Help with baby squirrel found alone

[Krista85]

My friend called me and had me get a baby squirrel from her house because she knows my love for animals. I’ve had her 3 days and I’ve been researching a lot, but I’d like reassurance that she is healthy and that I’m doing good with her. I think she’s about 5 weeks old. Her eyes are open, bottom teeth are in, and top teeth can be felt. She just sleeps ALL THE TIME and I have to wake her for feedings that’s she falls asleep during. She’s going potty on her own. I have pics of her too. She will only eat about 2.5mL before going to sleep and no longer being interested in eating.

[HRT4SQRLS]

Hi Krista. to The Squirrel Board

Here is a link that will help. It is 6 pages long.

https://henryspets.com/1-baby-squirrel-care-guide/

At that age they do sleep a lot. You need to get a kitchen scale to weigh the baby. They should eat between 5-7% of the body weight.
I think your baby is 6ish weeks based on the furry tail. The eyes open at 5 weeks.
What are you feeding?

[Krista85]

Hi Krista. to The Squirrel Board

Here is a link that will help. It is 6 pages long.

https://henryspets.com/1-baby-squirrel-care-guide/

At that age they do sleep a lot. You need to get a kitchen scale to weigh the baby. They should eat between 5-7% of the body weight.
I think your baby is 6ish weeks based on the furry tail. The eyes open at 5 weeks.
What are you feeding?

I don’t know if I’m responding correctly, but I’ve been feeding her kitten milk from the pet store. They told me to refrigerate it and warm up what I need for her feeding. I help her eliminate, but she seems to do it on her own. She weighs 1.61 ounces. She was given to me 3 days ago. When I got her, she was bleeding from her nose. I had cleaned it up, but 2 minutes later, she had thin, watery blood around her nose again. I didn’t think she would make it through the night. The next morning, the blood was dry and she was still alive. I cleaned her up, fed her, made sure she was warm, and have just been doing that since.

[HRT4SQRLS]

I don’t know if I’m responding correctly, but I’ve been feeding her kitten milk from the pet store. They told me to refrigerate it and warm up what I need for her feeding. I help her eliminate, but she seems to do it on her own. She weighs 1.61 ounces. She was given to me 3 days ago. When I got her, she was bleeding from her nose. I had cleaned it up, but 2 minutes later, she had thin, watery blood around her nose again. I didn’t think she would make it through the night. The next morning, the blood was dry and she was still alive. I cleaned her up, fed her, made sure she was warm, and have just been doing that since.

You’re responding fine. The problem is the kitten formula. It isn’t the proper formula for baby squirrels. It has too much protein as kittens are carnivores. They don’t thrive on kitten formula. The recommended formula is powdered puppy Esbilac but frankly I’m not a fan of that either. It has had major problems in the past and there were hints that some of the old problems might be resurfacing this year. It drives me nuts.

You have two choices. #1. Buy the powdered Esbilac and use that. OR #2. Put her on a temporary goat milk formula (3 parts fresh goats milk/1.5 parts heavy cream/1 part full fat yogurt) AND order Fox Valley 20:50 online. Fox Valley 20:50 has never let me down. You could use this until weaning. The goat milk recipe is a temporary formula that can be used for about 2 weeks. That would give you time to get the FV.

The kitten milk isn’t an option. You will put all this work and heart into your baby and the baby will not do well. The Esbilac is an OK option. Many are using it. I just can’t.

[HRT4SQRLS]

1.6 ounces equals 46 grams. We feed 5-7% of the body weight.

At 5% that would be 2.3mL
At 7% that would be 3.2mL

Your 2.5mL is right on target. By the way, that is a very small baby for 6weeks.
Is your scale accurate?

[Mel1959]

That is definitely a small baby….even by Florida standards.

[Krista85]

1.6 ounces equals 46 grams. We feed 5-7% of the body weight.

At 5% that would be 2.3mL
At 7% that would be 3.2mL

Your 2.5mL is right on target. By the way, that is a very small baby for 6weeks.
Is your scale accurate?

Scale is indeed accurate. That is why I e been so concerned about her being so sleepy and not wanting to wake up and eat. I have to force her to be awake enough to eat by having her climb on me and on my couch before feeding her. I just ordered the fox valley formula and will have it by tomorrow.

[HRT4SQRLS]

Krista, because the Kitten formula is very bad for baby squirrels, I wouldn’t even bother to try to transition. We usually transition from one formula to another by incrementally mixing them together. In this case I would switch completely when the FV arrives. What I would do is make it a bit more dilute than the usual mixing instructions. The normal way of mixing FoxValley is 2 parts water with 1 part powder. To start, I would mix 3 parts water with 1 part powder. This will help the babies GI to adjust to the new formula.

I would also allow it to sit at least 4 hrs before feeding it. We usually make the formula the night before and feed the next day. This allows the formula to fully saturate and go into solution. Studies have shown that the powdered formulas don’t fully go into solution until that have sat for several hours. Feed the diluted formula 2-3 times. If everything is OK… GI wise… then go to full strength FV (2:1). You should see your baby improve rapidly and start gaining weight.

PS: have your full strength formula already mixed so you can use it as soon as it’s needed.