oily pee puddles?

[Lighten-Up]

In the last week, I have noticed what appear to be squirrel pee puddles that do not dry up. They appear to look like oil spots the size of a typical squirrel pee puddle. They last for days, actually, they haven't gone away, and are in the exact same places as normal pee puddles.

I have been around squirrels outside now for one year, and all their pee puddles dry up within an hour or so. Sometimes on vinyl, if they leave them continuously, there is a sticky buildup, but this is not what I am talking about.

Has anyone seen this? Are the squirrels eating something that is making their urine oily and thus not dry up?

The only thing I can think of is this, the squirrels planted lots of sunflower seeds last winter as their habit is to stash things, and many of them came up, I might have near 100 sunflowers in my yard, the squirrels are now knocking them down and munching on them. They were black oil sunflower seeds that were buried, maybe this is the cause of all the little "oil spills" in my yard on furniture, rocks, logs......?

[DarkLies212]

I'm curious to hear what's going on myself. Does it feel/smell any different from normal urine?

[Lighten-Up]

The feel is very oily, like you swiped your finger on axle grease, or maybe salad dressing oil. The smell is super strong squirrel urine. Pungent. The spots that have been there for two days are beginning to fade a little in the hot sun that is baking it.

I'm really thinking it might be the sunflower heads. I'm not sure that they are fully mature, I've never grown sunflowers. The heads are beautiful, but I don't know if they need to mature more before being harvested. The squirrels aren't waiting that is for sure. Sunflower head pieces are strew about everywhere. And since they are black oil sunflowers, that might be a huge clue. And the fact that the oil spots just appeared last week.

I still welcome the experiences of others.

[HRT4SQRLS]

I believe your question was answered in this thread from today. :tilt Post #3.

https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?57826-Question-about-rectum-anatomy-3-year-old-male-not-neutered

[Trooper]

The oily pee you see is actually a sebaceous substance eliminated by males squirrles during mating season coming from their Cowpers glands located on either side of ther anus. You can feel them on males during mating season, and they feel like two garbanzo/chick pea sized balls that feel fairly hard to the touch.

The substance is similar to candle wax or solid coconut oil. It is used by the males to plug the vagina of their females after copulation to ensure no other male is successful at getting through to the female with fertilization. During the time they are not mating in the season or for captive squirrels, the glads will "overfill" so to speak and the sebaceous substance is eliminated through the urine. It will at some point dry up like candle wax, if left to dry in open air and not in sunlight.

This glands are not unique to squirrels and many rodents have these.

Regards,

Trooper's dad

[Mel1959]

The oily pee you see is actually a sebaceous substance eliminated by males squirrles during mating season coming from their Cowpers glands located on either side of ther anus. You can feel them on males during mating season, and they feel like two garbanzo/chick pea sized balls that feel fairly hard to the touch.

The substance is similar to candle wax or solid coconut oil. It is used by the males to plug the vagina of their females after copulation to ensure no other male is successful at getting through to the female with fertilization. During the time they are not mating in the season or for captive squirrels, the glads will "overfill" so to speak and the sebaceous substance is eliminated through the urine. It will at some point dry up like candle wax, if left to dry in open air and not in sunlight.

This glands are not unique to squirrels and many rodents have these.

Regards,

Trooper's dad

You learn something new every day. Thank you, Troopers dad!

[Lighten-Up]

Wow, thank you HRT4SQRLS and Trooper.

It's amazing the things we learn here by observation and the help of others.

That's probably it. I thought eating black oil sunflowers was a stretch...but I know that eating tannins makes their urine red/orange, so I thought maybe....ha :-)

There is no solid candle wax or solid coconut oil look to these pee puddles, but it is HOT around here, so my coconut oil is liquid, and so it makes sense that so is this. If we got a cooler temp, I might see more solid looking deposits. There are a lot of deposits....does that mean I have a lot of males around here.....?

Thanks everyone, I appreciate it!

[Rexie]

It's funny how our two threads are about the same thing in different ways. This if such great information to know about.

[Trooper]

Hi Lightenup: yes if it is hot it will be liquefied, especially if it is mixed with urine. Since the body temperature of wild squirrels range between 97.5 to 101.6 F, the waxy substance can withstand much higher temperature than 101.6F, or otherwise it would melt inside the vagina of the female when introduced. I have picked up solid Cowper's serum and it feels just like candle wax drippings from a candle stick.

Trooper's dad