Housing non related/ different age squirrels together

[L0andbehold]

I have a female squirrel who just turned 10 months who is living inside (in her own squirrel proof room) until her outdoor enclosure is ready. I have had/raised her since she was a week old. This is my first “squirrel experience”

My friend found a 5 week old squirrel who she thinks is male. Would I be able to house them together or is their age difference too far apart? Would it be good socialization or dangerous for the baby because they’re unrelated ?

[olorin19]

While I would defer to experts, my guess is that this would be a bad idea and possibly dangerous for the youngster. While it might be fine, it is not a chance I would take.

A five week old really does not need a large cage yet - I generally move them into large cages somewhere between 8-10 weeks.

Since your older squirrel is heading outside soon, my suggestion would be to keep the youngster separate in a smaller cage then move them into the squirrel room once it is free.

I have had several situations where young squirrels I am overwintering have ended up in close contact with prior releases, with varying results.

When overwintering siblings Arya (female) and Iggy (male), I had Mookie (a previous male release) confined to my sun porch due to an abscessed bite wound. Mookie was 2.5 years old, and Arya and Iggy were 5-6 months old. In that case, I was able to bring them onto the sun porch to exercise and things were fine: Arya kept her distance from Mookie, and if Iggy got too close then Mookie made aggressive noises and Iggy backed off. This went on for several weeks until Mookie was released, and it all worked fine.

The next winter, I was overwintering Harry, and Mookie managed to split onto the sun porch when I opened the sliding door slightly to give him a pecan. Harry launched himself at Mookie and they were fighting immediately. Both ended up on my back, still fighting, and it took at least a minute to separate them. Miraculously, neither was injured, which I attribute to Mookie showing restraint.

Many other times, I have had prior releases come inside my squirrel room and climb around on the outside of their former cage while the current occupant climbs around inside. This has never ended up being a problem.

[Mel1959]

They definitely should not be placed together. The 5 week old is much too young and inexperienced at climbing. A fall could be fatal.

[Spanky]

... this would be a bad idea and possibly dangerous for the youngster.

...it is not a chance I would take.


They definitely should not be placed together. The 5 week old is much too young and inexperienced at climbing. A fall could be fatal.

This and that...

[L0andbehold]

Thank you so much! I am going to keep them separate indefinitely.

My adult female Kiki got aggressive with me this morning when she smelled him on me. She didn’t actually hurt me but it really freaked me out. I remembered reading that squirrels can be aggressive over smells, so I did change my top- but forgot to wash my hands and change my pants. I work with dogs and she’s always been fine smelling them on me after work, so I really didn’t think she would have such a strong reaction… but Lesson learned. She’s always been an angel and never been aggressive in the 10 months I’ve had her, so that’s obviously what it was. I feel bad having even put her in that situation. I’m going to give her a few hours to decompress and try spending some time with her later.

[olorin19]

Thank you so much! I am going to keep them separate indefinitely.

My adult female Kiki got aggressive with me this morning when she smelled him on me. She didn’t actually hurt me but it really freaked me out. I remembered reading that squirrels can be aggressive over smells, so I did change my top- but forgot to wash my hands and change my pants. I work with dogs and she’s always been fine smelling them on me after work, so I really didn’t think she would have such a strong reaction… but Lesson learned. She’s always been an angel and never been aggressive in the 10 months I’ve had her, so that’s obviously what it was. I feel bad having even put her in that situation. I’m going to give her a few hours to decompress and try spending some time with her later.

Squirrels have very keen noses and easily detect the smell of other squirrels. The "smell of other squirrel on my human" does not, however, necessarily result in aggression.

When I am overwintering a young squirrel, I have a hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants that are my squirrel gear, and these get worn when taking the young squirrel(s) out to the sun porch for play time but also when I go out into the yard to hang out with prior releases. So these squirrel clothes end up with the scent of various squirrels, as most of my prior releases are happy to climb and perch on me when I am outside.

The prior releases notice the scent of the youngster(s) inside, and will often go right to wherever the most recent scent is located. I have never had them get aggressive, mostly just curious. Female squirrels will sometimes rub themselves on that same area to mark their territory (me), or occasionally pee a bit, but that is about it.

Back inside, the youngsters tend to get very excited and go right to the spot where the outside squirrel was perching and spend quite some time sniffing.

Since these youngsters are going to be released into my yard as well, this whole process helps establish familiarity for all concerned, which hopefully facilitates their quicker acceptance once released. For the same, I am happy to let prior releases come back into the squirrel room, where they typically climb around on the outside of the indoor cage. I have never had any issues with this: no fights, no injuries, etc.

[L0andbehold]

She was very curious at first. She smelled my hands very intensely shoving her nose into my skin and making her happy little grunty noises. Then she started nipping. We hand wrestle a lot so I thought that’s what was happening at first. Until she was on my neck growling. She lives in the bathroom so I immediately washed my hands. She checked my hands again when I was done and was totally fine for 10 minutes. Sitting on my shoulder, eating a nut, hiding them in my hood- being regular Kiki. Then she started smelling my crotch (where the baby had been a few hours earlier) she got really intense again and started growling. I threw on the shower to scare her off of me and dipped out of there.

She’s been confined to a room her whole life and only seen other squirrels out of the window- who she usually barks at. But honestly I’m happy she showed restraint. She didn’t break skin when she was biting and only left a few scratches on my hands. I’ve never even heard her fully growl.

I just feel so bad. We only have a couple weeks left together before I have to stop contact when she’s in her release cage.

[olorin19]

I just feel so bad. We only have a couple weeks left together before I have to stop contact when she’s in her release cage.

For what it is worth, and recognizing that there are differing opinions on the subject but a shared goal by all of us to do what is best for the squirrels that come into our care:

I have raised and released 8 squirrels, 6 of whom were overwintered. Only one of these "wilded up" to where it would try to bite, etc. With the other seven, I continued to interact with them while they were in their release cages and after their release. The other five overwintered squirrels (besides the one who wilded up) spent most of their lives in and around my yard, returned to their outdoor nest boxes each winter, continued to climb and perch on me, eat out of my hand, etc.

I have never observed that these squirrels were hindered by any of this. To me, they had the best of both worlds: freedom with some nice perks. Plus, most of these guys suffered injuries at various times (from abscessed bite wounds) that required antibiotics. Their comfort with me made it possible to confine them and give them antibiotics so they could heal up before being released again. While I did manage to successfully treat one badly injured wild squirrel...

https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?64219-Wild-with-injured-front-paw

...with antibiotics, in general this is an advantage much more easily enjoyed by prior releases who stick around.

[SamtheSquirrel2018]

For what it is worth, and recognizing that there are differing opinions on the subject but a shared goal by all of us to do what is best for the squirrels that come into our care:

I have raised and released 8 squirrels, 6 of whom were overwintered. Only one of these "wilded up" to where it would try to bite, etc. With the other seven, I continued to interact with them while they were in their release cages and after their release. The other five overwintered squirrels (besides the one who wilded up) spent most of their lives in and around my yard, returned to their outdoor nest boxes each winter, continued to climb and perch on me, eat out of my hand, etc.

I have never observed that these squirrels were hindered by any of this. To me, they had the best of both worlds: freedom with some nice perks. Plus, most of these guys suffered injuries at various times (from abscessed bite wounds) that required antibiotics. Their comfort with me made it possible to confine them and give them antibiotics so they could heal up before being released again. While I did manage to successfully treat one badly injured wild squirrel...

https://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?64219-Wild-with-injured-front-paw

...with antibiotics, in general this is an advantage much more easily enjoyed by prior releases who stick around.

I couldn't agree more! For those of us who release on our own property, I would not hesitate to say that it always results in wonderful feeling to see our releases interacting with other Squirrels and with their surroundings as any wild Squirrel would do but the special icing on this cake, at least to me, is when they also interact with me and remember in some ways as they did before release and view their release cage as safe haven and return as some do, year after year. I always keep the release cage door open unless I have "new recruits!" I make Squirrel blocks for all the Squirrels! One of the saddest situations, and there are plenty of posts to prove this, is to lose track of a previously released Squirrel that had been a regular on the property even though the most likely event was that the Squirrel had simply decided to move on! I'm all in for facilitating "the best of both worlds!"
Regards,
SamtheSquirrel

[Diggie's Friend]

It really is a dominance issue. When you invite her to bury nuts on you and elsewhere in your home, and feed them other than in their enclosure, it fosters their being dominant to them. Nipping is directly associated with this very thing even out of doors. This same behavior isn't likely then to stop if you feed the squirrel by hand on your person after release into your yard.

What is needful to get them to stop doing this is to stop feeding them by hand, and only feed them in their enclosure, never outside of it. There they rule, outside they don't otherwise, if they don't get what they want they will continue to nip. And though true that a squirrel smelling another you is going to provoke the same, the core issue is feeding them on you, that sends the message that they are dominant, not you.

A fellow member and friend of mine had this same problem. I explained this to them and advised that they only feed the squirrel their food in their enclosure; and only giving them a one hazelnut, or half a pecan daily allotment of nuts when feeding rodent block. This prevents both hoarding as well as compromising the Calcium to Phosphorus ratio in their diet.
By feeding only what a squirrel needs is how to keep the matter from turning into a control issue over their food. After this, along with a supplemental specific measure of (Magnesium L Threonate) (Double Wood" brand, with one capsule amount split fed daily AM and PM; their squirrel stopped nipping all those in their family.

I add this; for some squirrels will turn wild and not accept contact without nipping; yet what you describe isn't that, at least not as yet. If though after making these changes you didn't see a change in behavior I would say to release the squirrel as you have shared. If though the nipping behavior ceases, then that is a matter of your choice. As for raising other young, the issue of scent could continue to be a problem, yet not in regard to your feeding by hand, for that would not be something you could continue to do with this squirrel in either case.

[Spanky]

I have no issues with maintaining a bond with squirrels that we release. I used to have quite a few that would "mob" me when I went outdoors. But I would like to add that we should always take our individual circumstances into consideration and that includes the location of the release.

I have had more than a few squirrels brought to me here at Sandy's Sanctuary for "re-release" after they were released in suburban areas but became a nuisance in the neighborhood in which they were released. As well as stoking fear and panic on the part of concerned parents.

On one occasion a re-release squirrel attacked me pretty viciously... it only happened once. This is, I am sure, an example of the way hand raised squirrels can sometimes believe themselves dominant to humans as Diggie's Friend has outlined. He is still around after many years and we "interact" quite a bit with one another to this day (he'll come to my office door during off-peak hours to get me to toss out a hazelnut or two, has lived in the same box for years and years). While we squirrel folks may tolerate these attacks on ourselves, I am sure no one would tolerate an attack of others. I blame myself in part for that particular attack because I thought he was a different, more friendly squirrel and I approached and simply bent slightly to toss him a treat. That is all it took to set him into full attack mode.

I personally no longer allow any of the outdoor squirrels to climb on me or feed from my hand... that is my personal decision because I want them all to to stay away from my guests and especially my grandchildren, just to be safe. I don't know what I would do if anyone else were attacked like I was that day. That's just my decision... and I release many, many squirrels every year, so that plays into my decision as well.