Some very cute vermin.

Hello,

a bit different to my usual choice of animal but nonetheless very cute, Barry the squirrel.

My mate who is a tree surgeon ended up accidently knocking a squirrels drey out of a tree he was working on. Long story short, we ended up with a 5 week or so, old baby squirrel. He still had his eyes closed when he arrived. We set the little guy up in a box with a heat mat and bottle fed him 5 times a day. Hes grown very quickly and is now a proper squirrel, capable of pinging himself all over the house lol.

The plan is to release him at some point but he has become far to tame. He literally follows me everywhere. Bar my dog, I don't think I've ever had an animal that has been so fun. However, as much as I would love to keep him, he really needs to be released, hopefully as he gets a little older he'll bugger off by himself.

Anyway, here's some piccies..........



When he was younger nomming a bottle of milk.



Out in the garden today, chewing on a rock for some reason?!?!?!?!

Mammals aren't really my thing........ but I've got to admit that is kind of cute.

Thanks for posting it up bro.

So most of the time he's roaming around your house freely? lolz

He's tame as in he can be let out in your garden and still follow you around?

Awesome pet i say

Great post Callum.
I never imagined a squirrel could get that tame. Pretty awesome!

I have experience raising orphaned grey squirrels and be warned: no matter how young you got them or how tame they seem to become, they will almost (98%) always go crazy in captivity. They are super cool and are a lot of fun to have but they NEED to be wild. Your lil buddy looks to be old enough by the last pic to be put outside on a permanent basis. Keep putting food out for him and leave the back door open for a week or so in case he wants to come home but he will eventually leave for good. I agree they are some of the coolest animals to have but it will eventually begin to show aggressive behavior and attack you and people in the house if you keep it captive. Great job raising an orphan!!

its a boy and he will want to go be a squirrel soon

Thanks for the comments guys.

As much as it would be awesome to keep, this guy is getting the boot soon. Thanks for the info Gnat. His box where he sleeps is kept in the conservatory so we are going to leave a window open for him to come in and out as he pleases. I'm sure once he starts thinking about lady squirrels he'll be straight across the road and into the woods lol.

I'll miss him when he goes but he's far to energetic to be cooped up in a cage.

next time you come across an orphaned grey squirrel, take care of it and raise it up, just know you have to let it go. I'm stoked to know over there, people would take the time to raise a wild animal that could not otherwise take care of itself. Here in the states most would kill it or leave in the wild to die on its own. Those things are actually pests in the area I live in and shot for sport in the 'off season'. We actually have a squirrel hunting season

We'll we're not really supposed to do anything with grey squirrles here as they are not native. They're American immigrants that are taking all the red squirrels jobs....erm I mean out competing them lol, so they have no protection as far as I know.

This guy is one of many animals we've taken in. Another favourite was a duckling we rescued. We raised him up and let him outside when he was old enough. He took a fancy to our chickens and decide to become one of them for quite a while then flew off on his own accord one day.

Bahaha! fexing illegal immigrants takings all the jobs! {O_o o_O) For real tho, I've taken in many animals before in the attempt to rehab to the wild. sometimes I do it right, but a few times I fail. keep doing what you do, in the future maybe you will give another animal a life it wouldn't have otherwise. You have my respect for what you did.

Gnat wrote:

You have my respect for what you did.

+1

Not many people out there would do it.

Great job Callum.