1.5 year old squirrel being very mean for an entire week

[CurlyFries]

So, I live in Florida and during hurricane Irma there was a baby eastern grey squirrel who I took in and raised, she is now one and a half years old. She has been an amazing pet for the entire time I've had her, at first her freaking out during mating season was quite hard to adjust to, but I got a handle on it. She is always great I take her outside for 2 hours every day where I have several large cat scratch posts set up for her to run up and down and play, and pretty much whenever I am home she is out of her cage playing and exploring. Generally in November is when she goes into mating season and starts acting crazy for a few days, and I've gotten used to it, but now in late march, I went to open her cage to let her out and she immediately jumped onto me and scratched and bit me. I threw her back into her cage and let her sit for the rest of the day in time out. At this point I figured it was just some weird thing, so I just let her stay in her cage for the night and took her out the next day. She was fine at first, I took her outside but I didn't try to touch her, I just let her run around for about an hour while I sat and watched her, then she came up to me on the outside couch. I opened up my hand as that is how I let her know she can come to me and I will pet her. She usually does come to me and get some pets. This time she came to me and jumped on my hand and started biting and scratching it again. I've had her out in my room every day since and let her run around and she does... but she does not come to me or let me pet her. Last night for the first time in her entire life regardless of mating season or not she did not jump onto me when I stood up. I even held a jar of peanut butter and she would not jump onto me. Its been 7 days since she has been behaving weirdly and I am starting to worry. Usually I can always trust her to be nice and not hurt me but she has never been bad for this long before. Also to my knowledge November-January tends to be mating season so I don't know why she is acting up in late march/early April. If anyone has advice or knows what the problem could be please let me know I could not even imagine losing my little girl...

[CurlyFries]

So, I live in Florida and during hurricane Irma there was a baby eastern grey squirrel who I took in and raised, she is now one and a half years old. She has been an amazing pet for the entire time I've had her, at first her freaking out during mating season was quite hard to adjust to, but I got a handle on it. She is always great I take her outside for 2 hours every day where I have several large cat scratch posts set up for her to run up and down and play, and pretty much whenever I am home she is out of her cage playing and exploring. Generally in November is when she goes into mating season and starts acting crazy for a few days, and I've gotten used to it, but now in late march, I went to open her cage to let her out and she immediately jumped onto me and scratched and bit me. I threw her back into her cage and let her sit for the rest of the day in time out. At this point I figured it was just some weird thing, so I just let her stay in her cage for the night and took her out the next day. She was fine at first, I took her outside but I didn't try to touch her, I just let her run around for about an hour while I sat and watched her, then she came up to me on the outside couch. I opened up my hand as that is how I let her know she can come to me and I will pet her. She usually does come to me and get some pets. This time she came to me and jumped on my hand and started biting and scratching it again. I've had her out in my room every day since and let her run around and she does... but she does not come to me or let me pet her. Last night for the first time in her entire life regardless of mating season or not she did not jump onto me when I stood up. I even held a jar of peanut butter and she would not jump onto me. Its been 7 days since she has been behaving weirdly and I am starting to worry. Usually I can always trust her to be nice and not hurt me but she has never been bad for this long before. Also to my knowledge November-January tends to be mating season so I don't know why she is acting up in late march/early April. If anyone has advice or knows what the problem could be please let me know I could not even imagine losing my little girl... She has been one of the only constant parts of my life.

[CurlyFries]

Well this forum was not helpful at all, but shes doing better now must've been some weird march mating season

[Diggie's Friend]

Bringing your squirrel outside to run around free, is in essence a soft release. I doing this you are sending her contradictory signals as to expect her to continue to act like a pet, yet supporting her independence from you.

You need to make a decision to keep her inside supporting her with an indoor surrogate arboreal habitat, or to release her.

If you want her to remain your pet, she needs to be taught to be submissive. This though isn't a matter of being aggressive as to enforce submission, but rather to gain trust through gentle domination, not allowing her to hoard nuts in her cage.

One thing that can really help we found to work well for an aggressive female is to respect her eating space.

For our aggressive female, after she attacked my husband at 2 1/2 years of age, biting him repeatedly when he reached in to give her his usual kiss good night, instead of seeking to dominate her through force, having removed her cache of nuts (which our fault for allowing her to cache them, setting her up to be protective of her cache), I went into her large cage and kneeled down within about 2 ft of her on her nest platform, keeping my hands out of sight, gave her good talking to using a low slow serious but not angry voice. To this she responded by backing up and making a whimper to show her submission to me. I responded by keeping eye contact with her, all the while continuing to speak to her kindly, Id slowly reached wide behind her with my left hand cupped to gently pick her up and pet her to let her know I approved of her response. I never had to do that again. As for my hubby, I advised him not to reach for her in her nest, but to let her come to him. In doing this he found she came to him willingly, never again showing him the aggression as she had prior.

As for using a harness and leash, for a more dominant squirrel this may not be accepted if not trained prior to reaching adulthood at a year. With our oldest squirrel it took a period of time to condition her to the harness, putting on it for 30 sec. to begin with then a bit longer, tow here she didn't mind wearing it. Thing is the leash was an issue and since she could get out of the harness I gave up on using it.

Instead of outside activity, bring some of the outdoors indoors by creating a large habitat cage with safe woods for platforms and branches that are well secured so they won't move when climbed or jumped upon by the squirrel.. Here is an example of such a cage. I don't recommend though it be built outside, save on an enclosed patio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys874rv-wXM

I hope this helps.

[GGnWallie]

I’m experiencing the exact behaviors with my girl. She’s not me really hard 3 times in the last 2 weeks. The worst was on my shoulder. A wide bite that left a weird bruise. I cleaned her cage, she’s doing it again. I stopped cracking my window to let air in because she was smelling the outside and squirrels are always in our yard. Hoping she gets out of this fun soon. I REALLY need to get her a new cage, but this time I want to build something even larger. I guess I’ll just have to be patient.

[CurlyFries]

Bringing your squirrel outside to run around free, is in essence a soft release. I doing this you are sending her contradictory signals as to expect her to continue to act like a pet, yet supporting her independence from you.

You need to make a decision to keep her inside supporting her with an indoor surrogate arboreal habitat, or to release her.

If you want her to remain your pet, she needs to be taught to be submissive. This though isn't a matter of being aggressive as to enforce submission, but rather to gain trust through gentle domination, not allowing her to hoard nuts in her cage.

One thing that can really help we found to work well for an aggressive female is to respect her eating space.

For our aggressive female, after she attacked my husband at 2 1/2 years of age, biting him repeatedly when he reached in to give her his usual kiss good night, instead of seeking to dominate her through force, having removed her cache of nuts (which our fault for allowing her to cache them, setting her up to be protective of her cache), I went into her large cage and kneeled down within about 2 ft of her on her nest platform, keeping my hands out of sight, gave her good talking to using a low slow serious but not angry voice. To this she responded by backing up and making a whimper to show her submission to me. I responded by keeping eye contact with her, all the while continuing to speak to her kindly, Id slowly reached wide behind her with my left hand cupped to gently pick her up and pet her to let her know I approved of her response. I never had to do that again. As for my hubby, I advised him not to reach for her in her nest, but to let her come to him. In doing this he found she came to him willingly, never again showing him the aggression as she had prior.

As for using a harness and leash, for a more dominant squirrel this may not be accepted if not trained prior to reaching adulthood at a year. With our oldest squirrel it took a period of time to condition her to the harness, putting on it for 30 sec. to begin with then a bit longer, tow here she didn't mind wearing it. Thing is the leash was an issue and since she could get out of the harness I gave up on using it.

Instead of outside activity, bring some of the outdoors indoors by creating a large habitat cage with safe woods for platforms and branches that are well secured so they won't move when climbed or jumped upon by the squirrel.. Here is an example of such a cage. I don't recommend though it be built outside, save on an enclosed patio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys874rv-wXM

I hope this helps.
Thank you very much, after browsing this and many other threads on this forum I ordered some squirrel specific food blocks. I also found enough nuts for her to live months stashed under her bed. I emptied them out and cleaned the rest of her cage. I also went out and bought her many toys to play with and stopped bringing her outside. She is starting to come around but is still in a weird spot as I still don’t feel that I can always trust her like I used to because her behavior has still been strange, she has been coming out and avoiding me for around an hour and then letting me pet her, and every day for the past few days I’ve been playing with her for a few hours and she then bites me aggressively so I put her back in her cage. I have learned from other forum threads that this could be due to her diet. Every day I give her a bowl with lettuce at the bottom and full of all sorts of fruit and vegetables with around 10 assorted nuts sprinkled on top. I’m still not sure, is that an okay diet? Should I switch primarily to the blocks that I just ordered? What other foods are okay for her to eat? She is a bit fatter than the local wild squirrels and I just bought a 75 dollar squirrel treadmill to put in her cage so she can run in there and lose some weight. Thank you very much for responding, and sorry I have so many questions, but I want to make sure she is as healthy and happy as possible

[CurlyFries]

Also, just a note, as of today she is not thrilled with me after cleaning out her cage. She’s just sitting in her bed being grumpy and every time I go near her she jumps out as if to attack me. I calmly talk to her and she will chill for a bit until I touch her cage again.

[HRT4SQRLS]

It sounds like you do need to work on the diet.
Here is a link to the Healthy Diet for Pet Squirrels. https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?44440-Healthy-Diet-for-Pet-Squirrels

I would not sprinkle nuts on the food. They are very unhealthy. Nuts should only be given as a treat.
Squirrels will ‘mine out’ the nuts and leave the veggies. A nut should only be given after the healthy diet is consumed... usually in the evening. Too many nuts and seeds are the primary cause of Metabolic Bone Disease. The high phosphorus foods (nuts) causes calcium to be leeched from the bones. Low calcium also causes many metabolic issues and will eventually cause hindend paralysis, seizures and death. MBD is a painful condition. The acting out might be from pain. I would change the diet ASAP. No more nuts.

As far as the nut stash, they will go ballistic protecting it. Anything that threatens their stash will be dealt with aggressively. That’s a great reason to NOT allow them to stash nuts. :tilt
Actually they shouldn’t be getting enough nuts to stash. Usually the prized nut treat will be consumed immediately. Any in shell nuts, good for keeping the teeth filed down might be stashed for later.

[HRT4SQRLS]

I just wanted to give you an idea of some healthy veggies that they like. Kale, sugar snap peas, hard squashes like acorn squash or butternut squash, avocado. Fruit should be limited also because it’s high in sugar.

What type of block did you buy? Henry’s ?

The food pyramid gives you an idea of the break down of foods as far as quantity.
At the top is the nuts and you will note that the quantity is the least. Blocks are at the bottom and represent a large portion of the diet. IF you bought the Henry’s blocks they are considered a supplement block. They are packed with vitamins and should be limited to 2 per day. Other Rodent blocks like Envigo Teklad, Mazuri, Oxbow, etc can be fed as a staple but I can tell you now if she hasn’t had them before she will not eat them. Many squirrel peeps use these rodent blocks as a base to make healthy foods. They will grind the blocks into powder, add baby food fruits, formula powder or anything to make them tasty.

[CurlyFries]

Yes it was the Henry’s blocks, thank you so much that diet link is so helpful! I’ll be sure to completely switch over her diet and I’ll be sure to post an update in a week or so to see how she is acting. Thanks again!

[CurlyFries]

Alright so here's an update. Her diet is pretty much just two henry's blocks and assorted vegetables, along with one piece of fruit per day. About two days after the henry's blocks came in she was very good and nice for two days, then suddenly she wasn't nice anymore. She is not trying to hurt or attack me, but every time I take her out she will still jump on me but every time I try to pet her she either just runs somewhere else or attempts to attack, but every time she does that she ends up back in her cage so she has stopped. I'm beginning to think at this point there is nothing I can do. I've spent over 200 dollars in the past week on food and toys just to try and make her happy but I am not getting the happiness. I suppose the best option at this point is to just keep her and continue to take her out until she has lost some of her fat and is a more healthy weight, then when she is all healthy start the process to rehab her back into the wild. In the meantime is there anything else I can do to make her nice again?

[HRT4SQRLS]

Unfortunately, there might not be anything you can do to make her your sweet baby again. I think taking her outside daily possibly accelerated her wilding up. When you mentioned that she doesn't want you to pet her it sounds exactly like my releases. I have released many ranging from sweet to mean as a junk yard dog. I actually changed one boys name to Leroy Brown. :tilt Even the loving sweet babies do NOT want to be touched after release. They might climb on me but the minute I try to sneek a pet I get bit every time. They just do not want to be touched after release. This sounds so much like your girl.

They are hard wired in their DNA to be wild animals. Sometimes we can work around that and make a fairly content non-release. When I think about the things they do strictly by instinct I realize that not all of their behaviors were learned. The one that amazes me the most is a baby flying squirrel that knows instinctively to stretch those little arms and legs and jump/soar. I didn't teach them to do that but they just know this is what they do. Tree squirrels 'know' that they should be climbing the tallest tree. If we can't reach a compromise on that they will start acting out. By acting out I mean they get aggressive and mean.
I think your plan is a good one. Get her healthy and prepare her for release. More than likely she will hang around your yard. Personally, I have not wanted a pet squirrel because they are destructive and some bite. Frankly, I adore my free friends in my yard that have chosen to be friends with me. I have had some that invite themselves into the house to get treats. For me it's the best of both worlds. They have their freedom and I still get to have a small part in their life.

I wish I had a remedy for your problem but there probably isn't one. It sounds like you have done everything to win her back.

[CurlyFries]

Yeah, I figured there would probably be nothing else I can do at this point. Thanks so much for your help though! She's already lost the bulk of her weight being on a diet for only a few weeks, but at this point I could start to rehab her either at my moms house or my dads. My dad's house is where I found her as a small peanut, her entire nest fell out of an acorn tree out front. This scares me as I have recently found out that acorns can be very toxic, so I'm worried about letting her out here. There are many wild squirrels around here and I'm not sure if she will just go for an acorn and get sick. Am I just worrying about nothing or should that be an actual concern?

[HRT4SQRLS]

Yeah, I figured there would probably be nothing else I can do at this point. Thanks so much for your help though! She's already lost the bulk of her weight being on a diet for only a few weeks, but at this point I could start to rehab her either at my moms house or my dads. My dad's house is where I found her as a small peanut, her entire nest fell out of an acorn tree out front. This scares me as I have recently found out that acorns can be very toxic, so I'm worried about letting her out here. There are many wild squirrels around here and I'm not sure if she will just go for an acorn and get sick. Am I just worrying about nothing or should that be an actual concern?

No, that is not a concern. We have no control when they are free. I’ve noticed a weird thing that all my releases do. They LOVE to dig in the dirt. It is the cutest thing you ever saw. :grin2 Invariably they will pick up something that they dug up and eat it. It looks like dirt. :) I have never found a squirrel carcass after release so I have to assume that eating dirt or whatever is OK. The wilds bury acorns all the time. It is what squirrels do. It is a major food source for them through the winter so I have to just leave them in the hands of nature as far as acorns and aflatoxins. The acorns themselves aren’t toxic. It’s the mold inside that ‘can’ be a problem. Not all molds produce toxins. I actually prefer to release them where they have a natural food source as opposed to barren land.

A much bigger concern is traffic. I wouldn’t release in an area with traffic close by. Also, predators like cats are a much greater threat.

[Diggie's Friend]

I think she is passed the point of being tamed; even many squirrels that haven't yet been introduced to the wild become wild as they mature. Seeing she was willing to take you on, I don't think at 1.5 years that she will have much trouble making a place for herself among the wild raised squirrels, for breeding females are at the top of the hierarchy.

Just to let you know, we released a female at 7 to 8 months of age after she had bitten both myself and my hubby a couple of times; yet after a couple of weeks she showed up, and ran my leg and sat on my shoulder without me having said a word or offered her a nut. So don't think you have lost her completely, for squirrels remember those that have raised them.