How do you determine the sex of flying squirrels?

[squirrelman]

My wife and I found three flying squirrels this week. They are the cutest things we ever saw. How do you tell the males from the females?

[Ardilla]

Sexing photos here:

http://www.nfsa.us/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=80

[squirrelman]

Does anyone know how much a flying squirrel is worth in Florida and what is the criteria to sell them?

[Legomom]

Welcome to TSB! How did you come to find your newest friends? Do you plan to raise & release them or would you like some assistance finding someone in your area that has experience with flying squirrels? We have a lot of rehabbers & volunteers in Florida who would be more than happy to help you out if you're not sure that it's a task that you want to take on. (Myself included.)

A few questions for you...
1) Do you know how old these babies are? Are their eyes closed or open?
2) What are you feeding them?

On another note, I have no idea what flying squirrels sell for in Florida, but most flyers that are sold as pets have been bred in captivity & have been hand-raised from almost birth. In my opinion (please, don't feel that I'm criticizing you in any way), a wild born animal should be returned to the wild if possible.

Please, feel free to ask any questions that you have. There are a lot of members with a lot of knowledge just waiting to help you in any way.

[squirrelman]

Welcome to TSB! How did you come to find your newest friends? Do you plan to raise & release them or would you like some assistance finding someone in your area that has experience with flying squirrels? We have a lot of rehabbers & volunteers in Florida who would be more than happy to help you out if you're not sure that it's a task that you want to take on. (Myself included.)

A few questions for you...
1) Do you know how old these babies are? Are their eyes closed or open?
2) What are you feeding them?

On another note, I have no idea what flying squirrels sell for in Florida, but most flyers that are sold as pets have been bred in captivity & have been hand-raised from almost birth. In my opinion (please, don't feel that I'm criticizing you in any way), a wild born animal should be returned to the wild if possible.

Please, feel free to ask any questions that you have. There are a lot of members with a lot of knowledge just waiting to help you in any way.

We have a regular tree squirrel pet squirrel that we raised from a baby. It hopped up to me in the driveway as a baby and jumped on my leg (animals seem to come to me when in trouble, happened before with other animals). She was so young she had no fear of me and jumped right on my thigh and looked up at me with her big innocent eyes. Mama must have died or it must have fell out of the nest. I don't know. I put it in my shirt pocket and we have had "Pearl" for two years now. She lives in a rabbit cage on our back porch. I take her out regularly and she runs around me like I'm a tree and sits on my shoulder like a parrot while she eats a peanut. She is a big fat happy squirrel now who has always lived in her rabbit cage. Sometimes she climbs off me and runs around the porch, but the cage and porch is her home and she always comes back to me and I put her in her cage again to protect her from the two hawks, one coyote, one fox and one raccoon we have as predators out here. A big owl flew in and took a half grown cat right off our porch! So we have a few predators out here in the country where I live and I have to make sure Pearl is safe. Here's a pic taken when Pearl was about 6 months old sitting on my shoulder......


Here's a link to TWO PAGES of pics of Pearl taken when she was much younger than the fat squirrel she is now lol. The last three pics of me wearing my leather jacket with her on my leg is the day she came to me.
http://good-times.webshots.com/album...IwYmyo?start=0

The last several days late at night I noticed what I thought was another regular baby tree squirrel attracted to the food in Pearl's cage. It came up only at night when Pearl was asleep in her rags. It climbed on the wall and was all around the outside of Pearl's cage. I thought it would be nice for Pearl to have a companion and I tried to catch it with a crab net. That didn't work cause it was so small that it crawled right out through the holes in the net. I rigged up a box with a stick holding it up with a string attached to the stick and put crackers and peanuts under it. Originally I thought that it was a baby tree squirrel, but when I tried to catch it in a net, it jumped off the side of the house and flew about 20 ft! That and its big eyes clued me that it wasn't a regular squirrel and I looked it up on the net and sure enough it was a flying squirrel.

The box trap worked like a charm and I captured it. Then TWO MORE of them came out and I captured them too. I have them (all three) in a big plastic contained with air holes in it. Feeding them water, sunflower seeds, peanuts and crackers. I don't know their ages or sex. Their eyes are very big and open. A pet store guy told me not to put them in with my regular tree squirrel Pearl. He said Pearl would kill them. So there goes my idea for having them as companions for Pearl.

They are soooo cute! I am torn between letting them go, or selling them to someone that would give them a good home.

Now that I know they can't mix in with Pearl, I don't want to have to deal with separate cages. I read that in rare cases they have given humans typhus and rabies. One bit me on the finger when I was taking him out of the capture box to put him in the plastic container, but he didn't break my skin. Just pinched me good.

I was thinking of releasing them tonight pending suggestions from this forum.

Here's a few pics of the three flying squirrels that I took tonight of them in the plastic container.......








Thanks very much!


.

[Legomom]

That was a wonderful thing that you did, saving Pearl. If you don't mind me asking, how much time does she spend in the rabbit cage & what is the size?

As for the flyers, they look to be at least juveniles & past the age of bonding easily if you were to sell them. My suggestion...release them back to your yard & set them free. Set up a feeder & enjoy the natural activities of these amazingly smart & beautiful furry creatures. You might be surprised by how many visitors you have since flyers do live in communities.

Keeping a flyer as a pet is a huge responsibility in the best situation. One member & hobby breeder sums it up perfectly here. http://www.thesquirrelboard.com/foru...ad.php?t=15969

As for finding a 'friend' for Pearl, I'd suggest just enjoying her as she is. Bringing in another squirrel at her age could be a bigger conflict than you realize. She may feel it is a threat to her territory. Some members have gotten pet rabbits or guinea pigs & they have done well with their pet squirrels.

We have another member out in TX who posts about his night time visitors pretty regularly. http://www.thesquirrelboard.com/foru...ad.php?t=16345

I hope all of this helps & I hope to hear very soon about the beautiful night visitors that you have!

[Nancy in New York]

Oh yes...please release these babies back to where they came from...that will be an early Christmas gift for them and for me....
Good Luck with little Pearl she is a cutie....