What should I feed a baby wild animal I found?

Nothing. Do not give food, water, cow's milk, kitten formula, or any homemade recipe. A cold or dehydrated baby cannot digest, and feeding it is the single most common cause of death in animals brought to rehabilitators. Keep the animal warm, contained, dark and quiet, and contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. In West Tennessee, text 901-340-6534.

What to Feed a Baby Wild Animal: Nothing, and Here Is Why — Out of the Woods Wildlife Rescue & Rehab

The short answer: nothing

Not milk, not formula, not water, not fruit, not bread, not an eyedropper of anything. The correct first-hour answer for essentially every baby wild mammal in North America is warmth and quiet, and no food by mouth until a rehabilitator has assessed it.

We know that feels wrong. A hungry-looking baby triggers something powerful in people. But feeding is the single most common thing that turns a savable animal into a dead one.

Why feeding hurts

Cold animals cannot digest

A baby below normal body temperature has a shut-down gut. Food put into it sits there and ferments. Warming comes first, always, and it takes longer than people expect.

Aspiration

Baby mammals aspirate easily. Formula pushed too fast, or fed with the animal on its back, goes into the lungs. Aspiration pneumonia is usually fatal and it is not always obvious at the time. The animal seems fine for a day, then declines. This kills more rescued babies than the original fall, cat attack or storm did.

The wrong milk

Cow’s milk causes severe diarrhea and dehydration in most wild babies. Goat’s milk from the grocery store, kitten formula, puppy formula and human infant formula are all wrong for most species, in different ways. Getting it right is a macronutrient problem: matching fat, protein, carbohydrate, caloric density and calcium-to-phosphorus ratio to that specific species’ milk.

Water is not safe either

Water given by syringe or eyedropper is an aspiration risk with no nutritional benefit, and plain water can worsen electrolyte imbalance in a dehydrated animal. Rehabbers use warmed, balanced electrolyte solutions in measured, weight-based volumes, not water.

What to do instead, in order

Contain it. A cardboard box with air holes and something soft that will not catch toenails. Avoid loose-weave towels.
Warm it. A covered warm water bottle or a heating pad on low under half the box, so the animal can move off if it gets too warm.
Dark and quiet. No handling, no showing the kids, no pets in the room. Stress alone kills small animals.
Nothing by mouth.
Text a photo to a rehabber. In West Tennessee, 901-340-6534.

But it will starve

It will not, in the window that matters. A warm baby mammal is far more resilient over a few hours than a fed cold one. The right sequence is warm, assess, then feed correctly. Rehabbers routinely take in animals that have gone many hours without food and do fine. We far more often lose the ones that arrived full of the wrong thing.

The one exception people ask about

Fledgling birds on the ground are usually fine and are being fed by parents nearby. Do not feed them either, and in most cases do not move them. Just keep cats indoors and watch from a distance.

Who is answering this

Out of the Woods Wildlife Rescue & Rehab is a TWRA-permitted wildlife rehabilitation nonprofit in Memphis, Tennessee, serving Shelby County and West Tennessee. There is never a charge to ask us a question. Text 901-340-6534.