Quote Originally Posted by CritterMom View Post
OK, so I am guessing that if you had tried to take some lettuce or a chunk of apple from him, you would have been fine. I call them "high reward" foods - things they would kill their mother for. Nuts are absolutely high reward. But I would call corn a member of that food group too because they LOVE it. BTW, corn is one of the worst foods you can feed from an MBD point of view - it is actually worse than nuts. I don't feed it.

I would also have your husband start leaving ONE nut for him, not two. So you can start at that plus the fragments in the evening.

And as I said, at least with boy squirrels, this puberty period is just baked in. It is going to happen, and their behavior will be enough to make you want to hide for a while but then, boom, it goes away. They will have different moods connected to seasonal hormonal changes, too. It is nothing as pronounced as what you are seeing now. My boy, Zeke, spends 10 months of the year snuggling in my lap, playing with me, wrestling with me, he would be surgically implanted onto me if he could be. Then he spends about 2 months in the late summer keeping me at arms length, doesn't want to cuddle, just blows off all of my attempts to get him to be my sweet lovin' boy and does his own thing. And then suddenly, a couple months later, he will jump into my lap and we are done with THAT nonsense for another 10 months!
Thanks again for your great help. I'm going through the whole house today checking for stashes again.
Hamy has foods he loves like corn, sugar peas and cherries without the pit. Those foods are banned from now on.
Can I still give Hamy food when he's out? Should I take the rodent blocks off the boards of his highway as well? Can I still give Hamy treats through the hardware cloth?
So far Hamy is tail throwing and chattering. He's really restless. He's so busy jumping up and down his cage that he has no time for breakfast.
I desided to make myself rare today. I'll stay out of the room where his cage is in for most of the day. I thought I watch his sleeping pattern. If he has a nap at lunchtime I'll just wait till he's awake again to give him his free time... maybe he's back to the summer schedule where he needs his afternoon nap before he comes out....
Well lets hope we have a better day today