For the first 7 weeks of their lives, baby squirrels survive solely on milk from their mothers.1 Puppy milk formulas like Esbilac powder make a great replacement for squirrel milk. You can also use standard kitchen ingredients to formulate your own squirrel milk using this Easy Squirrel Milk Recipe.
How to Nurse Baby Squirrels
Feeding milk to baby squirrels requires “specialized” equipment. A syringe or dropper works nicely. If you choose to use a syringe, make sure it’s made of glass. A baby squirrel will gnaw on a plastic syringe, wearing it down and potentially ingesting plastic. Another consideration when choosing your equipment is the size of the opening. To prevent your squirrel from feeding too quickly and choking or getting fluid in his airways, choose a syringe or dropper with a small opening.2
What About Solid Food?
Baby squirrels can start to eat solid food when their eyes open at around 5 weeks of age.2 Their incisor teeth should be grown in by then, so it’s ok to give them harder foods as long as those foods aren’t surrounded by a shell. In fact, the ability to crack a walnut is a sign that a young squirrel is ready to be released.2
How to Wean Baby Squirrels
The weaning process begins when a young squirrel is 8 weeks old and will last for 2 to 4 weeks.1,2,3 Therefore, a squirrel should be eating only solid foods by the time he is 10 – 12 weeks old. To wean your squirrel, you’ll need to introduce solid food into his diet while reducing his milk intake. There are two obvious ways to do this.
The most straightforward method is to replace a portion of the milk with solid food. Then, increase the proportion of food to milk every week. A feeding schedule based on this method might look like this:
Age Food
1 – 7 weeks only milk
8 weeks replace 1/4 of milk with solid food
9 weeks replace 1/2 of milk with solid food
10 weeks replace 3/4 of milk with solid food
11 weeks only solid food
Another method of weaning squirrels is to start diluting the milk with water at 8 weeks of age and adding solid food to the squirrel’s diet at the same time. Since the composition of a mother squirrel’s milk changes over the course of the nursing period,1 this method might be preferable. Here’s an example of a feeding schedule using the dilution method:
Age Food
1 – 7 weeks only milk
8 weeks dilute milk until 1/4 of it is water; add solid food
9 weeks dilute milk until 1/3 of it is water; add solid food
10 weeks dilute milk until 1/2 of it is water; add solid food
11 weeks only solid food
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References
1 Nixon, C., & Harper, W. (1972). Composition of gray squirrel milk. The Ohio Journal of Science, 72(1), 3-6. Retrieved from https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/5665/V72N01_003.pdf?sequence=1
2 Cherney, L. & Nieves, M. (1991). How to care for orphaned wild mammals. Iowa State University Veterinarian, 53(2), 94-99. Retrieved from http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3394&context=iowastate_veterinarian
3 Webster, D., Parnell, J., & Biggs, W. (1985). Mammals of the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press.