My Flyer is Becoming Aggressive and Attacking Me

[Otter]

I have a 15 month old male flying squirrel. Lately he's begun to attack my hands and feet. He lunges at them and bites them, not in a playful way. He's broken skin barely once and has left several marks. Then he does this weird leg dance where he kinda rubs himself on me but kicks his legs around. Could this be a sign of sexual tension due to not being neutered and a lack of a mate, or is this just a sign of aggression and domination? Please help I would love to have my sweet boy back!

[island rehabber]

It could be sexual behavior, because of his age and the time of year, and it could also have to do with caches of nuts and treats he may have in his cage and around the house. They become extremely nut-aggressive at this age and if he's got things stashed away he will fight you to the death to protect them. I would clear out any stashes first, and limit the amount of nuts he gets so that he won't be burying them. The sexual thing may be over in a couple of weeks; if not, maybe our flying squirrel experts here will have some ideas on that one.

[pappy1264]

Are you a female? That is sexual behavior. I have one male. I will say, when I had my period, he would get extremely aggressive with me. Flyers cannot be neutered, so you will have to try to work around his behavior. Unlike with greys, I have never really noticed the behavior being food related, at least not with the four I have. But yeah, my male can be a butthead...not helping, I know.

[HRT4SQRLS]

I think this will pass. I have 3 very sweet boys. Occasionally, my little Bonzai will have a 'mood'. I think it might have been associated with a hand cream that I used. He hates new smells. He's usually very docile and this time he flew out of his pouch, attacked my hand, ran up my arm and started gnashing at my neck. I thought, what the heck... He only weighs 54g so he can't do much damage.

It is very likely one of 3 possibilities. As was previously mentioned, a sexual thing, nut aggression from a stash or a strange scent.

My other two boys do the 'dance'. We call it the war dance. They do it when they get together which doesn't happen often because they don't get along. It looks very much sexual. It is hysterical.

Remove nuts, stop new soap, etc and I think this will stop in a few days. If it's sexual it will pass.