Sassy is a very special squirrel to me. She was the first that would be trusting enough to not run away when I was outside and this eventually built up into being brave enough to take food from my hand.
It was never my intention to get this close with squirrels - as an ecologist I am aware that striking a relationship with humans can be dangerous for the animal; although I think everyone must have at some point wished to have that 'special connection'.
I've discovered over many years of informal squirrel research that it tends to be the females who are that little bit more adventurous and open to trying to ways to get food. The males tend to be much more skittish.
So we'd been in the house about a year and a half, feeding squirrels with a proper squirrel nut dispenser (designed to keep other animals out...although this was not the case for us...it's a story for another day), mostly feeding peanuts (without shells, because they are super messy eaters) and around Christmas time those from those bags of nuts in shell.
*Note. I've done a bit more research into which nuts are actually good for them (and aren't poisonous/dangerous for dogs) and now I only feed peanuts, hazelnuts,walnuts and occaisionally almonds, conkers and acorns (but they really don't seem to like these as much!) Apparently too many Brazil nuts can cause neurological problems and avocado pits are poisonous.
Anyhoo, one day Sassy was in the garden and I threw a nut in her direction. She actually ran towards it and tackled it like a prime rugby player. This continued for a few weeks, until one day I was slow in getting her nut ready and she just came right up to the patio doors!
It's fair to say I was over the moon!!!!
So since then, nearly everyday she comes for upto 2 walnuts (in shell) and flounces off somewhere else to bury them. Interestingly the squirrels know which nuts are higher 'value', peanuts and hazelnuts are easily buried in the garden, but I don't know where they take the walnuts to! (Apologies if it's your garden :) )
Sometimes when she's still hungry (I think earlier in the year she had a clutch of chicks and during this time she was doing a relay system between the nuts and her drey) I'll sit outside with her, and give her the option of coming closer in exchange for a shelled walnut (which she eats a.s.a.p).
Some of the other squirrels must have been secretly watching this encounter, as there's currently two others who will come to the door for nuts (Half-tail and Stripe), often forming a small queue behind Sassy.
It's also become a bit of a party-piece for people visiting the house. All the guys are happy to take nuts from anyone. I generally only give out large nuts as I don't want them to mistake my finger and take that instead! I've not yet been bitten, just scratched by their surprisingly sharp nails. I also never hand feed Half-tail (as he is really aggressive with other squirrels), instead I just throw a nut for him to find.
When she's not collecting nuts Sassy likes to drive my parent's dogs mad, by nonchalantly munching away on the patio, not remotely bothered.
She has also been known to remove an entire bird fat ball from the feeder and run off with it - again I'm not remotely sure where this ended up.
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