Flying Squirrel Behaviour
Southern Flying Squirrels are sometimes known as pocket pets. I personally think this term is very misleading; these are extremely active, curious and intelligent rodents. There may well be some individuals that are more affectionate than others, but expecting them to stay still for any length of time when there are things for them to explore - and they can explore everything - seems unlikely!
Southern Flying Squirrels can glide around 5-25 feet and are good chewers. They are very intelligent and love exploring. A young squirrel may benefit from time in a bonding pouch each evening against you whilst they get used to you. You can also use pecan nuts as a useful training aid as these are especially loved.
Your squirrel will be most active later on in the evening. They are very fast and can be quite demanding - making a serious of loud squeaks if you've forgotten to let them free-range at their usual time for example. You can tell when a flying squirrel is deciding to glide as they often bob their head up and down before launching themselves.
Remember if you have a young squirrel, or you have recently moved your furniture around or got new items - that your flying squirrel may need to learn new distances and combinations for their jumps. This also means that they will sometimes miss!
Squirrel Proofing your house!
- The Toilet is a danger to your squirrel as if they fall in, they cannot climb out and will drown. Leave the toilet lid down, or better still, have the bathroom off limits. You can adapt a wire mesh and create a small ladder to allow them to climb out if you need to.
- Chewable items such as wooden ornaments, cardboard sleeves for DVD cases, even wooden doors may suffer from a flying squirrel's teeth. Remove anything that has a sentimental value and be suspicious of any squirrel that stays still too long!
- Heavy/breakable items need to be moved. Things like vases and ornaments from your shelves if they are a weight that a flying squirrel could topple.
- Humans are very interesting to flying squirrels and provide a wonderful climbing frame to scramble to the top of and launch themselves back across the room. Take care when walking and never step or sit down on something without checking it first.