Sorry if this is in the wrong place, I'm not really sure where it should be. The squirrel in question is little boy, I don’t think I can age him because his body is about the size of a maybe 8-10 week old but he has a magnificent tail, stocky arms, huge hands and feet. He is fully furred but has no winter coat coming in. He looks like he has the tell tale orphan fuzz but in some ways he just doesn’t look like a baby to me. We’re in central FL with nights in the mid to low 40s.
I met him yesterday morning and he touched my hand immediately to take nuts and will let me stand with my face inches from him. He hopped on my arm twice for a brief a second, the hopped back off. He’s NOT following or clinging to me. He likes to touch me and play with my fingers but I can’t initiate contact. I went out to feed 4 separate times yesterday and he came to see me every one. He was waiting for me first thing this morning as well.
His face looks completely different that the rest of our squirrels so I know I would have noticed him had he been coming around while I was out. He almost looks mildly dwarf-ish. Huge eyes, unique high chubby cheek bones, eats haunched over versus upright 60% of the time. Is there such thing as levels of dwarfism? Fortunately he can eat - so far he has eaten an almond, pecans, walnuts, avocado, a piece of a cherry. I just went out with a small squirrel friendly salad bowl and he chose a Henry’s block first and ate it over nuts. Curious.
Do you think he's okay and just needs access to healthy food which is actually easy for me to do because he will eat right out of my hands and comes when I click so I can just hand him food. No bullying issues with this method since the other wilds do not come anywhere near me. He can climb, he hides excess nuts. He can walk the fence, but he’s not fast at all. In fact SLOW would be the word I would use to describe everything about him. He’s doing generally okay at squirreling though. He responds (slightly) to the squirrel alarm and to dogs. He has ZERO fear of humans, my husband and the family behind us both approached him on the fence and he doesn’t run.
Is this a juvenile asking for help and I’m just dense/not getting it? I was under the impression they would cling to you or follow you around, he’s perfectly content snacking and then going back up in his tree and watching me. We have never released here so this is not a squirrel that knows me at all. Of course the pictures are sideways smh. Obviously it's difficult to show his features in a photo, but I don't know what to do with video here. Any input highly appreciated!