Aggressive Squirrel!

[ShereeJacobi]

Snuggles (grey squirrel) bit me tonight over some bell pepper seeds. I knew he wasn't satisfied with his food today and it was almost bedtime so I pull out the center of a bell pepper and put it on top of his cage where he was. I can't even go into the room without him chattering his teeth and being crazy. He has been aggressive by growling before over a walnut, but then when he gets enough of them it's no longer an issue. I haven't fed him any bell pepper for about 3 weeks cause he wouldn't eat it for a couple of weeks prior. How do you stop them or train them not to be aggresive? He takes all food very gently from my fingers to make sure he doesn't bite me. Never has he bitten me over food. He bit a little harder than a play bite but it was definetly an aggressive bite. No breaking the skin or anything like that. He gets about 3 or 4 henry's blocks plus a wide varying range of foods on a daily basis. He shouldn't be deficient unless there are certain veggies that aren't available at the supermarket.

[JakesLittlePrincess]

How old is he?

[ShereeJacobi]

1 year old

[JakesLittlePrincess]

Someone with more experience will have better advice than me but I would check if he has any stashes of food in his cage. He might also be wilding up. Like I said I am not an expert I only know what I read so hopefully someone else will chime in and offer an opinion.

[ShereeJacobi]

He can never wild up cause he is not releasable. Maybe he doesn't know that. LOL He has no stashes of food in his cage. He does stash almonds everywhere else but doesn't stash food in his cage. I don't feed him in his cage very often. I haven't had his blood levels checks in 2 1/2 months but last time all was great and he has always stashed his almonds.

[stepnstone]

1 year old and can't wild up? :poke Can we say testosterone...:rotfl

[4skwerlz]

If he's nonreleaseable you have to try to teach better manners. There's an old thread on this issue where someone was having a problem with aggression in an NR. Interesting discussion, and not everyone agreed, but might give you some ideas:

http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14505&highlight=squirrels+defanged

[mpetys]

1 year old and can't wild up? :poke Can we say testosterone...:rotfl

I have a 17 month old and we have gone through several episodes of testosterone! It coincides with mating time. MonkeyButt got so bad that he would bite me every time I got near him. It was heartbreaking but I knew it wasn't personal. The past two weeks have been wonderful! He is finally back to his old self. We have our lovey dovey sessions at night where I can hold him and scratch him and he enjoys it. Last week, I took him into the bedroom to play and instead of acting aggressive and chattering his teeth right away, we played all of our old games. He ran around and would jump and bounce off of me. He jumped up on my shoulder and there was no teeth chattering but he wanted to nibble on my ear which I have to admit, scares me because I have been so used to him biting me. I dread the next mating season though.

His first episode was when he was about a year old, maybe 11 months.

I have another male that is a little over a year old and have not had an issue with him.

[stepnstone]

My Annie sometimes has had her little fits of aggression too. She will jump on my shoulders and attack the back of my head with her claws. Her "play bites" become harder and she will (or attempt) to chew on the woodwork. I very sternly tell her NO - BAD! Then I put her in her cage for time out. As with a child, time out is just that, I don't just leave her there. I give her time to settle down, 20-30 minutes and I let her out again. Most of the times she comes back out very docile and behaves. If she continues the behavior she's back in for the rest of the evening. I'm very consistent with it and it works. Annie knows the word NO and at least 7 out of 10 I only have to tell her no and she stops whatever the infraction is.

[Rescue04]

Well our Leroy, just calmed down as well. It is hard to put up with him in that period, but we know it is mother nature coming out in him! We do know this - if you neuter a squirrel.....it can and has had an adverse effect on them. In most animals, dogs/cats/other - they calm dwn, squirrels on the other hand......not so much. I have just learned how to cope with it. The food in the cage is the hard part - we have to have one person distract him while the other gets the food or puts it in.

[CritterMom]

Mister P is two now (or will be next week!!) and this year he has been an absolute dreamboat through mating season. The girls will be outside yowling their heads off and trying to stick their butts in his window and while he looks a little, he is a lot more interested in playing with mom for a while and then cuddling. I lay him on his back or side on my lap in his microfleece wrestle blanket and he gets tummy rubs for as long as my fingers work.

I think boys get the craziest of their crazies out in the first year.

[mpetys]

I think boys get the craziest of their crazies out in the first year.

Oh Crittermom, I hope this is true! It is so hard when MonkeyButt gets "crazy" during mating time. When I realized that he was truly back to his old lovey dovey self, I cried out of happiness. It felt so good to have my old boy back!