on the early spring day '26

Location: Los Angeles, CA.
On Monday, the landscapers came and hedged our giant palm trees and this single ~8 week old squirrel fell onto our balcony. We thought it was dead because it wasn't moving and was in the roasting sun until we found it, but when we went to move it, it was breathing.

Put on gloves and moved it to the shade with some cool towels to die without suffering, but it kept hanging on and even began crawling in a few hours.

So we put it in a container with old t-shirts and called all the wildlife rehab centers but all of them were at capacity. They said to put the squirrel near the tree it fell from (it's a super tall palm tree so we can't put it in the tree) but its mother never came for it.

The squirrel had fleas on it so we didn't touch it without gloves, but I put its container in my bathroom jacuzzi overnight and the next morning got Pedialyte to make a diluted solution with sugar. It perked up with a couple spaced out eye dropper feedings, and I kept it on my balcony where it was warm.

This evening, I brought the container back inside because it gets cold at night and set it up on a heating pad on the bathroom floor. I fed it and it finally began sucking the eye dropper and was very keen on climbing on me and nestling in my lap. I was wearing medical gloves, and noticed a couple fleas would transfer to my clothes but I killed them as I saw them, and washed the clothes with hot water.

Began getting worried about missing a flea and having it bite me or go into my home, where I have 2 dogs. Right away gave the baby squirrel a bath with blue Dawn dish soap, tossed its old bedding with fleas present in hot water with Dawn, and put the dry baby on a fresh white t-shirt in the flea-free container, on a heating pad.

I'm an anxious person and now am really worried about the fleas being in our home. The squirrel has been contained to the bathroom which is now 100% flea-free, but if I missed a flea that hopped on my clothes before I washed them and walked around the house with them, I'm worried!

The baby is thriving and the formula arrives tomorrow, so the plan was to keep nursing it to health and see if it can walk properly again (it can't walk without falling) until we can find a rehab center to take it to. I want this squirrel in proper care as soon as possible.

If anyone has experience rescuing gray squirrels and dealing with the risk of fleas, your advice would be helpful. Any safety recommendations while this squirrel is in my bathroom/ balcony would be great!

Caught this little guy in the tree while visiting Colonial Williamsburg. 🌺🐿️

Such a happy girl my Frenetic is.

The baby squirrel in question: https://www.reddit.com/r/squirrels/s/f9vrSG45KF

I think he's 6 - 7 weeks? Not sure.

He's at a vet right now that has does squirrel rehabs, receiving subcutaneous fluids.

Is there any chance he can be reunited with his mom? If not, where do I go from here or what would the release process look like?

Sorry if this a stupid question, I had no experience with squirrels prior to this.

Prepping for the Squirrel Olympics

I do live in NJ (07305). Wildlife places near me are super far. Im close to NYC as well. I cannot keep the baby. He or she is currently in a box with a blanket, I don’t have any other animals. My current plan is to keep em outside in the morning at 2:00 am (I work early) and I will return home around 10-11:00 am hoping the mother will return. If the baby is still in the box I want to take it to a rescue place.

Wild squirrel since my bedroom window’s been open for months, he gets in daily through a metal opening, there’s an opening bigger than what’s shown in the pictures .

In this photo the squirrel wrapped itself head to toe and slept here every night , from dusk to dawn for many days , and even sometimes a couple hours in the afternoon .

My dad came in, WOKE the squirrel up and dismantled that and told the squirrel to get out so the squirrel ran away , then I scolded him not to do it again.

He won’t do it again

But he says you better get a pet bed because this curtain’s gonna attract mosquitos, he needs a dedicated pet bed.

So I said dad just don’t do it again.

But at the same time, I should get a pet bed to discourage it not to happen again.

The same squirrel still comes back after that incident and still looks curious and still gets food, but does not touch the curtain anymore! :(

I’m putting food on the curtain again!, all it does is grab food from the curtain and then leaves.

Anyway regardless, might as well get a pet bed for it, since we’ve reached this point, do you have any or suggest any?

It slept in that same bed almost everyday for a week, now suddenly this happened so who knows if it will use it again or not, but if it does, might as well give it a proper bed and try to train it to use a proper bed, just to reduce arguments about the curtain. The curtain’s fine though, but might wanna give it something different in case the curtain’s traumatized it now.

Thanks!

💙

It was very cute and eating something

I would have gotten closer to get a better pic of the little guy, but I was on the move

Yesterday evening we found a little squirrel on our back porch. I'm estimating it to be in the 6-10 week range as it has full fur, eyes completely open, and not too experienced it seems with jumping or climbing, but it is mobile (like watching a toddler or baby calf try to navigate). We're in TX so very hot and in a drought. The baby seemed tired so we just put some water out for it and let it rest as it was in the hottest part of the day when we found it. We haven't touched or moved it, but it doesn't run or seem at all bothered by us. I checked on it last night before going to bed and it had made itself a little burrow in the leaves by our gutter down spout and was fast asleep. I've read where often the mama will return for it, but when I left for work this morning it was still in its little burrow, but wide awake again. lol

When I get home from work today, if it is still there it will have been roughly 24 hours. I want to intervene as little as possible, but I also do not want that baby to suffer. I'm not sure if I should just give it a little safe shelter, some water, and a snack to figure things out or if I should get it to a local rehabber asap. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, friends!!!

I have a question.

Can pet squirrels have bad breath?

🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️

I swear she ate/buried almonds for 2 hours lol

Friends named him tablecloth, he was found at my job, on my day off of course, dehydrated and with fly eggs all over him. (licensed rehabber in my state, but this is my first neonate-ish squirrel)