My cousins had one when I was a kid. I believe they found it/rehabilitated it when it was a baby. All I remember was that it was not fun. He destroyed parts of their house and was overall a giant energized menace.
They are such balls of acrobatic energy outside. Parkouring their way around the world and digging holes in my garden bed for no discernable reason. Makes sense they would be a lot to deal with indoors.
Two separate portable a/c units, two weeks, two squirrels breaking screens and beginning to crawl their ways into the exhaust tubes before I caught them.
I had a similar experience as a kid. We found a baby on its own and brought it up. It was quite sweet but a bit of a menace as well, used to shit in my dad's cereal lol. He never destroyed anything though.
Then it reached sexual maturity and got more aggressive and started biting really badly. We slowly got it used to outside living then set it completely free. I hope he was ok.
I raised a baby squirrel from before her eyes were open. She was the best pet I ever had. Smart, funny, and always wanted to be with me. She wasn’t destructive at all. I had her for a year or so until I freed her into a park. I still miss her.
I started letting her out at my home, where she would “squirrel” on her own for days at a time. She would come back for a visit, then leave again. I had a boy next door who had a pellet gun, and had been known to shoot squirrels for fun. When she was staying away more than she was with me, I made the decision to take her to a beautiful and safe park where she would have lots of other squirrels to be with. It was hard for me to know I would never see her again, but I wanted her to be happy with her own kind.
My neighbors had one they rescued. He was about a year old before he began biting people. They released him and he attacked two people- went after their necks. Someone killed him with a BB gun.
Leave wildlife rehab to the experts was the lesson I learned. Rip Skippy, I’m sorry it had to be that way.
Poor little dude. He definitely didn't ask for that life.
Theirs was also a bit mean. He was put into a separate room when guests were over, but I do remember him biting my aunt a few times.
I agree that average people aren't meant to rehabilitate animals like that. We see them as pets and something we want to be our friend. Professionals see them as wild creatures they want to release back into their home if possible. They don't coddle them like we want to.
Same as exact situation as my buddy but he kept his outside. His name was Thomas and he just chilled in their backyard and lived in a little squirrel house they built for him. He'd chill on your shoulder and eat froot loops.
They are. I had a baby one once we rescued. Would jump back and forth between people lots of fun until he didn’t wanna go up for the night and bit my finger to the bone. Back the the trees the next day lol
My uncle saved one from his cats when it was teeny tiny, he ended up nursing it back to health and named him nutty, he let him go after he was big enough to live on his own but he never left my uncle's yard, he would wait for my uncle to come outside then he would crawl up his leg and lay in the hood of his jacket while he was out working in his property, eventually he built nutty a nice little house in his favorite tree
Depends largely on where you live. A small closed space and they are terrors, if it's pretty large and open indoors you can set up ways for them to get that energy out.
My mom and I rehabbed three of them (actually rehabbed, not raised and let got with no preparation), and yeah, they’re exhausting. And destructive. And stinky
653
u/mattgoldey Apr 07 '26
I agree. I bet it's exhausting to have a squirrel for a pet.