1 Year Old squirrel very aggressive

[Lil Foot]

My wife and I started rehabilitating mammals for a local non profit a year ago and one baby squirrel we were rehabilitating very nearly died. I mean he was trying to take himself off the heating pad and one morning I found him gaping. After many sleepless nights and by some miracle we brought him back from the brink only to discover he had a spine injury and had partial paralysis in his back legs. We went through so much with the little guy we couldn’t release him to be hawk food and just couldn’t bring ourselves to put him down. So now we have had a pet squirrel for a year and he has been an AMAZING pet. We love him dearly. Recently he has been a nightmare. Our routine with him has remained constant but for some reason he no longer wants anything to do with anybody and he attacks us whenever we get near. Yesterday I was playing with him and he bit really hard so I stopped playing with him and he full on attacked me. He was biting as hard as he could, if not for my shirt he would have taken a chunk out of my arm, and he made me bleed in 2 other spots. He was like a completely different animal. He is normally sweet and loves to be petted but now we can’t even grab his food dish without him trying to attack us. We are at a complete loss as to what to do. We don’t know if puberty has made him aggressive or if he is losing his mind do to captivity or what. Any tips would be greatly helpful, we are feeling very heartbroken right now.

[Diggie's Friend]

That is a hard one for what you describe is normal behavior for a squirrel reaching puberty. Some have had their squirrels neutered, yet neutering (altering) a male rodent shouldn't be done till having reached estimated to be on the safe side tll 2 years old, because it takes time following their having reaching puberty where their sex hormones peak to support their reaching full bone density. This confirmed in rats, and other small mammals the same save for the age this occurs is relative to the age they reach puberty.

By chance, do you feed him outside of his enclosure, and if not do you feed him more than a nut a day? I ask because squirrels will become territorial when you get near their nut cache. Be feeding a squirrel in their enclosure, not overfeeding nuts, and not feeding nuts by hand, it can lower the tension of a captive squirrel towards its caregivers. When a friend of mine followed this advise (adding magnesium and not feeding by hand or outside of enclosure, their squirrel stopped being aggressive. It's worth a try.

Another thing I would recommend is adding this source to the diet. Magnesium is known as the calming mineral; by adding this to the diet daily. Magnesium Threonate by. "Double Wood" supplements. (1 capsule) daily splitting the contents beween the AM and PM meals.

https://doublewoodsupplements.com/products/magnesium-threonate

[CritterMom]

So you are seeing some big time hormonal things right now. First, he is old enough that he has his own testosterone flooding his little body, PLUS, late summer is a big mating time for them so you now have double trouble.

He is a little old for his "puberty" hormones but his physical issues may have slowed him down.

The mating crazies don't last too long, puberty takes a bit to get through. To do it successfully, you need to continue to handle him and spend time with him, which believe me, I understand that dealing with a crazy biting animal is a challenge! You need to do whatever you need to do to protect yourself - gloves, several layers of clothes; I have even crafted "helmets" from wire mesh to protect my face. You need to be completely confident that he cannot hurt you so you don't project fear to him when you are with him.

What is he housed in? I have always had enclosures rather than cages to allow for lots of room - I could easily sit in the cage and play with my squirrel there but I NEVER do. I have a designated "play place" which in my case is my bedroom, with everything covered with sheets and blankets to mitigate damage! He is in there a lot but he has his official enclosure, too, and I treat it with some respect. I don't straighten things up and clean with him in there and when we go to my room I go in there and clean his cage, do his water and food, etc., and he just returns to a clean cage. I don't usually go into his cage to get him out, either - I open one of the doors and ask him if he wants to come out. I try to make his cage his castle, a place he has some control over. And taking him somewhere else for play and cuddle time means he isn't in a place that he wants to DEFEND.

The sweetest squirrel in the world will turn into a killer over a nut in the shell hidden someplace you can't see. If you give your squirrel nuts in the shell as treats, remember that. When I hear of a squirrel suddenly becoming crazy I suggest searching the area for nuts and cleaning out ALL stashes and keeping them gone. And NEVER let him witness this! I would rather give my boy a hand grenade than a nut in the shell while he is out playing in my room - less damage!

So this will pass, PROVIDING you don't ditch him in horror while he is acting like an idiot. If you stop spending time with him, he will become wilder and you won't get him back. Stay the course and he WILL get through it and out the other side and you can ditch your armor.

By the way, my sweetest, most loving little munchkin around is right this minute being a "mating season" pill himself. He sits and "grrrs" at me over and over and randomly runs over and nips my leg! It is never hard - more a pinch - but given that normally he is curled up in my lap hugging one of my hands, it is NOT convenient! But it will pass.

I suggest short journals where you note behavior changes. Once you have a year's worth you can go back and see "Oh year, he always starts wanting to come out to play at 4:30AM this time of year" or "he was moody and aloof this time last year, too."

[GeorgiesMom]

I'm so glad and thankful for the advice here because I'm dealing with the same thing with my one year old boy.

[Lighten-Up]

I appreciate the advise that has been offered on this thread. I think being optimistic is a good thing, and like it was stated, find a way not to fear, because they will pick up on this and it can result in a self-fulling prophecy. Consider that the incident is asking for some type of change in you or the situation. Figure out what that is and make the adjustments. Instead of seeing it as the end of what was once a great relationship, see it as a learning curve and a beginning to a better relationship.

My resent experience is not exactly related to yours, but just maybe there will be something you can relate to that will help. I am trying to understand squirrel behavior and how to find myself on the better end of it. This ended up longer than intended, but oh well....

I just released a 4 month old two weeks ago. He's young, not the age of yours yet, but we were really bonded. On day two of him being out in the backyard wild, I approached him to play as I knew he loved to wrestle. I had thin gloves on. And felt the oddest sensation in the normally fun wrestle. Yikes, he was biting the crap out of me, punctured through the glove. I couldn't even shake him off, he was determined to make his feelings known. I was horrified, and in pain. I felt a type of heartbroken feeling, and went away to nurse the puncture and think.... I did not want to be afraid of an attack squirrel in my yard and least of all the love of my heart. So I needed to think this through. I realized that he is wild, I need to respect that. This was day two of his release, he's on edge. I'm not on edge, I've been in this yard forever, but this is all new to him, DUH I was blind to this. That was very stupid of me, approaching him to wrestle. I resolved to adjust my way of being with him and learn to attune to his state if I see him in the yard. This all sounds like common sense, but I wasn't attuned to it. I went back out to near where he was, I did not approach him close but from far away, I fully apologized and shared my heartfelt feelings of his autonomy to him. Hours later he came overhead toward me on a branch. I knew by his actions that he wanted me to extend my hand to him to come to me. You can imagine I was a little leary of this. I had to make a decision; so I examined the facts. 1. I had realized what I had done wrong. 2. I had apologized. 3. I had actually changed my ways of being and attitude. So I decided to release all fear and extend my hand in love toward him. He climbed onto me and was the sweet one as I had known. Hours after that, he came and slept in my lap outside on a bench for 3 hours, he was an exhausted new explorer. I was so glad that I had processed the event in a way that opened the door towards reconciliation. Your story has different angles, so I'm not saying it will have a turnaround as fast as this, I'm just wanting to share positive examples that's all.

A day or two later, he and a few other squirrels came for nuts. I keep them in an outdoor cache called the vault. I do this because when I used to hand out nuts from my back door, I had squirrels chew the windows trying to get into the house. Opps. So now I keep the nuts outside, and they know they are in the stone vault. So no one has chewed the house anymore. Live and learn. I opened the lid, and my squirrel release turned into a wild babboon lunging at me with teeth in and out of control fashion. OMG, not again. Again, I realized....perfectly wonderful squirrels can become nut cases when near nuts. I got out of that one alive, but wasn't going to do that again for a while. But I pondered the fact that I have been giving wild squirrels nuts for over a year like that from the vault, and they have never done that. They wait sweetly for me to give them one. So I asked my husband why CJ was so nasty at the Nut Vault. He suggested that I cater to him too much, I haven't set boundaries with him. I know this might sound like the silliest conversation, but I thought about it. I am a person who has been for years growing up out of some codependent like behaviors that I had taken on as a result of my upbringing. I'm well on my way, but have not arrived. I thought, Hmmmmm, CJ set a boundary with me the other day when I tried to play with him, and that went well, because I understood and did not take it personally, I raised myself up to a new level. So I think I need to set a boundary with him and say that nasty nut behavior is not acceptable with me. I wasn't going to bit him on the arm of course. So my method was to shift my vibration and the way I saw myself in the relationship-I expect him to have a respect for me as a giver of treats, and not demand them. And I can expect him to do this, because I am not the only one demanding. He demanded and I took his cue seriously, so he can take mine seriously. I know he is a squirrel,and I am a human, but I believe my success lies in the fact that I believe that as a squirrel he can learn and change just as I can. These little beings are incredibly intelligent. Again, I had to find a way to not fear him around nuts. This is not easy, because we are programmed to protect ourselves when danger is near, and our limbic system triggers us when we are in a situation like one in which we got hurt. So we have to find a way to recognize real danger from a perceived possible one.

So he's only been out there for two weeks. But I am a totally changed person. And he is a changed squirrel. I have a respect for him and see him as wild enough to do his own things his way, and if he wants to include me in his day, how wonderful, and if not, that's totally ok. There is no manipulation, only appreciation and respect for him.

Today I went outside to do something in the yard and wasn't even thinking of squirrels and was surprised to find him waiting for me, and he wanted to play. For 45 minutes he wanted to wrestle, run, do zoomies to and from me, and do that squirrel full mouth open thing when they are having so much fun they can't contain it. Then 45 minutes later he ran off up a tree and out of sight. Delight of my heart, I was in such awe that I could be in his life this way.

I also have not had any more nut issues with him. I do think that my making changes on the inside of me headed that one off. I feel that I correctly assessed what my issues were, and made the appropriate corrections, or I don't think the issue would have just magically disappeared.

I am his playmate and friend, I expect that he will continue to play with me for the length of time that siblings play with each other. As long as I can allow him to be wild, and not interfere, I believe he will choose me to be his family as he would have had in his natural squirrel family. Baby squirrels play with their siblings for quite a long time until they go live their lives, this is part of their natural rhythm of life. So since he was raised by a human mom, it makes perfect sense that he can have a human play friend for that time period; as long as I can train myself to be a bit wild and match him on his level.

I am writing this simply as an example of hope. For had I chosen fear with that first nasty bite experience, I would not be where I am now continuing to enjoy the relationship. But again, nothing magical changed it. In my opinion, critical thinking, understanding, empathy and making necessary true changes were the path.

[Rock Monkey]

Lighten-Up thanks for taking the time to share this learning experience. Very well said.