Hand grabbing

[cindyrads]

The baby squirrel I took in back on Labor Day is now about 13 weeks old. He is eating solid food now and is doing really well.

There is one thing that he is doing though that I am trying to figure out. He's always grabbing at my hands with his mouth. He's not bitting, he's just grabbing my hands and sometimes he push them forward. I can't figure out if he is trying to play or if he is trying to tell me he wants to eat.

It gets very annoying when I'm here on the computer trying to type and he is constantly running up and down grabbing my hands. :poke my hands.

Does anyone else's squirrel do this?

[crazysquirrels]

Talula does this but for her it means MOVE! She grabs them and trys to push them away forcefully. I never get hurt but I get the point.. For you I think you baby wants to see what you are doing and what is under your finger.

[CritterMom]

Yup. They will grab and hug your hands, too.

[cindyrads]

Yup. They will grab and hug your hands, too.

Yes he does that too, so I was confused as to if he was trying to play, looking for food, just being annoying....LOL!

[jakid709]

Rocky is obessed with my fingers and toes. She nibbles on every finger going from one to the next even the knuckles. I call it her love bites. she grooms me licking my fingers and sge is playing.

[CritterMom]

I think that most little animals think that we are our face and our hands, and the rest of that stuff - the arms and legs and all are just things to climb. They can't stand not being in the middle of the action, and that is what your hands are doing when you are trying to type - moving around, doing stuff that requires investigation. I can't talk on the phone with my guy in the same room!

[Fireweed]

It sounds to me, from how you describe his actions, that he is trying to put your hands 'into their place'. If your hands are constantly moving, he might find them distracting/annoying/something to be controlled/something to be cached/ etc. I see squirrels having a bit of OCD this way :D . And the way he grabs with his mouth and "pushes forward" sounds exactly what the red squirrels do here when they want to move something (like crazysquirrels said) or they want to cache something and put it in its 'right' place.

He might be doing this as a game because your hands don't stop moving or he could be doing it simply because that's a squirrel's (ocd?) nature. The action you describe I've termed The Jeffrey. Nancy in New York's little red squirrel, Jeffrey (rip), was captured on video several times doing that very move: he would carry a nut in his mouth to a good spot and with one or two pushes forward and/or down with his mouth, bingo, the nut would be 'in its place/in the 'right' place'. :D

I've also seen my squirrel, Meemor, do that with food that is just sitting around--food he doesn't really like and doesn't intend to eat. To me it's his way of making sure that food 'stays put'. He may not want to eat it, but it's HIS nonetheless and he wants to make sure it stays exactly where he wants it to be. At least, that's how I see it.

Ok, long explanation of what I *think* your squirrel is doing. Don't hate me because I'm wordiful. :poke

[cindyrads]

I think your right, I think he is trying to put my hands where he things they should be. I was just letting him do it this morning and watching to see what he does. It seems that my hands belong next to my thighs. LOL! When he gets them there he lets them alone and then goes to do something else.

[astra]

I think your right, I think he is trying to put my hands where he things they should be. I was just letting him do it this morning and watching to see what he does. It seems that my hands belong next to my thighs. LOL! When he gets them there he lets them alone and then goes to do something else.:rotfl :rotfl

[CritterMom]

Then see that you keep them there. Humans...:shakehead :thinking

[Chickenlegs]

Then see that you keep them there. Humans...:shakehead :thinking

hahahaha! Little guys are very particular when it comes to us two leggers. My babies like to groom my hands--and get pretty darned insistent about it. They don't like it if my hands have other things to do. Earl will grab and hang on till I let him finish. I think it's pretty darned funny that they like for US to be spit-spot and in order but just take a look in their beds--storage units for trash. Hey little critters--need to practice what you preach!

[Fireweed]

It seems that my hands belong next to my thighs. LOL! When he gets them there he lets them alone and then goes to do something else.
:rolf :rolf


Then see that you keep them there. Humans... :shakehead
:rofl4


I think it's pretty darned funny that they like for US to be spit-spot and in order but just take a look in their beds--storage units for trash. Hey little critters--need to practice what you preach!
:rotfl

[JakesLittlePrincess]

Little Bushy grabs our hands and demands to be massaged. She then puts the squirrel death grip on us and will not let go no matter what. She will groom us in return, slowly working around each finger and nail until she is done. If we walk by her and she is in her house or on top of her house she will reach out and grab us as if to say, "Hey, I'm here, don't ignore me." Our feet are an entirely a different thing though. We don't dare walk bare foot in this house as she will lurk under the bed waiting for that suspicious looking foot to get to close and the wreak havoc upon it. My feet and ankles have been sacrificed to that which walks beneath the bed.