This weekend, I was startled when I stumbled across a baby squirrel on the ground in my backyard. This was not the cute, fluffy baby squirrel that most people think of when they think of a baby squirrel. This was a furless, pink, newborn squirrel and its eyes hadn’t opened yet.

Never having been in this situation before, I had no idea what to do. I looked up how to care for a baby squirrel, and a daunting list of needed supplies and complicated steps popped up. The most important thing I found was that it is necessary to keep baby rodents much warmer than you would think, so I put the baby squirrel in a cardboard box with a heat pad in the bottom, with a soft towel on top of that, because, apparently, it makes them feel safer. After that, I was lost on what to do. I read that you can use Puppy Milk Replacement, or a hydrating solution (made of water, salt, and sugar) to feed baby rodents, but it was really difficult to feed the baby squirrel, and it didn’t seem to want to drink.

Later in the day, I spoke with a friend of a friend who happens to be an expert on rehabilitating squirrels. She told me two things that I felt should definitely have been mentioned on the online forums on caring for baby squirrels. First off, many squirrel mothers will come back for their lost babies. It might have been the case that a mother would have come back for the baby squirrel, though I had no way of knowing if it would, and I didn’t want to leave the baby as a nice snack for a neighborhood cat.

Second, many animal hospitals, especially emergency vets, will accept and rehabilitate abandoned wild animals. If I had known this earlier, I could have taken the baby squirrel to get help earlier, and reduced stress for both the squirrel and myself. Nevertheless, I dropped the squirrel off at the 24 Hour Veterinary Specialty Care in Mount Pleasant. They seemed completely willing and equipped to take the squirrel from me.

The most important thing to remember if you find an abandoned baby squirrel (or another closely related rodent/animal) is to keep it warm. If your main objective is to keep the animal alive, I would recommend taking them straight to the 24 Hour Specialty Vet in Mount Pleasant, or any other vet that accepts wild animals. It is possible to take care of them yourself, but it is quite time consuming as they need to be fed every couple of hours, even during the night.

Follow these steps to secure as happy of a future as possible for the next baby squirrel that you find!