Anonymous - 2013-04-30 We rescued a red squirrel that a friend found on the ground. I took it due to the feeding schedule required. He is doing great and all the wounds are healing nicley. We even had to lance his one toe, but doing great. The animal rescue said they would put him down do to injuries. So we tried our best and it paid off. I am concerned about the strong smell of pee and can't stand animals that will go in the house, so I'm wondering how they can run and play in house without peeing everywhere.
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Clarice Brough - 2013-05-01 It's said that potty training squirrels is about the same as for a cat or dog. But they are just not quite as excellent at it, because they do have occasional accidents.
Jesscia - 2012-09-14 HELP!!! We rescued a baby squirrel about a month ago. All was going well until today. He is making a wierd noise and peeing on herself. Her entire body keeps going rigid. Is she just going to die?
Kyle - 2012-06-17 We have raised about 4 or 5 infant squirrels with much luck. We have two that decided they wanted to stick around, 1 female now about 2 years old, and 1 male about 1-1/2 years old now. They stay in separate cages, female doesn't appear to want the male too close. Chatters and runs away and hides until I intervene and pick her up. The male is very healthy and active, in and out of cage. He actually likes to go out for a day or two, comes to the front door and jumps up to the window when he wants back in. Unfortunately, the female has become very inactive:( She won't come out of the cage even when male is gone outside. She has lost weight but still eats. Feed her unshelled pecans, apples, shelled sunflower seeds, grapes, etc... Her appearance is good; her coat is soft and silky, she looks up when we approach the cage. Her eyes, mouth and all look good. She won't crawl around much, unless we physically bring her out of the cage. She hops more like a small bunny than moving like a normal squirrel. Doesn't care for the outdoors. We try and get her sunlight but she finds shade instead. I'm worried about her. Any clues to what I can do to get her back to being active again? Thanks in advance.
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Charlie Roche - 2012-06-17 There is a broad range for life expectancy on the red squirrel. Some say 2 - 3 years but they can live as long as 8 years but unusual. Your little gal might just be older - I'd make sure she is warm enough - you know age and the bones/joints. Place a heating pad wrapped in a towel oj low under 1/2 her enclosure so she can get warmer as needed. They get aches and pains too but if eating, appearance good - let's go on - gee just don't want to rock and roll right now. Maybe later.
Jennifer Ashley - 2009-10-26 Raising "Baby Piglet" a squirrels' tale........... I found Baby under our oak tree 8/11/09. She was pink,hairless, and her umbilical was still wet. Poor baby had fallen 50ft from a leaf nest and was bruised but active and wiggling around. She wouldnt have lasted long with the cats nearby so I had to take her. Like most people I had no clue as what to do. I contacted local rehabbers and none would take her. They told me she would die or they didnt have the time and resources to care for a "pinkie". I finally found someone to give me care instructions. For weeks I did feedings every 2 hours round the clock....no sleep.....but worth it. It is amazing to watch your baby grow and develop from a pinkie to getting fur and then: they open those sweet eyes. She's is fat and healthy and looks like a proper squirrel now and just begining to eat some solids. I found lots of advice online....some good....some bad....and some scary. If you decide to care for an orphan baby here is a list of things you should know.
First found...... check your baby for injuries ( broken bones, lacerations, bruising, animal bites) the baby may appear fine but could have internal damage. if hurt call your local vet or rehabber.
your baby will be cold......warm them gently in your hands. a warm baby is actively wiggling when awake (never feed a cold baby you will kill it)
Dehydration.....your baby may be dehydrated. gently pull skin and if it doesnt spring back your baby needs fluids. Pedialyte works great (never gatorade) you can make your own pedialyte. mix 1 quart water 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp salt. feed with eye dropper at room temp.
the baby bed........ I had to get creative because I have a dog,cat,birds, and kids running around. I cleaned out a drawer in my night stand. placed a heating pad on the bottom and covered that with a towel. The heating pad should be on its lowest setting. this way i could keep her in a safe dark warm place. I used white towels so they could be bleached and kept sanitary for baby.
formulas...... Never feed baby cows milk! youll kill it. the fat in cows milk is too big for your baby to digest. Most reccomend puppy milk that you can get at your local pet store. But I found a cheaper formula. Meyenburgs goats milk ! you can find it at any grocer at the milk case or evaporated even dry powder. I used the dry powder and mixed it with plain unflavored yogurt. 2 parts milk to 1 part yogurt mix well. ( use blender) I would mix up a weeks worth at a time so i always had fresh milk available. Fill up several eye droppers so they get to room temp before feeding......rinse and fill again after feedings and milk will be at room temp by next feeding. I let her fed until she was full and fall asleep. They do like to wiggle around when feeding and you must feed them slowly or they will aspirate (inhale) the formula. pat milk away from face when they start bubbling milk from nose and wait a minute before finishing feeding.
Going potty.......after each feeding your baby needs help to go potty. I placed my baby on clean washcloth and with a dry Q-tip...gently stroke genitals until baby goes. You can shake the lil poops in the trash and wash the towel. (Baby will needs lots of towels and I found its cheaper to buy a large pack of wash clothes for feedings and potty rather than paper towels) say go potty every time you do this so you can housebreak baby later.
Introduce solids.....once your babys eyes are open and starts to get a bushy tail you can start introducing solids. If your baby sees you eat it they will want to try it. Bananas work great, split grapes,apple slices. let them eat their fill and still give their regular milk feeding.
I hope some of this will help someone.!
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oversweet10 - 2011-08-10 Thanks for all the info! I rescued a baby squirrel 3 days ago. She is about 5-6 wks old I think and is thriving. My question for you....Sometimes she just wants to eat fruit and nuts ie, bananas, pine nuts, almonds, etc. and doesn't want the milk as much. Should I slowly stop giving it to her or how would I go about doing this? Also I am afraid she might exasperate. :(
~Janelis
kathy staggs - 2012-03-01 I've had my baby about two weeks and he seems to be doing well. I've read everything I could find on the net and you all seem to have the best advice. My son said to name him Phillip but I call him little Phill. He is the sweetest little thing, I can rub under his chin and he holds his hand out so I can rub more lol. Any way just thought I'd share .
Monika - 2006-02-12 You guys are the best! Like you tell me about everything I need to know about having a squirrel. Because I just got one and no other website could tell me what you did I didnt know that squirrels can swim or more interesting...
And you guys tell use about even more then just how to take care of youre pet... you tell us all about them! And not just house animals... 1000 different animals. really you guys are a miracle.
Everybody VISIT THIS WEBSITE. IT IS THE BEST AND IT TELLS YOU EVERY THING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ANIMALS! If you dont like animals well then they will show you how to like them. And you will like them... actually you will like them so much you will buy one and guess what, they tell you how to take care of the animal. as I said before... they are a MIRACLE. The best ever!
Thank-you, you were a really great help!
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mary - 2010-12-20 Having a squirrel is sooooooo much fun I wish could have a million more :)!
Valentina - 2009-03-14 Hi, we found a three baby squirrels on the ground, all were dead but one. We took her home and feed it baby milk (dog). She's real small her ears are not even opened yet, but her eyes are. I don't know how to care for her but with all the advice here I'll manage. But she didn't go to the restroom so I took a warm cloth and wiped her so she could pee and poop, but don't know if that's right. I just don't want her to die and I feel sad cuz that happened to her and her brothers so I want her to make it. So if there is any more info please keep me posted. Thanks for what info I read, glad you are here to help me!
Dean Emelo - 2011-08-28 while checking my land and house after the hurricane,just found one on my front yard... a little guy with closed eyes and soaking wet, but has fur...I am trying to do the right things... he will drink deluted puppy formula from an eye dropper... if he makes it how do I release him back to the woods..I am keeping him in a covered fish tank in my laundry room....its a constant 86 degrees in there and he has lots of wood chips and old towels....I feed him as often as he will eat , every few hours but he has to endure me going to work.....any help would be welcome
thans Dean
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Maggie - 2011-09-11 The best thing to do is contact a local rehabber to take care of the squirrel for you.
Cheryl - 2009-05-14 I found a baby red squirrel. The websites I found were extremely helpful! "Simon" is doing great and in 4-5 weeks will hopefully be ready to be released.
ashley - 2009-01-21 Last August (about 5 months ago) I found a baby red squirrel on the ground in the grass next to it's (sadly) smushed sibling. They were so tiny, at first I thought there was a frog or toad on the ground and when I looked closer I saw what I thought was a baby chipmunk because it was slightly brownish with two black stripes. At this time, the baby was about 1 week old with closed eyes and ears. Later when he started to get a fuzzy tail, we realized he was a squirrel. In the meantime, we kept him warm at first by cutting the toe off of a "fuzzy sock" like slipper-socks and put it around a small tupperware bowl. He stayed curled up inside of it all day long. Before long, we got a small heating pad to keep him warm as well. We bought puppy milk and fed him with an eye dropper every 3 hours, yes that means waking up in the middle of the night. At first he only ate about 2 ML, but that increased quickly and sometimes he would even eat 3-4 eye droppers. We always fed him until he wouldn't accept any more. By the 4th week his eyes opened and shortly thereafter his ears opened. At this time we started to leave sunflower seeds in his cage just in case he got curious. He began to teeter on his back legs, trying to stand up and eat. This was probably the cutest part of all, when they are learning to stand up. We still continued milk feedings, and as he started to eat more solid foods we spaced the milk feedings out more and more until at about 12 weeks he was completely off the milk. He now eats a variety of nuts including walnuts and shaved almonds (his favorites), pine seeds, sunflower seeds, in-the-shell-unsalted-peanuts, outdoor squirrel feed (which has the likes of dried corn, in-shell-sunflower seeds, etc). He loves banana chips, apple, peapods, cherries (real, not maraschino), dried fruits, and pretty much any fruits. He will not eat mushrooms or celery, though. He lives in a big bird cage which we regularly fill with branches from pine trees (and in the summer he gets leafy-trees too). He makes a mess throwing pine needles out of his cage, but he loves it, it makes it more wilderness-y or him. We keep him in an un-carpeted area so we can sweep up his messes :) He also gets to run free in the house for a while every day. He is very nice, will jump right on you while you are walking by. However, his nails are sharp so it is probably not a good idea to let kids play with them. They also try to eat your drywall and can tear up your curtains, so you have to keep a constant eye on them while they are loose. We bought a bunch of edible wooden logs/tikihouses/etc the pet stores sell for rabbits and hamsters or other small animals. He chews on those, which is very important to keep his teeth trimmed. A red squirrel is a lot of work from babyhood to adulthood, but also such a joy. We will not be "acclimating him to the wild" He is our pet, he loves people and we feel it would be cruel to take him from his home and shove him out into a cold, harsh world. After all, they live only an average of 3 years in the wild due to all the dangers of other animals and cars, and can live up to 10 yrs in captivity. If anyone ever needs any tips on how to care for a baby squirrel, feel free to email me at redsquirrelinfo@yahoo.com
The American Red Squirrel is adorable, a lively little 'chittering" critter!
We rescued a red squirrel that a friend found on the ground. I took it due to the feeding schedule required. He is doing great and all the wounds are healing nicley. We even had to lance his one toe, but doing great. The animal rescue said they would put him down do to injuries. So we tried our best and it paid off. I am concerned about the strong smell of pee and can't stand animals that will go in the house, so I'm wondering how they can run and play in house without peeing everywhere.
It's said that potty training squirrels is about the same as for a cat or dog. But they are just not quite as excellent at it, because they do have occasional accidents.
HELP!!! We rescued a baby squirrel about a month ago. All was going well until today. He is making a wierd noise and peeing on herself. Her entire body keeps going rigid. Is she just going to die?
We have raised about 4 or 5 infant squirrels with much luck. We have two that decided they wanted to stick around, 1 female now about 2 years old, and 1 male about 1-1/2 years old now. They stay in separate cages, female doesn't appear to want the male too close. Chatters and runs away and hides until I intervene and pick her up. The male is very healthy and active, in and out of cage. He actually likes to go out for a day or two, comes to the front door and jumps up to the window when he wants back in. Unfortunately, the female has become very inactive:( She won't come out of the cage even when male is gone outside. She has lost weight but still eats. Feed her unshelled pecans, apples, shelled sunflower seeds, grapes, etc... Her appearance is good; her coat is soft and silky, she looks up when we approach the cage. Her eyes, mouth and all look good. She won't crawl around much, unless we physically bring her out of the cage. She hops more like a small bunny than moving like a normal squirrel. Doesn't care for the outdoors. We try and get her sunlight but she finds shade instead. I'm worried about her. Any clues to what I can do to get her back to being active again? Thanks in advance.
There is a broad range for life expectancy on the red squirrel. Some say 2 - 3 years but they can live as long as 8 years but unusual. Your little gal might just be older - I'd make sure she is warm enough - you know age and the bones/joints. Place a heating pad wrapped in a towel oj low under 1/2 her enclosure so she can get warmer as needed. They get aches and pains too but if eating, appearance good - let's go on - gee just don't want to rock and roll right now. Maybe later.
Raising "Baby Piglet" a squirrels' tale...........
I found Baby under our oak tree 8/11/09. She was pink,hairless, and her umbilical was still wet. Poor baby had fallen 50ft from a leaf nest and was bruised but active and wiggling around. She wouldnt have lasted long with the cats nearby so I had to take her. Like most people I had no clue as what to do. I contacted local rehabbers and none would take her. They told me she would die or they didnt have the time and resources to care for a "pinkie". I finally found someone to give me care instructions.
For weeks I did feedings every 2 hours round the clock....no sleep.....but worth it. It is amazing to watch your baby grow and develop from a pinkie to getting fur and then: they open those sweet eyes. She's is fat and healthy and looks like a proper squirrel now and just begining to eat some solids.
I found lots of advice online....some good....some bad....and some scary. If you decide to care for an orphan baby here is a list of things you should know.
First found...... check your baby for injuries ( broken bones, lacerations, bruising, animal bites) the baby may appear fine but could have internal damage. if hurt call your local vet or rehabber.
your baby will be cold......warm them gently in your hands. a warm baby is actively wiggling when awake (never feed a cold baby you will kill it)
Dehydration.....your baby may be dehydrated. gently pull skin and if it doesnt spring back your baby needs fluids. Pedialyte works great (never gatorade) you can make your own pedialyte. mix 1 quart water 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp salt. feed with eye dropper at room temp.
the baby bed........ I had to get creative because I have a dog,cat,birds, and kids running around. I cleaned out a drawer in my night stand. placed a heating pad on the bottom and covered that with a towel. The heating pad should be on its lowest setting. this way i could keep her in a safe dark warm place. I used white towels so they could be bleached and kept sanitary for baby.
formulas...... Never feed baby cows milk! youll kill it. the fat in cows milk is too big for your baby to digest. Most reccomend puppy milk that you can get at your local pet store. But I found a cheaper formula. Meyenburgs goats milk !
you can find it at any grocer at the milk case or evaporated even dry powder. I used the dry powder and mixed it with plain unflavored yogurt. 2 parts milk to 1 part yogurt mix well. ( use blender) I would mix up a weeks worth at a time so i always had fresh milk available. Fill up several eye droppers so they get to room temp before feeding......rinse and fill again after feedings and milk will be at room temp by next feeding. I let her fed until she was full and fall asleep. They do like to wiggle around when feeding and you must feed them slowly or they will aspirate (inhale) the formula. pat milk away from face when they start bubbling milk from nose and wait a minute before finishing feeding.
Going potty.......after each feeding your baby needs help to go potty. I placed my baby on clean washcloth and with a dry Q-tip...gently stroke genitals until baby goes. You can shake the lil poops in the trash and wash the towel. (Baby will needs lots of towels and I found its cheaper to buy a large pack of wash clothes for feedings and potty rather than paper towels) say go potty every time you do this so you can housebreak baby later.
Introduce solids.....once your babys eyes are open and starts to get a bushy tail you can start introducing solids. If your baby sees you eat it they will want to try it. Bananas work great, split grapes,apple slices. let them eat their fill and still give their regular milk feeding.
I hope some of this will help someone.!
Thanks for all the info! I rescued a baby squirrel 3 days ago. She is about 5-6 wks old I think and is thriving. My question for you....Sometimes she just wants to eat fruit and nuts ie, bananas, pine nuts, almonds, etc. and doesn't want the milk as much. Should I slowly stop giving it to her or how would I go about doing this? Also I am afraid she might exasperate. :(
~Janelis
I've had my baby about two weeks and he seems to be doing well. I've read everything I could find on the net and you all seem to have the best advice. My son said to name him Phillip but I call him little Phill. He is the sweetest little thing, I can rub under his chin and he holds his hand out so I can rub more lol. Any way just thought I'd share .
You guys are the best! Like you tell me about everything I need to know about having a squirrel. Because I just got one and no other website could tell me what you did I didnt know that squirrels can swim or more interesting...
And you guys tell use about even more then just how to take care of youre pet... you tell us all about them! And not just house animals... 1000 different animals. really you guys are a miracle.
Everybody VISIT THIS WEBSITE. IT IS THE BEST AND IT TELLS YOU EVERY THING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ANIMALS! If you dont like animals well then they will show you how to like them. And you will like them... actually you will like them so much you will buy one and guess what, they tell you how to take care of the animal. as I said before... they are a MIRACLE. The best ever!
Thank-you, you were a really great help!
Having a squirrel is sooooooo much fun I wish could have a million more :)!
Hi, we found a three baby squirrels on the ground, all were dead but one. We took her home and feed it baby milk (dog). She's real small her ears are not even opened yet, but her eyes are. I don't know how to care for her but with all the advice here I'll manage. But she didn't go to the restroom so I took a warm cloth and wiped her so she could pee and poop, but don't know if that's right. I just don't want her to die and I feel sad cuz that happened to her and her brothers so I want her to make it. So if there is any more info please keep me posted. Thanks for what info I read, glad you are here to help me!
while checking my land and house after the hurricane,just found one on my front yard... a little guy with closed eyes and soaking wet, but has fur...I am trying to do the right things... he will drink deluted puppy formula from an eye dropper... if he makes it how do I release him back to the woods..I am keeping him in a covered fish tank in my laundry room....its a constant 86 degrees in there and he has lots of wood chips and old towels....I feed him as often as he will eat , every few hours but he has to endure me going to work.....any help would be welcome
thans Dean
The best thing to do is contact a local rehabber to take care of the squirrel for you.
My name is Jordan. I found a badly wounded baby squirrel. It's better now but I go to destin in 6 days. What do I do?
if you are gonna bring your pet squirrel on the airplane you need to pay first that's why ok bye thanks
Feed it milk, then bandage it.
I found a baby red squirrel. The websites I found were extremely helpful! "Simon" is doing great and in 4-5 weeks will hopefully be ready to be released.
Last August (about 5 months ago) I found a baby red squirrel on the ground in the grass next to it's (sadly) smushed sibling. They were so tiny, at first I thought there was a frog or toad on the ground and when I looked closer I saw what I thought was a baby chipmunk because it was slightly brownish with two black stripes. At this time, the baby was about 1 week old with closed eyes and ears. Later when he started to get a fuzzy tail, we realized he was a squirrel. In the meantime, we kept him warm at first by cutting the toe off of a "fuzzy sock" like slipper-socks and put it around a small tupperware bowl. He stayed curled up inside of it all day long. Before long, we got a small heating pad to keep him warm as well. We bought puppy milk and fed him with an eye dropper every 3 hours, yes that means waking up in the middle of the night. At first he only ate about 2 ML, but that increased quickly and sometimes he would even eat 3-4 eye droppers. We always fed him until he wouldn't accept any more. By the 4th week his eyes opened and shortly thereafter his ears opened. At this time we started to leave sunflower seeds in his cage just in case he got curious. He began to teeter on his back legs, trying to stand up and eat. This was probably the cutest part of all, when they are learning to stand up. We still continued milk feedings, and as he started to eat more solid foods we spaced the milk feedings out more and more until at about 12 weeks he was completely off the milk. He now eats a variety of nuts including walnuts and shaved almonds (his favorites), pine seeds, sunflower seeds, in-the-shell-unsalted-peanuts, outdoor squirrel feed (which has the likes of dried corn, in-shell-sunflower seeds, etc). He loves banana chips, apple, peapods, cherries (real, not maraschino), dried fruits, and pretty much any fruits. He will not eat mushrooms or celery, though.
He lives in a big bird cage which we regularly fill with branches from pine trees (and in the summer he gets leafy-trees too). He makes a mess throwing pine needles out of his cage, but he loves it, it makes it more wilderness-y or him. We keep him in an un-carpeted area so we can sweep up his messes :) He also gets to run free in the house for a while every day. He is very nice, will jump right on you while you are walking by. However, his nails are sharp so it is probably not a good idea to let kids play with them. They also try to eat your drywall and can tear up your curtains, so you have to keep a constant eye on them while they are loose. We bought a bunch of edible wooden logs/tikihouses/etc the pet stores sell for rabbits and hamsters or other small animals. He chews on those, which is very important to keep his teeth trimmed. A red squirrel is a lot of work from babyhood to adulthood, but also such a joy. We will not be "acclimating him to the wild" He is our pet, he loves people and we feel it would be cruel to take him from his home and shove him out into a cold, harsh world. After all, they live only an average of 3 years in the wild due to all the dangers of other animals and cars, and can live up to 10 yrs in captivity. If anyone ever needs any tips on how to care for a baby squirrel, feel free to email me at redsquirrelinfo@yahoo.com