How to safely pet a wild squirrel

Very good advice. Squirrels do have different personalities. Avoid trying to feed an aggressive one. This from a guy with squirrel fingers (scars). I'm retired and spend a couple of hours on my deck with my pals and a bucket of nuts. I first made friends with one that is now the matriarch of a large clan. I began by extending a peanut to her. Then I put on tight leather garden gloves and fed her from the palm of my hand. After 3 years she trusts me completely and will sprawl on the deck handrail and let me feed her and pet her. Her one baby will now do the same and all will let me hand feed them. The white fur on the belly is soooo soft. Still it is a trade. You can only pet them while you feed them. No food: no love.

I've had the joy of feeding squirrels in my backyard for about 7 years, and have always wanted to hold one. My unfulfilled wish in life is to be a squirrel rehabber.

You are such a lovely human! The squirrels are lucky to know you.

One day my wife called me to come look at a fox squirrel by our patio with a baby in its mouth, running around in a panic. I stepped outside to discover a turkey buzzard circling above and two more babies laying on the ground. I got a bucket and placed it laying on the ground and put leaves in it along with the other two babies to hide them from the buzzard and went back inside the house to watch from the door. The mother picked up each of the babies and took them to another tree nest. When she knew they were safe she came right up to the outside of the door and put her paw on the door, looked me right in the eyes and made kind of a barking sound as if to say thank you. I am amazed at Gods creations all the time.

I don't pet because my hand isn't steady and I don't want to scare them. I have one who wraps her tail around my ankle sometimes. Guess she's petting me.

BEAUTIFUL SWEET LITTLE SQUIRRELS ❤

I have about 15 squirrels at this point that frequent my yard/live in my yard and I love it. They meet me every morning for breakfast. There is one I've been feeding longer than the rest though and she is just so full of personality. She will let me pet her but nobody else and she will only eat out of my hand and none of my other family. The funniest part to me is that she always chases the other squirrels away until she's done eating, if she is there she will eat when she is ready and make all the other squirrels back off and wait until she is done.

Shes petting fast and smoothly because they already have been petted by her and know her. Your first pet should be hesitant and slow, gently moving your finger towards them so they can see your movement. I used a soothing voice that the squirrel was used to. I could tell by her body language…since it had remained unchanged and content she was fine with my hand getting closer. The first touch was a light whisp of a finger stroke and immediate retreat…like testing the waters and asking her permission further. She kept eating lol. Then a finger scratch along her back. She kept eating. Then more of a full scritches with my finger. ( If they arent ready they will bristle and seem skittish when u get close and you risk getting bit. ) its an honor they allow…always and forever an honor. Not the other way around. Its special and rare and deserves calm manners and graciousness must be earned.

There's a black squirrel, I call BeeBee, who comes around for cashews. I think she may have some neurological issues by the way she acts and eats, and she's never shown any signs of being afraid of me. I've started to pet her a bit and she doesn't mind. When she eats, she stands straight up and tilts her head back when chewing, so I'll put my hand behind her to make sure she doesn't fall off of the window ledge.

Nice balcony. Blessed with squirrels.

Wow! I remember when I was young and growing up we'd always feed squirrels at our door, we'd feed them whole pieced of bread. I don't know why bread, but that is what we fed them. Now that I am older, I really want to feed squirrels again, but where I live there aren't many. THANK YOU FOR YOUR VIDEOS!

Thanks for sharing. The squirrels in my back yard are allowing me to hand feed them so obviously the next step is petting them ! 😂

Oh my gosh, what a DREAM!! My goal right now is just to get one of my backyard squirrels to let me hand feed them; not sure how long that will take. I try to go out there when I see a squirrel, and I immediately start making a tongue clucking sound to call them over to their feeding tray and let them know they are about to be fed. They have slowly started to associate being fed with this sound. I have noticed one that doesn’t immediately run away as I approach the feeder. He has just jumped up to the closest branch, which gave me hope. The other day, he had attached himself to the tree with his back claws, and had his front paws on the feeder. He let me get SO CLOSE that I honestly thought he would take the food out of my hand. I could see him thinking about it! 😅 I am going to keep trying with their most highly-favored foods and just hoping and trying to be patient!

Things I learned previously about grey squirrels: their tails are the indicator of alertness. They usually raise their tails to the back when they approach foods provided by human, but the tails go down when they are relax. Let they see your hand approaching, I got bite when I touched a female squirrel that I could pet the head when I touched her tail (because she was more aware of other squirrels and turned her back toward me). They looks cute but they are adult. Most of the time, they don't even like the touch from other squirrels, kind of like that you don't want someone pet your head like you are a kid. Most of the time, they just ignore the pet because they want the food and do not feel threatened. Sometime you can find a squirrel who actually like the pet. Like the video indicates: squirrels are not the same, they have their own characters.

I've been sitting on the ground with the wild squirrels we have here in Oregon to get them used to my presence. After living on this property for the last 40+ years, I actually handed a chipmunk a peanut just yesterday, sadly I didn't get it on video for my channel. There are times I like to just enjoy being with the animals and miss some very good video, but to me it's worth it. I think with more time the squirrels will take food from my hand. All my best, from a new subscriber, squirrels are just too cute.😊

Thank you, this is a really good video. I also feed my backyard squirrels, and have wondered if it would be possible to pet any of them. The most interesting thing to me about your video is seeing the difference between how wild squirrels and rescued pet squirrels react to petting. The wild squirrels clearly don't derive the same enjoyment from human touch, which makes sense. I have one squirrel who likes to sit next to me as she eats and it's very enjoyable. I will refrain from trying to pet her. I think the petting is more for us than for them!

I've been doing the same for four years and barely got to pet one squirrel once out of 7 squirrels. Impressive that you can do it over and over.👏👏👍

I spent months gaining that trust of a few black capped chickadees, the first time one landed on my hand Igot too excited and moved a little and they flew off. I moved into the city shortly after so I couldn't continue but it was an amazing experience.

I’ve spent a good amount of time with the 8-10 squirrels that come to my deck to see if I have any food for them. I have been able to feed a few by hand, but most of them aren’t too trusting. I simply observe their habits and behaviors. Then, I try to interact with them when they seem OK with it. 😊

One time in Tacoma WA, I was in my mom's yard and some squirrel, out of nowhere runs up my leg! I dunno who trains them to be so fearless, but some of them literally expect treats! He wasn't aggressive and didn't bite or anything, just let me give him little scratches and went back to squirreling