play biting

[acorniv]

Miss Hickory is now 9-10 weeks old. She loves wrestling - so much I think she fancies her self a predator :) Me being her favorite prey :shakehead She likes her tumm6y tickled and then she gives me rabbit kicks ( very gentle ones, but she tries hard) and bites. I've noticed her bite is extremely gentle. She could hurt if she wanted to, but she is careful not to.

My question: What should I prepare myself for in the future? Will her bite get harder and harder, will it go along as is until puberty and then she'll take my finger off, (if she is still visiting us) or will she always have this abiity to seperate play from work? I know every squrrel is different, but some of you have had enough of them to know their typical habits.

I would expect her to bite hard if threatened. I'm refering to what happens during play. Should I discourage this type of play? Should I allow it but hiss if she gets too rough ( I find hissing gets her attention and stops most naughtiness) Her nails hurt much more than her teeth, so I;m not always aware she is nibbling on me. Plus much of the time I think she is only using her little squirrel lips.

I'd like to allow this because it is her favorite thing by leaps and bounds. I usually cannot get her to eat until she has sufficiently knocked the stuffing out of me ( I suspect she thinks she has to kill before eating :D ) She has never been a good eater ( of solids or formula ) It seems she just would rather play.

TIA!

[pamela lee]

My squirrel Peanut was released a month ago and he still comes back to play at least twice a day.He is already 8 months old. He was always a nipper when he played but lately his nipping has gotten alot harder. I think it's because he's out in the real world but not real sure. I tell him to go play with his furry friends that rough but I'm still his favorite playmate.

[acorniv]

My squirrel Peanut was released a month ago and he still comes back to play at least twice a day.He is already 8 months old. He was always a nipper when he played but lately his nipping has gotten alot harder. I think it's because he's out in the real world but not real sure. I tell him to go play with his furry friends that rough but I'm still his favorite playmate.

Yes, I've been reading about Peanut. Great going with him!

This is my gut feeling - that she will likely behave as he does. I have a parrot, and know how they change with adulthood, and would expect the same from a squirrel, since both are highly intelligent non-domesticated animals. Perhaps they change even more when they go wild.

Miss Hickory is (aside from those blasted claws, which she can't help) incredibly docile. She hawn't bitten even when we've given her good reason to - like when we've had to hold her firmly against her will to get her back in her cage or to weigh her etc. She's highly opinionated and has no qualms against swearing a blue streak, but no biting, at least yet

[TexanSquirrel]

:) You baby sounds so sweet!

[acorniv]

I have had Baby since she was 5-6 weeks old, and she has done those littlle "love bites", and still does. I know if she really wanted to bite, she sure could, but in her case, it has never gotten any worse. If she gets a little too rough,:icon_devil, I say "don't bite", and she stops immediately. :D That seems to be her little play ritual, also. :thinking

Oh, I know that game too "Let's play Let's test the rules, okay? huh, huh, can we, huh?" Mine likes using my antique child sized corner cabinet as the game board for that game. When I won't let her bite it she tries to pee on it. It's the only thing she marks so I think she is really mad that I won't give it to her. We covered it with a towel and she will spend an hour trying to get under that towel if I don't distract her. I gave her another naughty game as a consolation prize and she is allowed to play it, all day if she likes ( she likes). I put a kleenex box out for her and she pulls out one after another after another and runs and fills up her cage with it. I discovered green kleenex for 98 cents a box - quite a bit less than the other brands, and safer. She stores it in a tunnel I made her from fabric, and pulls it out as needed for her. Every day or two I clean her cage wiht the loose stuff and she starts over.

As I wrote this, she ran over with some kleenex and stuffed it down my shirt. Guess I'm the new storage facility :D

[acorniv]

:) You baby sounds so sweet!

:thankyou We think so, of course, but we have no idea whether she is typical, never having been squirrel parents before.

Ha. So much for cute - there she goes trying to breech the corner cabinet towel again. The big thrill is to get caught - she LOVES getting caught misbehaving. I think her very favorite toy is the camera for this reason. If she sees me with it, she goes right for the lens. Did you ever try to take a photograph with your subject chewing on the lens? I have miles of video of her jumping straight at the lens, or of her saunting over and manhandling it.

[Buddy'sMom]

Sounds like Miss H is doing great!! :thumbsup I, too, only have experience with one, but based on that and from what I've read here, she's acting her age (as in, adorable :Love_Icon ... but a bit of a handful, lol).

Play-biting is common (universal?) -- certainly with the youngsters, and also, it seems, with the adolescents/adults who are either pets or beloved frequent visitors. They have an amazing ability to control the "bite" -- knowing just how hard to press to leave an indentation but not break the skin. Even as their teeth get sharper and jaws stronger. Buddy still does this with his (human)Dad. Sometimes he gets a bit aggressive, but quickly backs off if BD issues a stern "No!" or "Hey! That hurts!" :D They CAN learn what is too much and you should let Miss H know when she's exceeding "play" -- whether by hissing or something else. (Several people here have used a quick pinch to the nape of the neck as a “NO!” and found it works well -- a squirrel mom would keep her babies in line with little nips if needed.) Whatever works.

Will she “for-real bite” if threatened or angry … or merely in “a mood”? Maybe. Maybe not. It seemed like many/most (but not all) of the squirrels that were being raised by TSB members last fall did eventually bite once or twice for real. Some were provoked (at least from a squirrel’s point of view), for some no reason was detected. Buddy bit me twice in October (10-12 weeks old as I recall), both clearly intentional (not just playing that went too far). In retrospect, once he was scared and my hand was there; the other time he was frustrated ... and my hand was there. But nothing that could serve as a lesson that “well, we won’t do THAT anymore!” And he has not bitten me since -- he sniffs, nibbles and “mouths” my hand, but no biting (I’m still nervous :D , but he’s been a perfect gentleman for months :innocent ).

As for her loving to wrestle -- Miss Hickory reminds me of BH -- "fighting" with Preacher is one of her very favorite pastimes! (BH wins every time, to hear her tell it :thumbsup ) Have you read any of her threads (“BH Here…” and “BH Still Here…”)?

The claws? We never did figure out anything, except wearing long sleeves and always (ALWAYS!) tucking your shirt in so they can't run up underneath:shakehead .

[Hart75]

Chip does the biting thing, too. He is becoming very aggressive, but always seems to prefer being close to me. He never hurts me when he bites, but it does make me nervous. I thought maybe he was trying to tell me he's hungry, but he does this even after he's eaten.

I do have a problem with the claws, too. I have scratch marks all over my wrists at the moment from him hanging on them...lol. Since I live in the south, wearing long sleeves all the time just isn't a feasable thing to do...lol. So, I guess I'll just have to bear with it...lol.

[Twirly Squirly Squirrel]

:thankyou We think so, of course, but we have no idea whether she is typical, never having been squirrel parents before.

Ha. So much for cute - there she goes trying to breech the corner cabinet towel again. The big thrill is to get caught - she LOVES getting caught misbehaving. I think her very favorite toy is the camera for this reason. If she sees me with it, she goes right for the lens. Did you ever try to take a photograph with your subject chewing on the lens? I have miles of video of her jumping straight at the lens, or of her saunting over and manhandling it.
We definately NEED photos of THIS!!!!!:D

[TexanSquirrel]

We definately NEED photos of THIS!!!!!:D

ditto.

[MaiThiJade]

I agree....My tommy likes me to tickle him and kinda finger wrestle and he nibbles but have never puncture me...But when my male neighbor...Tommy is surrounded with only female in the house, he is the only male...So when I showed, my neigbor he actually drew blood...Never have I had Tommy bite so hard. I don't know all the answers, but i do know my Tommy liks to play bite...

[MaiThiJade]

Chip does the biting thing, too. He is becoming very aggressive, but always seems to prefer being close to me. He never hurts me when he bites, but it does make me nervous. I thought maybe he was trying to tell me he's hungry, but he does this even after he's eaten.

I do have a problem with the claws, too. I have scratch marks all over my wrists at the moment from him hanging on them...lol. Since I live in the south, wearing long sleeves all the time just isn't a feasable thing to do...lol. So, I guess I'll just have to bear with it...lol.

One of my first question on this board is to ask if I can clip nail of my squirrel, from my understanding it is not advisable...I do look like I have been whip on my legs and arms and back from my Tommy running all around me.