My squirrels testicles have shriveled up??

[Heathermclean4]

I noticed yesterday that my little guy’s testicles have shriveled up almost to a quarter of their normal size. Otherwise he is acting normally but I’m a worried mama because I don’t want it to be anything serious. Is this normal and is there anything I can do??

[joejeweler]

I noticed yesterday that my little guy’s testicles have shriveled up almost to a quarter of their normal size. Otherwise he is acting normally but I’m a worried mama because I don’t want it to be anything serious. Is this normal and is there anything I can do??

https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?5885-Embarrassing-questions

In post #4 of the above thread:


I don't think that either sex makes a better pet than the other. My male Squirrel Squirrelie is the tamest mamas boy you could ever imagine. Yes, they get attatched to usually only one or two people. They tend to get attatched to their main care giver. AATesticles do change color at about the time that they become sexually mature. What I find strange, which I hadn't questioned till now because I was embarassed to ask, is that with Squirrelie and Grumbles both of them had huge ones then the skin flakes off like a shedding and the testicles shrank. Now that is weird. I thought that there was something wrong with Squirrelie until I noticed that Grumbles was starting to go through the same thing. Squirrelie did it a while back. Maybe it is their way of going out of season? I don't know. DOn't ask me how I notice these things.:shakehead

And in Post #5:


During each breeding season, the testicles enlarge up to five times their normal size, and the fur over them becomes dark and stained because his urine now contains special smelly stuff that lets the girls (and the other boys) know that he is one sexy squirrel-dude who's ready for action. After breeding season, the testicles shrink and the squirrel grows fresh white fur over them. Sometimes on older males the testicles become permanently bald. (BTW, we call 'em "fursticles" :D )

I didn't read through the whole thread,...but this seems to explain it all to ease your worry... as it appears to be an hormonal thing. And I learned something today too, although it that last comment regarding older males going bald down under, I believe I would have called them "furlessticles" :gigg

[Scooterzmom]

When a male is in rut his male parts do get huge. Then, like magic, they shrink again eventually as the season changes. :) I remember my boy Hami apparently having nothing but tiny peanuts back there seemmingly like magic did grow (almost overnight, at least it looked that way to me :D ) a huge pair of walnut sized attributes!!! I thought he could actually sit on them. I must say that maybe because I had a female overwintering in the same room, his mood also changed and what normally always was a softie mama's boy also became a lot more temperamental during that time. When they shrank again, he was back to the sweet cuddleboy I always knew.

If I recall, however, I don't think the temperamental thing came the first time his testes went big. Hard to remember.

[Trooper]

One thing to keep in mind is that tree squirrels (sciurus carolinensis) and flying squirrels (Pteromyini) they all have the ability to retract or recess their testes at will, as a prevention from impact injury when they jump from tree to tree branches or landing from a flying/soaring sortie.

This makes sense as the landing of either species of squirrels against a tree branch/trunk occurs will all four limbs simultaneously and since this species of rodents have the largest ratio of testes to body size in the mammal kingdom, storing the testicles in their abdomen sack before landing on a tree is a sure way they would not end up making a mating call sounding like a soprano:grin2

It is true however that the hormone gonadothropine is responsible for enlarging the testes during mating time to increase the production of sperm.

Regards,

Trooper's dad