Cute Emergency: Baby Squirrel Edition

It doesn’t get much cuter than a baby squirrel. No, wait, feeding a baby squirrel is even better! One of our staff, Rachel Shadle, is a licensed wildlife rehabber with the Black Hawk Wildlife Rehabilitation Project. Rachel is currently caring for a 5 week old baby Jack Squirrel, otherwise known as an American Red Squirrel.  The American Red Squirrel is actually less common that what most of us have eating away from our bird feeders, the Fox Squirrel.

This American Red Squirrel was found on a porch in Clarksville, Iowa.  The concerned homeowner could not find the mother and called Black Hawk Wildlife for help.  (Read what you should do if you find injured or abandoned wildlife.) Rachel feeds the baby squirrel a special formula for small mammals every four hours.  As you can see, this squirrel really enjoys her meal!  

She will be fed this way for several more weeks and then weaned onto a diet of monkey biscuits, fruits and nuts. She also will be transitioned outside where she will be in a special cage with a wooden nest box built just for her.  She will start to adapt to being outside and gathering her own food.  When she is more mature, she will be released back into the wild along with the same nest box.  The box will be screwed high up in a tree and a squirrel feeder will be placed near by.  This winter she will have to be fed corn and nuts still, but the year after, she will have learned to forage and gather on her own and will be completely self-sufficient.

Thank you, Rachel, and all wildlife rehabbers!

Awwww.