potty training....

[tbubbles]

i have this eastern gray squirrel that my cat got and we had to nurse it back to health. it has a cage, but is only in it when i am in school and at dinnertime. it sleeps at the foot end of my bed....but anyways. he poops and pees everywhere except on people and i am really getting tired of cleaning it up! he is about 5 months old. is it too late to potty train him? and how can i do that the easiest way? thank you for your help!!
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[Scooterzmom]

i have this eastern gray squirrel that my cat got and we had to nurse it back to health. it has a cage, but is only in it when i am in school and at dinnertime. it sleeps at the foot end of my bed....but anyways. he poops and pees everywhere except on people and i am really getting tired of cleaning it up! he is about 5 months old. is it too late to potty train him? and how can i do that the easiest way? thank you for your help!!
:flash3


I don't know that sq are potty trainable but... I did have a young one who was. Chipper (his name) was only about 6 to 7 weeks old though when I "trained" him. The rehabber I brought him to for release said she'd rehabbed for 20 years and he was the 1st one she ever had who was littler trained.

Fact is I didn't really train him, I just noticed he was peeing in the same area of his cage all the time, so I placed a little tray of "yesterdays news" litter pellets there (whatever you do, do not use cat littler; the dust and chemicals in there are toxic to sq's - so my vet said). I placed a piece of his soiled paper under the litter pellets to keep his own scent there and attract him and bingo, he went there. Then, gradually I began to move the tray to another spot... I mean VERY gradually, like no more than 3 or 4 inches every other day. He kept using it.

The idea is to make sure you can make him chose a spot first and for that, I would probably set him up in a big cage and let him out for playtime or during the day. Being in a cage for sleeping may be an advantage for his own good anyway. What if you got another pet? What if you have guests and he bothers them ... or whatever. Having a home of his own is always a better idea, I think. You do know they do change in personality once they reach 'puberty' or adulthood. If he's never had a home and you want to release him the poor thing will have much less of a chance to learn how to wild up IMHO. With his own cage/home and a nest box in there, he would probably adopt a spot in his cage for his 'bathroom' needs and you then could start from there.

I'm no expert mind ya, so these are only suggestions.

Here is a picture: Chipper in his litter tray
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[scoobysnack]

Grey squirrels are wild animals. You may get the rare individual that latrines so you can habituate him to keep going in the same spot, but by and large they go anywhere they wish.

They don't make great pets and generally should be released back into the wild unless there is a reason they can't be.