Sudden aggression

[Tashahaven]

Well, I never thought I would be making this post…but here I am.

Lemme preface things, by saying; I know squirrels typically have a “reason” for attacking or becoming aggressive. I understand That the smallest change, scent, etc, is enough to potentially provoke this behavior. But I have not changed ANYTHING. Not freshly showered, no new scents, cleaning chemicals, nothing. I ALWAYS wear the same fluffy bathrobe, anytime I’m in her room. I don’t wash it, she has peed on it, and has come to know it is her special robe.

The day before yesterday, I was in her room, she had already eaten, I did give her a blueberry, then went and filled her water bottle. She was climbing up and down me the entire time as usual. I put the bottle in its bracket, moved back, and BOOM she was visciously attacking, scratching, biting at me. I froze, and hunched over, pulling the robe up to protect my neck and face. She eventually jumped off of me. And after about a minute, I slowly unhunched myself, and stood there. She was intensely still and STARING at me. Unmoving, and I could sense she was going to attack. I slowly backed toward the door, and sure enough she jumped on me doing the same thing. I was able to protect my face again, and as soon as she jumped off I slipped out the door. I was baffled and dumbfounded.

TBH I was pretty scared of her, and basically left her alone yesterday, besides feeding her. And at dinner I handed her her block, and she grabbed it, climbed on my shoulder and buried it in my hair/collar. Not unusual. She was sweet for a few minutes, got some lovin scritches, and then a switch flipped and she started attacking again.

She jumped off, I escaped.

Then again today. Took the block, buried it in my hair, was sweet and lovvey. Playful. Then BAM, attacking me, staring, etc.

I went and put on safety glasses, and a fleece scarf to protect my neck. Came back, brought in her baby cage, and when she eventually went inside, I closed it. I plan to COMPLETELY clean out the room, remove ANY possible hidden thing, and somehow try to get her in her XL cage. Not sure how yet.

for the past couple months, she has not ever been caged. She has complete free roam in her room, with sooo much to climb on, play with. Branches, ropes, hammocks, crates and shelves and branches on the walls. Cardboard tubes and ladders, etc etc etc. she now has 3 different nests she has made.

I HATE to put her back in the cage. But is it possible she feels territorial with all of her different nests and such?

I do plan to release her, but the weather here is still too damn cold! I don’t think the wilds are mating yet. But I could be wrong.

if I remove all hidden food, and keep her in the cage for a couple days, do you think it might lessen?

Im at a loss. I just want to do the right thing. I know at this moment she ain’t happy AT ALL. But it’s necessary to thoroughly move everything and strip things to find anything hidden I may have missed in my daily routine. It’s mostly hidden envigo, or half a cherry tomato.

ANY guidance is GREATLY appreciated. 😥

[CritterMom]

Cleaning the areas she has access to of any food material would be the first thing I did.

[Tashahaven]

I CLEANED everything and anything. I moved the bed, the cage, swept every crack, crevice and surface I possibly could. Shook out all the rugs, rearrabged her fleece, etc etc etc.

FINGERS CROSSED she will be herself again tomorrow afternoon. I plan to leave her in her big cage, while I’m at work, and let her back out when I get home. And go from there.

Im afraid if she has FREE roam In the room 24/7 she may proceed to stash an envigo block here or there, and become territorial if I go near it.

Because those blocks are always available/freely fed, she will naturally become aggressive if I go near it. How can I monitor this? Even though her cage is BIG, I really HATE confining her to it. I’ve spent A LOT of time decking out the entire room, so she has LOTS to play with and climb on. Any suggestions?

[olorin19]

How old is your girl? And what's her name?

I have overwintered and released six squirrels - five male and one female. Five followed more or less the same pattern: Below a certain age, they were happy to be handled, petted, massaged, etc. But after a certain point, they did not like to be handled but remained quite happy to climb on me, perch on me, gently take food from my hand, etc.

And then there was Harry!

https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?66210-Protective-gear

I would have described Harry as more cuddly than average, but at about five months, things changed, and I had to wear protective gear until his release. Harry continued to be aggressive for the next few months before release.

I first tried one of those huge plastic visors (like for using a weed eater) but Harry managed to get underneath and bit my face. Not fun. So I ended up with a fencing mask over a hat then covered with my hoodie, plus thick leather mittens with wool liners. My gear got bitten a fair bit, but I managed to go unscathed with that setup.

Harry even attacked me a few days after his release when I was not in protective gear - he was in a state of panic due to a very dominant prior release chasing him.

https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?66460-Fearful-Aggressive-newly-released-squirrel-attacked-me!

My point is that each squirrel is a bit different. Harry is the only squirrel I have been frightened to be around unless well protected in my squirrel gear.

My hunch is that with Harry the aggression was based in fear. Not of me, but other squirrels. Both the room where I had Harry's cage as well as the sun porch where Harry went to play had lots of squirrels coming to the window to be fed.

[Tashahaven]

She is right around 5 months give or take. Probably closer to 6. Her name is Lucy.

https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?68608-LUCY-s-Story

I did find and remove a handful of envigo blocks she had “squirrel led away” I really hope this solves it. Especially as she has been overwintering with me alone, I want to make sure she gets play and loves. I know how much I look forward to our time together every day 🥰

I will certainly let y’all know how it goes :)

[olorin19]

Good luck!

You have certainly created quite the awesome squirrel space for Lucy.

[tomcics]

Just started reading up a little bit on Lucy, how is she doing now? Was motivated to read about her after seeing the beautiful photos from March TSB calendar.

[Chippergray]

I know I’m too late but I was thinking she might be coming into heat. My flyer is 4 and I can tell when she starts coming into heat. It’s the only time she is willing to bite.

[CritterMom]

I know I’m too late but I was thinking she might be coming into heat. My flyer is 4 and I can tell when she starts coming into heat. It’s the only time she is willing to bite.

You should see them with babies! We had a couple here when I started on the board with flyers (the Skuls) and they coined the term "box shark" for their mamas that had babies in the nest! Insert hand, remove bloody stump!

[Tashahaven]

Thanks for checking in :) I meant to post an update (or updates) sooner, but my work schedule has been all over, and I spend most of my time off work, with her or asleep lol.

So I basically had to “undo” a lot of the overhead wood, branches and cardboard tube, in order to thoroughly clean, move everything, and find ANY potential hidden stash. The cage is on casters, but most of the overhead stuff was connected to the roof across to the wall. I removed quite a bit of envigo blocks hidden, nothing else, save for an almond. I washed ALL fleece. I rearranged things a bit in her room. And I kept her in the cage while at work for a couple days.

I also put her honeycomb hammock (nest 2) and the fleece cube (nest 1) and the canvas storage cube she built a 3rd nest in, back inside the cage itself. I have a feeling that could’ve been contributing quite a bit to her territorial-ness as well, since they were in 3 different places around the room. She was naturally pouty for a couple days. But then she started to come around. However, as soon as I would bring her her dinner block, and a blueberry, she would immediately stash it. She doesn’t seem to be doing that as much now, but still seems to attempt to, more than before.

Once she is officially in bed for the night, I find as many envigo blocks as I can and put them back in her cage. I’m okay if she hides them in there, and thinks of it as her primary space. For now. As long as it doesn’t cause any issues. So far so good. She has some occasional mood swings, which is understandable. I know she is at that hormonal age and her body is going through a slew of changes. The weather here DOES NOT help either. One day it is gorgeous and sunny (from the inside, but COLD af outside) and the next day it’s white out blizzard. The wilds are quite erratic right now as well.

I have slowly been adding back in more and more to continue to climb on and play on. And for the most part she has been pretty good. We play and scratch and get our ciuddles again. So hopefully giving her a more limited “domain” for nesting and instinctual hiding, will eliminate most of the troublesome behavior…

And THANK YOU for saying that about the calendar! I am blushing. 🥰

[Tashahaven]

I know I already said A LOT in my initial response… but I wanted to highlight/bullet point the main things I believe mostly influenced her sudden change in behavior (for future readers)

-Her few “stashes” MAY have played a small part. But I don’t think it was a huge factor. As she always has had her hidden spots for extruded block. And even now, she typically prefers to hide at least one or two, in my hair, my robe, my shoe etc.

-I BELIEVE the biggest factor was her instinctual protection of her NESTS. Which she had created 3 of, over the couple weeks leading to this. And ALL of them were no longer contained inside her cage.

-Cue up the influx of hormones beginning to rage through her body, and the fact she has the whole room all the time, and bam.

-my situation is much more unique than most. She has free roam in that room all day and night. I mistakenly moved her last nest out into the room, after realizing she had already created 2 others, and NEVER slept in the one in the cage anymore. Now she chooses to go in her safe cage and sleep in her nest every night.

I feel like an idiot, cause I should’ve known better. I understand animal behavior and I don’t know why it just didn’t register in my pea brain at that time.

So while she still can be more stand of fish at times, she is no longer stalking and hunting me and giving me the death stare, even when she is being “hormonal”/distant.

Thanks to everyone who read my posts, and helped me work through things. I’m very happy she is still doing so well. And I’m so grateful my sweet girl is still sweet, 99% of the time. I cherish every moment with her.

I was really scared of her for about a week. It was heartbreaking.

[Tashahaven]

Well, I’m quite sad to report, that little Lucy has become extremely aggressive towards me again, as of a couple days ago. She went back to being her sweet self again for a week. But now she has gone into EXTREME attack mode at even the sight of me.

I had to close her in the cage when she went to sleep last night cause when I went to give her her breakfast and hand it to her, she didn’t even grab it, but lunged at me as hard and fast as she could, and continued going at me as I was trying to escape the room. This morning when I brought her food in, she was throwing herself at the cage, hard and pissed, continually until I left.

It makes me quite sad, and blows my mind how she can flip a switch in 1/2 a second, from loving and affectionate or playful. To “I want to rip your face off, and sever your arteries”.

The only thing I can think of that may be causing this behavior is the weather or mating season?

I feel like the days when it first happened, the weather was decently sunny and nice. Then it got gross and snowy again, and she was nice. But it’s been really sunny for 2 days, snow melting. Could this factor in?

If it is mating season, I honestly don’t know “what it looks like” in the behaviors of the squirrels outside. What exactly would I be seeing/looking for?

Thanks everyone. I’m sad I could t make it to the gathering! It looks like you all had so much fun! Next year!

[olorin19]

Will you be releasing Lucy in your own yard?

If so, you might want to consider moving her outside to her release cage earlier than you would do otherwise.

I realize Idaho may still be quite cold this time of year.

With my hyper aggressive guy Harry, I put him in the release cage about a month earlier than normal (late March rather than late April.). He had a nice nest box stuffed full of fleece so he was plenty warm, and parts of the release cage that were out of the rain and/or snow. His water container was a large mug attached to the inside of the cage right by the door with a glass inside. If it froze, I could reach inside and replace the glass full of ice with one full of water.

I still released Harry about the same time as normal, so he was in the release cage longer than normal. But given the untenable situation of Harry attacking me every day, both of use were a lot happier with him in the release cage.

[Tashahaven]

I’m sure I could definitely figure something out if needed, to set her up outside until release… but I REALLY don’t want to yet. 😢🥺

Her release cage IS her inside cage. So once I commit to it, it will be almost entirely impossible to bring her back in if needed. I have to completely disassemble it bring it out and put it back together. It does have a gravel roof, but I would still need to cover sides with tarp or something. But the weather here is extremely unpredictable in a “normal” year…ESPECIALLY this year. -30 for a week! Right now it’s about 20 at night, and if the sun is out during the day that helps. But hasn’t gotten above 35 yet. It’s supposed to snow on and off all week, and will dip below 10 a few days upcoming.

I still need to build her a nest box (I KNOW bad squama) and hoped she would have time to make it her own first before being outside.

it’s isn’t un-doable to keep her inside, and either keep her in her cage, or make arrangements the night before while she is in bed, with food for the next day, and open the cage so she can continue running around all day. I just won’t be able to spend time with her unless she becomes sweet again.

I’m still quite curious about the behaviors of squirrels outside IF it is mating season… my hope would be maybe it is, and after a period of time she might even out again, hormonally and be ok until it’s time.

I appreciate your response and insight. I will do whatever I need to, what’s best for all. But I know I will NOT get much sleep, knowing she is out in the freezing cold.

I will continue to pray and hope it doesn’t come to that, so much earlier than planned. We have been through SO much together, it absolutely BREAKS my heart to be going through this. I ALWAYS hoped (and I’ve talked to her about DAILY lol) that she would continue to visit and say hi once released. But I’m coming to realize and accept, with this quick and extreme change in behavior, that is probably not going to be the case.

JW, if I decided to keep her inside still, but still wanted to give her the sounds and experiences of outside, if the weather is decent and the sun is shining, would it help to open the window until night? She would still be in her cage, but the window opens out to exactly where the RC cage will be, and NOT less than a hop and skip from the nearest trees (30’?) I kinda figure though, that it would probably only make the situation that much worse.