Remember that post where I breathed a sigh of relief because Henri wasn’t preggers? ….and then I breathed another sigh of relief because “they” said that squirrels don’t reach sexual maturity until they are 10-11 months old? Well, who ever “they” are needs to rewrite their squirrel biology book…. either that, or Henri is one incredibly precocious 8 month old squirrel, and has clearly been flitting around when we weren’t looking when she was 6 or 7 months old.
Look what’s going on here…. (I’ve circled the evidence). Somebody(s) is being fed the traditional mammal way….. via the mammary route. Lord help us. As my husband said…..”And NOW, we have a squirrel problem”. (He smiled when he said it, but we’re both thinking the same thing). We’ve not seen the wee ones yet, but I’m sure we will in a few weeks. That will give us time to put a plan together. I’m open to ideas, suggestions etc as to humanely catch and release littles into the world. We have acreage so I do think we could simply move them about 20 acres away and that should be sufficient. I fear the same would not be true for Henri. Her home is here and she knows it. Does anyone know if it’s possible to spay a somewhat wild squirrel??? I’m doing the ‘if 1 squirrel has 6 babies, and .5 of them have 6 babies etc story problem in my head and I see us quickly outnumbered’. This is going to be an interesting summer!
7 Jun 2017 at 6:17 pm
Oh no!! 🙂
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7 Jun 2017 at 8:12 pm
oh no …. uh oh! is right!
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7 Jun 2017 at 10:49 pm
But they’re so cute! Have you talked to a vet or googled desexing squirrels? Dr Google seems to have answers for just about everything 🙂 Here they sterilise wild koalas, so I imagine squirrels would be do-able. Good luck…
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8 Jun 2017 at 5:42 am
I’m sure it can be done, but there are a couple of problems. I need to find a vet who would agree to do it, and that might be hard. Secondly, sedating her could be a big problem. While she is handle-able, it’s on her terms. She hops on me and lets me pet her when she chooses (kind of like a finicky cat), and she is incredibly social with me and my husband. But otherwise, while fearless around other people, she probably would bite like the dickens (me included) if I tried to pick her up (for a squirrel, that’s equivalent to being carried off by a hawk). We were able to do that easily when she was younger, but her self preservation wildness has kicked in now. I’m looking into both these things now tho!
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8 Jun 2017 at 7:19 am
Good luck !
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7 Jun 2017 at 10:52 pm
I envy you these little critters they are seriously gorgeous. But I also see your problem. Good luck with it.
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8 Jun 2017 at 5:44 am
they are Barbara (gorgeous). Some people see squirrels as glorified rats… which I guess they kind of are…. rodents anyway. Other than being directionally challenged when crossing a road with oncoming traffic, I’ve found that they are really quite smart too!
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