands with me (one squirrel w/ one girl) without overwhelming their staff with bottle feeding a little pinkie every 2-3 hours.

He is now 13 days old based on my estimate & all the great visual aging guidelines provided here and on YouTube. He just lost his umbilical cord scab 2 nights ago, getting dark head w/ a little "peach fuzz" and his distinct dark line down the side of his abdomen. It is wonderful watching him mature.

We have dogs (Catahoulas), so I will be relocating him this Spring to a wonderful area so my efforts don't end up as a tasty meal for my dogs. They are gentle with my little rescues, but once in the yard, it's "game on!" The area is along the Flint River has great wooded areas (is set up for a 2.5 mile nature walk) and I know there is plenty to eat there (even human left overs from people who leave trash) that he can get all year long.

Last year we sponsored a veterinary student who stayed with us for 3 weeks. She worked with the Veterinary Hospital that is listed as our only rehabbers. She brought home 4 baby mockingbirds, a pigeon and some other little feathered babies. I had a wonderful opportunity to learn about bird diets and really enjoyed watching them grow. We kept the pigeon for her when she went home since he was the biggest. Luckily we were able to find a private person who had 5 other pigeons to take him once he was able to fly well. Again, have to protect them from dogs and he was locking on to our pool deck as his coop. I live in S. Ga, and the pigeon now lives in Tallahassee, so there's no chance of him returning to our pool deck. LOL

I appreciate you understanding that even as a Veterinarian, I am ignorant to the wonderful world of wildlife rehab. This is my 2nd career after retiring from the military, so I've been doing this for 15 years at age 58. I do have more resources available to me than most "newbies," but do not pretend to know everything (especially diet) for these vulnerable babies. I have worked with some racoons, opossums and dear, but always through a wonderful rehabber (Savannah, Ga) who brought them into the emergency clinic I was working at. All of the critters were typically coming in for injuries, I would get to patch them up and send them back to the rehabber.

So...... the squirrel world is new and exciting for me. I only have one little guy and he is thriving so far. I just got him switched over 100% to Esbilac Puppy while I wait for him to reach his 4 week mark and get him on FV 20/50. I will likely mix it 50/50/ with the Esbilac since I've read multiple places here this is fine. I did receive my FV 32/40 right on time, but it sits unopened due to the advice on this board about it not being safe for these little guys. I originally had him on GMF which seemed creamier / thicker. I added a tablespoon of Heavy Whipping Cream in the Puppy formula as I saw this was acceptable also.

I was so close to making several mistakes, but was able to read the Henrey's Healthy Pets Baby Squirrel Guide just in time! I ordered some great nursing nipples, have tons of syringes and trying to stay one step ahead in ordering things I know I'll need. Since I am good friends with the rehabber here, I will offer them (yes, a bunch of Veterinarians and staff members) the information and will likely be helping them rehab more of these little guys since it is so time consuming especially for a busy Veterinary practice. I just need to learn and fine-tune how to teach these little guys to forage so they can be released safely.

Any advice you offer will most certainly be welcome!

[island rehabber]

Welcome to TSB, Creaturelvr! Glad you found us 😁