My Squirrel Has Turned Aggressive

[ShereeJacobi]

Snuggles is a disabled male squirrel so can never be released. He was born around August, 2010. In the last 2 weeks he has built this huge nest in his cage. He has free roam in a 15 x 25 room and has usually always just stayed on top of his cage sleeping in blankets/towels. This nest is huge and has never built one before. He decided to take the stuffing out of the couch of all things. He has never bitten me til today and I mean he hung on! His agressive behavior started about a month ago and I think it's when I jerked back because his nail got me when I was handing him a nut. So, they smell fright a mile away! Since then he has tried to attack me a couple of times and I was told by Leigh at Henry's to make sure he knows who is in control. Everything has been fine and we had decided it could be sunflower seeds that made him aggressive cause since I took them away there has been almost zero aggression. Until today, when I fed him and he jumped at me when he was eating. So, after he ate, I fed him a pecan and he jumped at it trying to get to it, then I had a reaction of fright which led to really aggressive behavior by him. So, I got him and he could reach my finger and he hung on, drew blood, yadayada. In his cage he went! I cleaned out every nut he had in his quarters. So, what does anyone suggest I do? Why a nest now and never before? :thankyou

[Jackie in Tampa]

he is maturing age...
my guess , could be hormones..
my advise..
put on fresh clothes with familiar smells
no perfumes, hair dyes...nothing new, no funky smells from the woods or walmart yada yada
keep it simple...keep him busy with new outside nest materials when you can...small twiggs, branches etc..and kleenex, poly fill, small pieces of fleece 2x2 squares, newspaper ripped into strips...let him build!!!:D

patience and precaution til he sorts out his hormones!

[djarenspace9]

They can get real protective of their nuts.
It's a natural instinct they have.
NO STASH!
I drop the dish and run :rotfl
If I even linger around the food my NR's will get real nasty.
They are also free to roam (3 of them) in their room and will come after me
if they feel I might take something (which to me is ridiculous since I am GIVING
them the food)

:sanp3

[ShereeJacobi]

he is maturing age...
my guess , could be hormones..
my advise..
put on fresh clothes with familiar smells
no perfumes, hair dyes...nothing new, no funky smells from the woods or walmart yada yada
keep it simple...keep him busy with new outside nest materials when you can...small twiggs, branches etc..and kleenex, poly fill, small pieces of fleece 2x2 squares, newspaper ripped into strips...let him build!!!:D

patience and precaution til he sorts out his hormones!
K. Thanks. I will get him some wild things. I just don't think the nest can get any bigger though! LOL

[ShereeJacobi]

They can get real protective of their nuts.
It's a natural instinct they have.
NO STASH!
I drop the dish and run :rotfl
If I even linger around the food my NR's will get real nasty.
They are also free to roam (3 of them) in their room and will come after me
if they feel I might take something (which to me is ridiculous since I am GIVING
them the food)

:sanp3
LOL. He has never been aggressive but 1 time before the last month and that was over the insides of a bell pepper of all things! (well, except for when another person/animal comes around and I don't have a clue how to get him not to be aggressive towards other people) They hold their nose down a tad and look at you real mean, you know your in trouble when you get that look! He had it all the way to his cage today with my finger in his mouth!

[ShereeJacobi]

Snuggles is a disabled male squirrel so can never be released. He was born around August, 2010. In the last 2 weeks he has built this huge nest in his cage. He has free roam in a 15 x 25 room and has usually always just stayed on top of his cage sleeping in blankets/towels. This nest is huge and has never built one before. He decided to take the stuffing out of the couch of all things. He has never bitten me til today and I mean he hung on! His agressive behavior started about a month ago and I think it's when I jerked back because his nail got me when I was handing him a nut. So, they smell fright a mile away! Since then he has tried to attack me a couple of times and I was told by Leigh at Henry's to make sure he knows who is in control. Everything has been fine and we had decided it could be sunflower seeds that made him aggressive cause since I took them away there has been almost zero aggression. Until today, when I fed him and he jumped at me when he was eating. So, after he ate, I fed him a pecan and he jumped at it trying to get to it, then I had a reaction of fright which led to really aggressive behavior by him. So, I got him and he could reach my finger and he hung on, drew blood, yadayada. In his cage he went! I cleaned out every nut he had in his quarters. So, what does anyone suggest I do? Why a nest now and never before? :thankyou

BTW, he was only in his cage about 15 min. When I let him out all he wanted to do was play! Amazing how fast they forget the attack! He was almost as lovey dovey as usual but I think he could still smell my fright! Now that I have been bitten, I am not too worried about it. I lived! LOL

[Jackie in Tampa]

before a bite postures...
turn away from you
chitter teeth
stomp
and when they hunch up...too late!
but run anyway:rotfl

[ShereeJacobi]

before a bite postures...
turn away from you
chitter teeth
stomp
and when they hunch up...too late!
but run anyway:rotfl

LOL! He doesn't stomp, doesn't chatter, and never ever turns away! He gets that look and charges!

[Rhapsody]

LOL! He doesn't stomp, doesn't chatter, and never ever turns away! He gets that look and charges!I agree and I was about to post the same thing --in five years of rehabbing I have been warned by some squirrels and have been surprised and out right attacked by some of my sweetest squirrels...... guess it just goes to show you.... Squirrels are just like people "You NEVER Know" - :rotfl :rotfl :rotfl

[stosh2010]

OPTIONAL (mandatory) Equipment for my Rama Rota..At 18 months he decided only RamaMama was a friend...
I still LOVE him --he's my KING I interact with him every day

[pappy1264]

Stosh, where are the arm(or) for your arms??? I am amazed he doesn't go after your arms!!!

[squirrelmanxx]

Try holding a soft toy or 6-8" cube of foam rubber near him and let him be agressive with that. My guy wanted rough, tussling type of play like the young ones do, mostly wanted to wrestle my hand in an up and down way. Agressive is normal at his age, but try to accomodate and learn to take the small bites as they come.

If i held one of those foam cubes and shook it, he'd usually attack and always liked that game, tearing out bits and pieces in his mock attacks, similar to a cat.

[Kristal]

The first time I was bitten, I was horrified. It was also the deepest and worst bite I ever had - that first one. It went through my fingernail and probably most of the way through my finger on the other side :sanp3

Though I was really freaked out about it, I tried to take a page from the squirrels. They do fight and make up pretty often. Sometimes the fights are even kind of bad. From what I have seen, one squirrel will suck up to the other afterwards with grooming and general appeasement. As soon as the other reciprocates, the whole affair is forgotten.

So my girl made quite a production out of apologising after that first bite. She sat on the back of my neck and combed my hair with her fingers like she used to do when she was little. I was really pissed off at her and would only scowl and growl back for a good two or three hours. But once I finally relented in my anger and gave her a little stroke in return, she was off. Once you appear to accept the "apology", the transgression is forgotten in the squirrel world. At least that has been my experience.

So it is a mistake to show anger or fear after that or even to change your behaviour at all, I think. It's very possible that your squirrel is thinking of such behaviour as a completely new round of aggression and does not see any connection to the original incident at all. In that case, your guy is probably wonder why the he** YOU have changed so unaccountably!

If anything, that first, awful bite made my guys more gentle with me. She got a vein and it hurt and bled like a bad expletive that I won't type on this board :p They were all worried about me when they saw the blood, actually.

I have been bitten really a lot of times since that happened. But it does not even bother me anymore. No kidding. They give pinchy bites occasionally when they really want to make a point. These don't or barely break the skin and are easy to forget for me. I don't know... I just adjusted my perspective to make it more in line with theirs. If insult is not intended, according to the squirrel code (as far as I can interpret it), then I don't take it. I let out a big, exaggerated yelp when they nip me to let them know that it hurts. But they don't actually hurt me much anymore :dono They also seem very capable of understanding that I am more sensitive than they are, so they have probably adjusted to that and nip accordingly :p

[astra]

Though I was really freaked out about it, I tried to take a page from the squirrels. They do fight and make up pretty often. Sometimes the fights are even kind of bad. From what I have seen, one squirrel will suck up to the other afterwards with grooming and general appeasement. As soon as the other reciprocates, the whole affair is forgotten.

So my girl made quite a production out of apologising after that first bite. She sat on the back of my neck and combed my hair with her fingers like she used to do when she was little. I was really pissed off at her and would only scowl and growl back for a good two or three hours. But once I finally relented in my anger and gave her a little stroke in return, she was off. Once you appear to accept the "apology", the transgression is forgotten in the squirrel world. At least that has been my experience.
:p
:) thanks for sharing this, Kristal, very observing

[Kristal]

Thanks Astra ;)

So basically my advice from a similar experience and then a lot of time after that is to make like a squirrel and roll with it and then get over it. Once it's done and you have moved on (from his perspective) the incident is forgotten. People talk about squirrels being bewilderingly sweet after throwing a temper tantrum and biting very hard - "as if the bite had not even happened". But I think that this is probably why they do that - to make up and move on.

If, after the incident has been resolved from the squirrels perspective, you are more guarded and change your behaviour or appear to be and smell fearful and/or angry towards your squirrel, I think that they will interpret that as YOU starting a new and unrelated round of aggression towards THEM. They just don't have the same type of memory and concept of continuity as we do, animals (as far as I can tell). So I believe that this will confuse and scare them and possibly lead to a negative escalation that could change your relationship for the worse.

That's just my personal interpretation of my experiences, of course. But it seems to work as far as facilitating a good interspecies rapport so far.

EDIT: BTW, I was *very* hurt and scared of my girl after that first bite. In truth, I felt betrayed by her. But I made an effort not to show it and to follow her lead, and that was enough. Since she was gentle to me afterwards, I didn't change how I acted towards her. I am sure that they can smell feelings, but they also seem to be capable of interpretation based on actions, too.

[quagmire]

If he his maturing and coming of age, like ours did, he became very aggressive too. A quick trip to the vet to get him neutered took care of that problem. He has been a sweet spoiled brat ever since. He won't bite me or the wife, but any strangers are fair game, if they get close enough.

Good Luck.

[ShereeJacobi]

Thanks Astra ;)

So basically my advice from a similar experience and then a lot of time after that is to make like a squirrel and roll with it and then get over it. Once it's done and you have moved on (from his perspective) the incident is forgotten. People talk about squirrels being bewilderingly sweet after throwing a temper tantrum and biting very hard - "as if the bite had not even happened". But I think that this is probably why they do that - to make up and move on.

If, after the incident has been resolved from the squirrels perspective, you are more guarded and change your behaviour or appear to be and smell fearful and/or angry towards your squirrel, I think that they will interpret that as YOU starting a new and unrelated round of aggression towards THEM. They just don't have the same type of memory and concept of continuity as we do, animals (as far as I can tell). So I believe that this will confuse and scare them and possibly lead to a negative escalation that could change your relationship for the worse.

That's just my personal interpretation of my experiences, of course. But it seems to work as far as facilitating a good interspecies rapport so far.

EDIT: BTW, I was *very* hurt and scared of my girl after that first bite. In truth, I felt betrayed by her. But I made an effort not to show it and to follow her lead, and that was enough. Since she was gentle to me afterwards, I didn't change how I acted towards her. I am sure that they can smell feelings, but they also seem to be capable of interpretation based on actions, too.

I am still a little guarded even though we have been playing and he hasn't attacked me again over the food, but I guarantee you his nut stash is no more! lol It just takes time. I have always hand fed him and petted him. He was waiting on me to open the sugar snap peas and feed him one at a time today. He is so gentle when he takes the little pea out of my fingers. Only aggression today was he went after the cat that walked by his outdoor cage we use for his sunshine (and again he had a nut in his mouth). He has never done that before outdoors but I guess he sees me chasing her off from the back porch so he decided to join in. lol. He's a cutie! But boy did that bite burn for a good day! :thankyou

[Kristal]

I don't know if that will help you in the least, but I have at least found it a helpful attitude to start with. I hope he calms down a bit with you :Love_Icon

[ShereeJacobi]

I don't know if that will help you in the least, but I have at least found it a helpful attitude to start with. I hope he calms down a bit with you :Love_Icon
heck, he got aggressive yesterday cause when he came inside he had a nut in his mouth. He went around dragging his butt on the floor, attacked his toy with sound and me holding it several times. At least he didn't crawl up me! lol. So, after he went to bed I removed the nut he stashed. I guess the nuts send him off on a rampage. He settled down after an hour or so and never attacked me. We played. All was cool. But I did notice that his tail was a little bushier than normal all day. Not full fledged out, but still fluffier. LOL. I guess it's his hormones.:thankyou

[ShereeJacobi]

OPTIONAL (mandatory) Equipment for my Rama Rota..At 18 months he decided only RamaMama was a friend...
I still LOVE him --he's my KING I interact with him every day
I need you to make me one of those hats! LOL. It appears I am going to need it!

[Kristal]

Yea, they sort of puff up and do what I call the lion pose (shift their shoulders out a little when they walk so that they look big and tough like they have a mane) when they have a treat. That is a good sign not to mess with them. It's like a cat sticking up his fur.

They mark territory by rubbing it with their bum and chin - again, the same way that cats do. I am surprised that you have never seen this behaviour before, actually :thinking . My guys mark me in the same way when they are feeling particularly fond. I am like their momma-tree, or something :p

What do you mean by crawl up on you? My guys are crawling on me all the time. It is kind of normal, actually, and not a sign of aggression at all. I never go in their room or hang out with them unless I am wearing a heavy fleece sweater, at least, and even better if I am wearing jeans, too. I would get scratched all to he11 otherwise :) You should probably wear a hat of some kind, too, as they like to perch on heads.

But yea, that sounds like normal young adult behaviour. Perhaps your guys is a very late bloomer due to his disability? Maybe he is getting a bit better and more independent lately? If so, you can expect him to want to stretch his legs, as it were. They are very independent animals, unlike those bred to be domestics, and practically demand to be given their space and basically treated as equals.