Caring for Indian palm squirrel babies

Please read the post in its entirety before asking questions. I am not a vet and cannot diagnose health problems, sick animals, or give you medical advice. If I do not respond to your question it is because I have answered it before, just look through the other comments. OR you just need to take the squirrel to a veterinary doctor. I am not qualified to answer health questions.
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This one has been requested by very many people so here it is finally.

"I have had a few squirrels come in. Do you think you can keep them?", the local zoo director called me at 9.30 in the night.

"Sure. How many?"

"Don't know but they've come in the evening and no one's had the time to look at them, if some are dead don't take it to heart."

I swallowed a big lump, "Okay... drop them off"

I begin preparing for their arrival- a clean shoe box (brand new, not one that has previously stored used shoes or new leather shoes), a couple of clean thick cotton cloths, a washed and cleaned bird cage, cotton swabs and warm buffalo milk. I wash my hands again... and wait.

A little plastic basket is delivered to me and out come one, two, three, four... nine squirrel babies, eyes closed, unresponsive, all of them really really cold. I was sure some of them were dead. I began rubbing them to make them warmer holding them gently in my hands. If you can describe squirrel babies in one word - fragile. You need to be very very gentle and careful around them. Except one, all their eyes were closed.

As they warmed up, they became slightly alert and then I began feeding them warm milk. I used undiluted buffalo milk because most animals have a higher fat content in their milk compared to humans. Animal babies generally DO NOT need dilution of milk with water and doing so generally results in diarrhea. I dipped a small cotton swab in milk and held it near the first baby's mouth. The milk is squeezed out from the swab and they happily will drink off the little stream they create with suction or hungrily lap it off the cotton swab. The good news was, all of them were alive and feeding except one. It was a small baby and needed more warming up before it finally accepted some milk. All the babies were carefully placed in the box lined with thick cotton cloth, the box closed with a lid and left inside the cage. The box must have one baby squirrel size opening cut out at one of the narrow sides of the box. The picture below was taken without the lid. Normally, the lid of the box was always closed so it was warm and dark inside and the squirrels could leave the box through the squirrel-sized opening at one end.

The babies need to be fed frequently. I timed their feeding around my clinic timings and the first feed used to be 6 am, then 9 am, 1 pm, 5 pm, 9 pm and midnight.

HYGIENE AND CLEANLINESS is just as important for animal babies as it is for human babies. I have seen far too many animals die in the care of well-meaning people because basic cleanliness was not followed.

Always use fresh boiled milk that is at a warm temperature, too hot and you will easily scald them. Use a new cotton swab for every feed. If milk remains at the end of a feed, discard it. DO NOT put it in the refrigerator and try to use it again, it will kill.

Wash and clean all bowls, dishes, cups that are used to hold the milk after every feed.

ALWAYS wash your hands before you begin feeding or handling the babies. This simple, basic and very important step if missed will give them an infection and I have lost three babies in this batch to infection because someone touched them while I was not around with obviously unwashed hands. I cannot stress hand washing enough.

If milk seems to coat the outside of the babies' mouths, gently clean in with a soft cloth moistened with water. Squirrel babies do not need baths and if you hold one under running water, you will kill it. If they have external parasites, consult your vet about what to use.

The cotton cloth must be changed daily and replaced with a fresh one. The used one washed, preferably dried in the sun and then used the next day.

Do not leave a water dish inside the cage. Squirrels get all their water content from their food.

My biggest issue was knowing which ones were fed and which weren't. I got a large lockable plastic basket and lined it with newspaper that was changed daily. I used to take a baby out of the box, feed it and place it in the basket where they promptly fall asleep again.

Once all the babies were fed they were put back into their box in the cage. I did not keep a record of the number of days but a few days later, their eyes began opening. It's quite funny :) Some of them have only one eye open and a couple of days later the other opens. This seems to be normal and you will have a few pirates in your brood at this time walking around with one eye!

You will find them become more and more adventurous with the cotton swab and more demanding. You will have to increase the size of the swab to accommodate that much more milk. Another good way of directing the milk into the baby's mouth is by making a wick-like end as you can see in the photograph above. The baby is feeding from the other end because it was very hungry and pretty much snatched the swab from me. It is on the roof of the bird cage and in the background in the little blue basket with newspaper lining it where fed babies were kept so no one went hungry.

Sometimes they are so hungry, in sucking milk, they will also suck a few strands of cotton with their ferocity. If that happens, no need to panic, just gently disengage the baby from the swab and VERY VERY slowly pull the strand of cotton out. If you pull it fast, you'll give it a painful cut inside the mouth. Even if they swallow a teensy weensy bit (and this will happen) it doesn't seem to affect them much.

There are two ways to go ahead after this point -

> Decide you are selfish, want a pet and allow them to get used to you and humans in general

> Try and see that they retain their fear of humans and are released back in the urban wild

If you choose the latter as I always do, you must ensure that they retain their fear of humans. The first step and last step is making sure they do not associate you with food. By now the babies knew that the cage door sound meant food. What I began doing is placing a shallow dish full of milk and making a loud sound of the cage door. Some of the babies are slow to catch on and you may have to guide them to the dish. Generally in a few days time you will have them lapping milk from the dish with no problem. This means they are no longer going to believe that human = food. First step towards their independence!

As your children begin growing, after a week I think of feeding milk from the dish, you can slowly graduate them to semi solid food. The best thing to do is get packaged baby food - Cerelac, Nestum, Farex. These foods have stages and you must begin with stage 1 food. Mix it with generous quantities of milk and present it in the same dish you used for the milk. Although the babies will now be feeding by themselves, it is important to monitor them. I had one baby in this batch which used to love playing in the food. It used to be so engrossed, it would never notice me picking up the dish with it inside! After about 20 minutes of play time I had to put it back in the box. But this was a phase and soon it became as wise as everybody else :)

By now the babies have also begun cleaning themselves and you don't need to step in for that. Changing the cloth in the morning must be quick business now and you must be careful because these babies are very inquisitive and swift. If one slips out the door, they are mighty difficult to catch, not for cats or dogs though, who will gladly make them game.

My strategy was to flick open the box from outside the cage using a long handled spoon, then quickly grab an end of the cloth and slowly begin pulling it out of the cage through the door. It helps because the door is not open and you can just slip the cloth out. Then quickly replace the cloth and close the box. Your scattered public should promptly file into the box again. Stage 1 food to Stage 2 and 3 should be a breeze and its fun to see them grow.

By now their rodent qualities are beginning to surface and they will begin nibbling the box at places. It is important therefore to have a box without too much printing ink on it. I had tied a series of cotton strings spanning the cage and when no one was around these kids would come out and play. At the first sign of humans though they'd dash back in and I was so proud of them!

After about two months, it was time to say hello to the real world and all of them were released at a hill near my house and I cannot quite describe the feeling. It is a lot of happiness and worry and sadness and joy all at the same time. It's good to see them in their natural habitat, sometimes immediately racing up a tree and beginning to feed, sometimes running along the ground before realizing that now is the time to head up and generally being a little scared the first time out in unfamiliar environment. But soon their squirrel sense takes over and they are frolicking in the trees. And all you can do is smile, pat yourself for a job well done and head home knowing a little better what your parents go through.

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(DISCLAIMER: I've had several batches of squirrel babies ranging from one, two to nine babies at a time. All of this information is from my own experience and not intended to be 'expert' advice. I've successfully raised and released squirrels and that is my only qualification.

Please read the post in its entirety before asking questions. I am not a vet and cannot diagnose health problems, sick animals, or give you medical advice. If I do not respond to your question it is because I have answered it before, just look through the other comments. OR you just need to take the squirrel to a veterinary doctor. I am not qualified to answer health questions!)