Having diarrhea is an inconvenience, this ailment can be quite painful and even embarrassing for humans. If your squirrel has diarrhea, the animal is likely in pain too.
This article explores reasons why your baby squirrel has diarrhea as well as how to treat your baby squirrel’s diarrhea.
Table of Contents
Why does my baby squirrel have diarrhea?
Diarrhea isn’t only uncomfortable and painful for squirrels, it can kill a baby squirrel as well. If you notice that your baby’s poop is suddenly very watery, then the animal likely has diarrhea.
There are a variety of reasons why your baby squirrel may have diarrhea, here are some and what to do about them:
Parasites:
The salmonella bacteria causes salmonellosis in squirrels, this parasite can be found in animal feces. If your squirrel came in contact with the feces of an infected animal, then this is likely where your squirrel picked the parasite up.
The symptoms of this disease can include internal cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea.
What to do:
The simplest treatment for this ailment is to serve the squirrel replenishing electrolytes and to hydrate the squirrel.
If the disease is very advanced, then the squirrel may need to be taken to a vet. The vet will examine the animal and prescribe antibiotics
Overfeeding:
Baby squirrels will eat almost anything you offer them, plus, they don’t know anything about portion control. If you feed your squirrel too much food, it will overeat, overheat and eventually develop diarrhea or bloating.
What to do:
If your squirrel is eating too much, and develops diarrhea because of it, you’d need to slowly decrease the amount of food that you give the baby. This will prevent overeating, overheating, and diarrhea
Incorrect formula:
Feeding baby squirrels liquid esbilac is not recommended, this formula has different ingredients to powdered esbilac, liquid esbilac can give baby squirrels diarrhea.
In addition, mixing Pedialyte into the baby’s formula will simply dilute the liquid esbilac, doing this will only make the diarrhea worse.
What to do:
If you’re feeding your squirrel liquid esbilac you need to stop as soon as possible. These two formulas have very different ingredients, and the difference in ingredients makes a huge difference in squirrels.
Switch to feeding your baby squirrel the powdered variety. You can find powdered esbilac at your local pet store or online
Your baby squirrel’s diarrhea should disappear a day or two after you make this change.
Feeding baby squirrels cow milk:
Squirrels have very demanding nutritional needs, they may be opportunistic feeders, and they may eat a variety of foods, but these animals cannot have cow milk. Cow milk will give the baby squirrel diarrhea.
What to do:
Stop feeding cow milk to squirrels, if you don’t have a formula specially made for squirrels, but you have goat milk, you can offer the baby squirrel a homemade goat milk formula.
Make this formula by combining 3 parts goat milk, and 1 part plain yogurt. Mix this all up and serve it to your baby squirrel.
Note: This is only a temporary fix, you can feed this to your baby squirrels while waiting for the appropriate long-term squirrel feed to arrive.
You can choose to use fresh, canned, or powdered goat milk to make the formula with
Rehydrating:
Diarrhea is draining on the body, your baby squirrel likely lost a lot of fluids while suffering from diarrhea and needs to be rehydrated.
You can rehydrate your baby squirrel by making and serving it a rehydration solution. Make the homemade rehydration solution by mixing 2 cups of warm water and 1 ½ tablespoon of sugar.
Make sure that you feed this to your baby squirrel while the solution is warm and ensure that the baby squirrel is warm too, never feed a chilled baby squirrel.
Feeding a chilled baby squirrel can result in the death of the animal
What should baby squirrel poop look like?
Your squirrel should go back to pooping normally a little while after you’ve treated your pet. Normal baby squirrel poop is yellow/orange and consists of large, soft nuggets
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other squirrel related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Baby Squirrel Pneumonia Treatment, Baby Squirrel Has Diarrhea, Baby Squirrel Breathing Through Its Mouth, Dead Squirrel With A Bloody Mouth,
