What to Feed a Baby Squirrel

Around 6 weeks old, a baby squirrel can begin trying solid foods, but it still needs a proper squirrel formula until at least 14–16 weeks old during weaning. The safest outcome is to reunite an uninjured baby with its mother or transfer it to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator as soon as possible. If a rehabilitator has instructed you to provide temporary care, use squirrel-specific formula, not household milk, human baby formula, or homemade substitutes.

Use this quick guide to match the baby’s stage with the right next step.

Baby’s Stage or Need	What to Offer	Key Feeding Detail
Cold, injured, weak, or found after cat or dog contact	No food until you reach a wildlife rehabilitator	Warmth and urgent professional help come first
Eyes closed	Squirrel-specific formula	Feed 5% of body weight per feeding
About 100 grams	Squirrel-specific formula	A common interval is every 4 to 5 hours
Beginning to chew and explore food	Formula plus appropriate solid foods	Start solids at around 6 weeks old
Weaning baby	Formula, blocks, vegetables, and safe natural materials	Continue formula until at least 14–16 weeks old

Decide Whether the Baby Needs Feeding

A baby squirrel found alone is not automatically orphaned. Its mother may be nearby, moving babies after a nest disturbance, or waiting until people leave the area. Before feeding, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, your state wildlife agency, or a local animal rescue that handles native wildlife.

A baby needs urgent help rather than a meal if it is:

Cold to the touch, limp, or difficult to wake
Bleeding, visibly injured, or covered in fly eggs or larvae
Crying constantly and unable to move normally
Coughing, wheezing, or leaking liquid from its nose
Bloated, having diarrhea, or refusing formula
Touched, bitten, carried, or mouthed by a cat or dog

Even a calm family pet can seriously injure a baby squirrel or expose it to bacteria that require immediate wildlife care.

If the baby is warm, alert, uninjured, and you can safely watch from a distance, a rehabilitator may advise trying to reunite it with its mother.

How to Feed a Baby Squirrel Safely While You Arrange Wildlife Care

Feeding a wild baby squirrel is temporary care, not a substitute for rehabilitation. A licensed rehabilitator can identify the species, estimate the baby’s stage, set a schedule, and prepare it for eventual release.

Step 1: Warm the Baby Before Offering Food

Put the squirrel in a small ventilated box lined with soft, non-looping fabric.
Keep the box quiet, dark, and away from children and pets.
If the squirrel feels cold, warm it before feeding.

A weak or unresponsive squirrel needs urgent professional care. A cold squirrel may not digest food properly and can inhale liquid into its lungs.

Step 2: Choose Formula and Calculate the Feeding Amount

Use a commercial formula made for wildlife or squirrels. Do not use human baby formula or cow’s milk.

For squirrel formula selection:

For a squirrel under 4 weeks old, use Fox Valley Day One 32/40.
For a squirrel over 4 weeks old or with open eyes, use Fox Valley Day One 20/50.
Weigh the baby in grams before calculating a feeding.

For an eyes-closed baby, give 5% of its body weight at each feeding. For example, an 80-gram eyes-closed squirrel receives 4 cc of prepared formula per feeding. Eyes-open babies may sometimes take 5% to 7% of body weight per meal, but a rehabilitator should set that amount based on the baby’s species, condition, and solid-food intake.

For a 100-gram squirrel, every 4 to 5 hours is a common feeding interval. Confirm the exact interval with the rehabilitator directing the baby’s care.

Step 3: Mix, Rest, and Warm the Formula

Prepare Fox Valley formula with 2 parts very hot water to 1 part powder. Mix gently so you do not whip in extra air bubbles.

After mixing, let the formula rest for at least 20 minutes. This helps the powder dissolve and gives bubbles time to settle. Refrigerate unused mixed formula for up to 48 hours.

Before each feeding, warm only the portion you will use. Formula should remain a bit warmer than body temperature throughout the feeding because it cools quickly in a syringe.

If the baby is dehydrated and a rehabilitator has instructed you to begin rehydration first, do not switch directly to full-strength formula. For the first formula feeding after rehydration, mix 1 syringe of prepared milk formula with 3 syringes of Pedialyte, then move gradually toward full-strength formula under professional direction.

Step 4: Let the Baby Nurse Slowly

Use a clean syringe that moves smoothly and does not stick.
Hold the squirrel in a natural, belly-down nursing position rather than on its back.
Touch a tiny drop of warm formula to its lips and let it suckle.
Allow the baby to draw in the formula at its own pace.

Never push formula quickly into the mouth. A stuck syringe or forceful plunger can send liquid into the lungs and cause aspiration pneumonia.

After feeding, wipe away any formula left on the fur and record the amount offered and taken. Share those notes with the rehabilitator when you transfer care.

Step 5: Keep Formula in Place During Weaning

Formula remains essential even after a squirrel begins chewing.

Henry’s Pets’ weaning guidance advises keeping a baby on formula until at least 14–16 weeks old. The exact stopping point can vary, especially for a squirrel that is small, recovering from injury, or not eating a wide range of appropriate solids.

Starting Solid Foods for a Baby Squirrel With Teeth

A squirrel that can chew well can begin learning about solid foods. Begin gradually rather than placing a large assortment of treats in the enclosure.

At around 6 weeks old, offer a first solid food designed to provide reliable nutrition. In Henry’s Pets’ weaning plan, the first food is Henry’s Blocks. Place a small piece where the squirrel can smell, handle, and gnaw it between formula feedings.

Once the squirrel is chewing blocks well, introduce vegetables one at a time. Suitable early choices include vegetables such as sweet potato, broccoli, and cauliflower. Remove pits, seeds, tough skins, strings, and other pieces that could become choking hazards.

You can also offer small, clean branches for gnawing. Oak and maple are suitable choices. Gnawing gives the squirrel a natural outlet for its growing teeth without replacing its balanced food.

Avoid introducing nuts, seeds, fruit, or treats as the first solids. Those foods are attractive enough that a young squirrel may reject blocks and vegetables in favor of sweeter or fattier choices. Add limited nuts and fruit only after the squirrel reliably eats formula, blocks, vegetables, and appropriate natural foods.

Foods and Milks That Are Unsafe for Baby Squirrels

The wrong food can quickly create serious problems for an orphaned squirrel. Avoid these common mistakes:

Cow’s milk
Goat’s milk, including goat’s milk sold as a “natural” substitute
Soy milk and plant-based milks
Human infant formula
Kitten and most other ordinary pet milk replacers
Homemade wildlife formulas found online
Nuts, sunflower seeds, fruit, and treats as first solid foods
Bread, cereal, snack foods, sweetened foods, or kitchen leftovers

Unsuitable milks can lead to diarrhea, dehydration, malnutrition, poor growth, or death.

Do not try to correct diarrhea, constipation, bloating, or refusal to eat by changing ingredients repeatedly. Those signs need prompt attention.

Signs to Stop Feeding and Get Urgent Help

Stop the feeding attempt immediately if you notice coughing, choking, liquid from the nose, labored breathing, sudden weakness, or an inability to swallow.

A squirrel handled by a cat or dog may be seriously injured even when no puncture wound is obvious. Breathing difficulty or an inability to nurse normally requires urgent wildlife care.

A successful temporary feeding plan should leave the baby warm, clean, calm, and able to nurse without coughing or formula coming from its nose. Keep written notes on weight, formula amounts, appetite, bowel movements, and new foods tried so the rehabilitator has useful information at hand.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can baby squirrels drink milk?

Baby squirrels should not drink cow’s milk, goat’s milk, soy milk, or human infant formula. If nothing else is available, a commercial puppy milk replacer may be an emergency option. Use squirrel-specific wildlife formula, such as the appropriate Fox Valley Day One formula, while arranging care with a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.

How can I tell how old a baby squirrel is?

Eye status is one useful clue: eyes-closed babies need early-stage formula care, while open eyes usually indicate an older baby beginning to explore and chew. It is not a precise age test, since species and individual development vary. A wildlife rehabilitator can estimate age more accurately from body size, fur, tail development, teeth, and behavior.

What do squirrels eat in the wild?

Wild squirrels eat varied seasonal foods, including buds, leaves, shoots, bark, seeds, nuts, fungi, and fruits when available. A dependent baby squirrel is different from an adult foraging squirrel, so an adult-style diet of nuts and fruit is not an appropriate starting diet. Young squirrels need formula and carefully introduced solids while they learn to eat a balanced range of foods.

What should I do if formula comes out of a baby squirrel’s nose?

Stop feeding immediately. Formula coming from the nose can mean the baby has inhaled liquid or is not swallowing safely, and it needs urgent advice from a wildlife rehabilitator. Keep it quiet and warm while you arrange help; do not try to make it finish the feeding.

Can I keep a baby squirrel until it grows up?

Usually, no. Native squirrels are wildlife, and keeping or releasing them without proper permits and preparation may be illegal where you live. Contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator now, explain the baby’s condition and what it has been fed, and arrange safe transfer as soon as possible.

What foods should I give a baby squirrel that is starting solids?

At around 6 weeks, start a baby squirrel on Henry’s Blocks as its first solid food. After it is chewing the blocks well, add vegetables such as sweet potato, broccoli, or cauliflower one at a time. Introduce vegetables one at a time after the squirrel is chewing blocks well.

What should I feed a motherless baby squirrel?

Feed a motherless baby squirrel a squirrel-specific formula matched to its developmental stage. Choose Fox Valley Day One 32/40 for an eyes-closed squirrel under 4 weeks old, and use Fox Valley Day One 20/50 for one that is older than 4 weeks or has open eyes. This feeding is temporary care while you work to reach a wildlife rehabilitator.