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Thread: Making friends with a grey squirrel. Which are friendlier male or females

  1. #1
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    Default Making friends with a grey squirrel. Which are friendlier male or females

    Just wondering which are more friendlier males or females. Some will take the peanuts 🥜 from my hand others won’t. I leave them fresh water
    each morning

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    Default Re: Making friends with a grey squirrel. Which are friendlier male or females

    Quote Originally Posted by Haberzak View Post
    Just wondering which are more friendlier males or females. Some will take the peanuts 🥜 from my hand others won’t. I leave them fresh water
    each morning
    I am not sure there is a cut and dry answer to this question... it depends on their personality and circumstances I suppose. I will say that younger squirrels are more likely to be friend to people versus older (wiser?) ones.

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    Default Re: Making friends with a grey squirrel. Which are friendlier male or females

    Quote Originally Posted by Haberzak View Post
    Just wondering which are more friendlier males or females. Some will take the peanuts �� from my hand others won’t. I leave them fresh water
    each morning

    If we are talking about wild greys, females are forced by instinct to be more possessive and territorial, in order to secure food sources and consequently increase survival chances for their offspring. This will make them to be closer to the food source (the human nut wending machine), stick around longer, and even defend it - while males usually only eat and leave right away. Many people will consider the female behavior to be "friendlier", but in all realty, there is a reason for it that has little to do with "being friendly".

    At some point they may bond with one person, but the proper definition is, that the person is now being owned by that squirrel. They still do what they want, and if you don't play along, they may give you a hint in form of a formal bite.

    Many consider tree squirrels to be cute, and that leads to feelings, perspectives and expectations that are confused with humans behavior. Wild squirrels are very instinct driven, in order to survive, and breed. For wild greys it takes a long time to show any rare form of affection that goes beyond their instincts.

    Generally speaking, we would do best if we wouldn't expect wild greys to be "friendly", they play (live) very rough and scratches and bites are part of that game, and instead enjoy them the way they are, as being part of nature.

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    Chirps (01-29-2023), island rehabber (01-24-2023)

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    Default Re: Making friends with a grey squirrel. Which are friendlier male or females

    I love this question because I can give you the results of my personal "study" of about 300 squirrels over 20 years of personal wildlife rehabbing in a home-based situation. Males are friendlier.

    Female squirrels are not ALWAYS bitchy, but when they are, it's epic. The three worst that I can remember -- I mean, so bad that for 2 weeks before releasing them I couldn't even clean their cages -- were all females. (Nasty) Natasha, Jessye Valkris, and a third one whose name slips my mind right now. And they were all nasty right after their eyes opened, so I literally had 9 weeks of nastiness before release!

    There were no males who came through here who even came close to these three little witches.
    Island Rehabber
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    NEGLECT IS ABUSE.

    "Better one day in the trees, than a lifetime in a cage."

    '...and the greatest of these, is Love. '

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    Chirps (01-29-2023), Lighten-Up (01-29-2023)

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    Default Re: Making friends with a grey squirrel. Which are friendlier male or females

    I'm going to second Island Rehabber. In my opinion, the most friendly with ease have been the males. I've had very loving females too, but even in their friendliness they have more of a mission, maybe caring for their young while getting food. The males are just more at ease in their friendliness when they want to be friendly.

    Also, Squirrels appear to be just like all animals, take for instance cats, some are so friendly they'll lie on your lap all day and want their belly rubbed, other cats don't want to be touched.

    I have noted that there are two types of wild squirrels in my yard,
    1. The kind who are only sniffing around for food and prefer to stay far from me.
    2. The kind who want food but are as curious about me as I am them. They seem to want a relationship.

    Interestingly, I think the determining factor may be how much their adrenal glands are stimulated. A squirrel with highly activated adrenals will feel more fear and stay away naturally. A squirrel with a less active adrenal gland will not feel as much fear and therefore curiosity will be more accessible. I believe they are born like this.

    I watched an article about dogs, they explained that way back when, there were two types of wild wolves. Some would come really close to the campfires of men, other wolves would stay far away. Just like squirrel types 1 and 2. It was the Wolf types who befriended man who eventually became dogs.

  8. Serious fuzzy thank you's to Lighten-Up from:

    Chirps (01-29-2023)

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    Default Re: Making friends with a grey squirrel. Which are friendlier male or females

    Hmmm. If we're talking of wilds, it's always been my females who have been the bravest about cultivating a relationship. At this juncture I currently have three wilds who will jump on me or climb up my leg to stick their heads in the almond pocket to help themselves. TigerMom, Square-Tail (her daughter from . . . last year?), and Chutzpah, her son who was born this past August(?). There was also a daughter from each of her previous litters who were brave enough to climb on me for food. They never made it to the point of going in my pocket before they disappeared, but both were girls. (CheekyBaby and Merida) TM also had one son (Bingo) who would edge close enough to take almonds from the crook of my arm if I stayed very still. But I haven't seen him since Christmas. Another rather obnoxious female has gone through a few names but is now Grabby for obvious reasons.

    Lighten-Up's theory that the females are on a mission makes good sense. Once they decide we aren't going to eat them, they go all in with exploiting us as a food source, and we readily embrace it. As McCarthy said, we are owned. We are peed upon so all the other squirrels know whose property we are, and have dominant squirrels sit on our shoulders, gnashing their teeth right next to our ears as they warn the subordinates away from THEIR hoomin. And we wouldn't trade it for anything!
    "I hope everyone got or gets their Baby Love today"~Shewhosweptforest

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  10. 3 TSBers pass along the fuzzy thanks to Chirps:

    island rehabber (01-30-2023), Lighten-Up (01-30-2023), McCarthy (01-30-2023)

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    Default Re: Making friends with a grey squirrel. Which are friendlier male or females

    Quote Originally Posted by Chirps View Post
    Hmmm. If we're talking of wilds, it's always been my females who have been the bravest about cultivating a relationship. At this juncture I currently have three wilds who will jump on me or climb up my leg to stick their heads in the almond pocket to help themselves. TigerMom, Square-Tail (her daughter from . . . last year?), and Chutzpah, her son who was born this past August(?). There was also a daughter from each of her previous litters who were brave enough to climb on me for food. They never made it to the point of going in my pocket before they disappeared, but both were girls. (CheekyBaby and Merida) TM also had one son (Bingo) who would edge close enough to take almonds from the crook of my arm if I stayed very still. But I haven't seen him since Christmas. Another rather obnoxious female has gone through a few names but is now Grabby for obvious reasons.

    Lighten-Up's theory that the females are on a mission makes good sense. Once they decide we aren't going to eat them, they go all in with exploiting us as a food source, and we readily embrace it. As McCarthy said, we are owned. We are peed upon so all the other squirrels know whose property we are, and have dominant squirrels sit on our shoulders, gnashing their teeth right next to our ears as they warn the subordinates away from THEIR hoomin. And we wouldn't trade it for anything!

    I got 2 wild females in my group that took full possessions. I call one my GF, she has been the very first one that bonded with me over a year ago, nothing has ever changed. I call the other one my wife, because she came later into the picture and is extremely jealous. Every time my GF is around or on me, she will give a chase until GF is at least 20 yards away from me. Those chases always sound like a bunch of chicken gacker. I'm sure they use some rated R words for each other.

    My wife usually stays on the ground so she can quickly go after any intruder. Sometimes, when my GF sits on me, my wife will bite my leg in order to let me know that I'm cheating on her. Its like a slap in the face. She developed that stupid behavior a long time ago. She bites my leg and looks at me with a stern warning. She doesn't draw any blood but it gets your attention every time. When no other squirrel is around, she is extremely nice to me and sticks around even after eating. She is by far the smartest in my group of wilds.

    I tore a tendon in my foot a while back and use a knee-walker at times. Here she has the nerve to sit on my walk and was about to bite my knee because my GF was behind me, in my car.









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