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When Squirrels Were One of America’s Most Popular Pets (2017)
- dukeofdoom 6y agoNorthern flying squirrel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_flying_squirrel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_flying_squirrel
- quercusa 6y agoI had a roommate who raised an orphaned flying squirrel. The squirrel had a lot of personality. At dusk we'd take him out and set him on a tree, walk 50 feet away, and he'd glide down and land on your chest or shoulder, again and again.
- nso 6y agoMe and my wife have raised 5 between us (3 together and she's had 2 on her own). They are incredible animals, and playing with a squirrel is something very special.
- mynameishere 6y agoWell, people keep rats. Rats have some downsides compared to squirrels: Their ugly tails, the black death, etc.
- nine_k 6y agoRats are apparently also smarter.
- zikzak 6y agoA friend of mine kept them as pets. I was there once and watched one eat a piece of spaghetti. It held the noodle with both paws, sitting on its hind legs, and took bites while feeding it into its mouth "hand over hand". I have never really forgotten that. There was something so deliberate and skilled about this. No dumb beast, this, face down in a pile of food. This was an intelligent, fastidious creature enjoying a pasta dinner.
- sooheon 6y agoThanks for that image
- Judgmentality 6y agoHamsters, on the other hand... https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/funny-animals-eating-431__605.jpg https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/0...
- schoen 6y agoA super-cute rat eating spaghetti more or less this way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp8VapqaCkE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp8VapqaCkE
- etrautmann 6y agoThat’s actually a behavioral task used in neuroscience experiments as well. Pasta eating is a surprisingly complex skill involving dexterous manipulation and complexity sensory and motor signaling throughout the brain.
- silveroriole 6y agoGive them a dish of water and you might see them wash their hands after eating too! They’re very human sometimes.
- shipstain 6y agoWe used to keep rats, and they are pretty delightful really. I discovered later that they are such sociable creatures, they really need friends of their own kind. Ours got lots of attention, could pretty much run free for most of the day, but they do get lonely.
- stevekemp 6y agoRats are pretty clever, they can respond to their names and follow simple verbal instructions. Back when I was a student I used to keep a couple, and several local friends also had one or two. They make good pets - larger and less fragile than mice, smarter and more interactive than gerbils, and not at all prone to biting you randomly.
- m463 6y agoI've seen squirrels bait cats and other animals in a playful fashion, facing downwards on a tree doing the undulating tail thing. Maybe rats are smarter, but squirrels are pretty playful and charismatic.
- nine_k 6y agoI used to keep a rat, and considered her about as smart and enterprising as my cats. I regularly feed squirrels coming to my window. Some of them are curious and brave enough to enter the room through the window, and they definitely learned what actions of mine lead to food appearing at the windowsill. Animals are fun.
- every 6y agoI often refer to squirrels as cute, fluffy-tailed arboreal rats...
- smnrchrds 6y agoBetter PR too
- bonniemuffin 6y agoThe fluffy tail makes a surprisingly big difference in the cuteness, although I'm not sure I can explain why.
- m463 6y agoand pigeons?
- beezle 6y agopigeons are rats that can fly
- beezle 6y agoTreeRats
- rectang 6y agoPresumably pet squirrels are just as bad as pet rats about defecating everywhere and gnawing on everything. I admire rodent tenaciousness, but we are not friends.
- garmaine 6y agoSome people (like me) find rats and mice to be cute. And FYI, rats did NOT cause the Black Death. That was the theory at the time, but it hasn't held up to scrutiny. We are now fairly certain it was human lice. Both the outbreak patterns and genetic evidence makes this clear.
- wolfretcrap 6y agoBubonit plaque is still spread by mice and it's still a pfovkt.
- garmaine 6y agoI'm not sure what a pfovkt is. Bubonic plague CAN be spread by (fleas on) mice or rats. But historically it was not, at least not in Europe. The most recent outbreaks in Europe in the 19th century were carried by lice. We know this for certain. Looking back at historical outbreaks in the Middle Ages and early modern period, the information about how the plague spread is consistent with lice, not rats as the vector. For example, people sharing the same bed and sheets get sick, but not people in adjoining houses sharing the same walls and garden. The outbreak of the great plague in London is not near the quarantine docks as one would expect, but rather a poor area on the completely other side which was known to be a site of prostitution. It then spread largely along class lines through communities with poor hygiene, largely skipping affluent areas even when there was nothing that would have prevented rats from moving through.
- bluedino 6y agoCol. Hans Landa : Yet I assume you don't share the same animosity with squirrels that you do with rats, do you? Perrier LaPadite : No. Col. Hans Landa : But they're both rodents, are they not? And except for the tail, they even rather look alike, don't they? Perrier LaPadite : It's an interesting thought, Herr Colonel. Col. Hans Landa : Ha! However interesting as the thought may be, it makes not one bit of difference to how you feel. If a rat were to walk in here right now, as I'm talking, would you greet it with a saucer of your delicious milk? Perrier LaPadite : Probably not. Col. Hans Landa : I didn't think so. You don't like them. You don't really know why you don't like them; all you know is you find them repulsive.
- dukeofdoom 6y agoSo is this why they are so wide spread and a pest? Squirrels are much rarer in Europe. Like you only see them in the forest rare and they are orange. The black/grey squirrels here are a real problem for backyard gardeners. Like they will pretty much steal every fruit tree bare.
- soapdog 6y agoRare in Europe? I'm looking out of my window in central London and there are at least three squirrels arguing about brexit or something. In warmer months, I need to be careful not to kick one of them as I go by on the sidewalk. They are everywhere.
- ckastner 6y agoWell, one can hardly generalize to Europe just from London. To give just one counterexample, I grew up in a very rural/mountainy part of Austria, surrounded by forests everywhere, and I can count the times I have seen a squirrel on one hand.
- globular-toast 6y agoI saw lots of squirrels in Prague so it's not just London. They also have these massive rodents in the river. They are very tame, can be up to the size of a small dog and have big, red teeth.
- playworker 6y agoI thought you were joking at first, but apparently not! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coypu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coypu
- malcsm 6y agoThe squirrels in London, and most of the UK, are American greys - imported as pets in the 19th century. The rest of Europe has the much more timid red squirrel.
- vincentmarle 6y agoI have many squirrels roaming around the outside of my house but this article has definitely deterred me from keeping them as pets: https://www.vin.com/vetzinsight/default.aspx?pId=756&id=5454945 https://www.vin.com/vetzinsight/default.aspx?pId=756&id=5454...
- cockatiel_day 6y agoI have a good bunch of squirrels I feed outside my home office... I can attest they are delightful creatures when you get to know them. They’re smart, gentle, engaging, and all have a different and developing personality. Yes, they’re rodents, but rodents are a big family!
- caiobegotti 6y agoRodents can be extremely friendly and cute indeed. Evidence: capivaras!
- mtts 6y ago> They're [...] gentle [...] No they're not. They're brutal, vicious killers (a trait they share with lots of others of members of the rodent family, such as rabbits). Here's just one example: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/03/red-squirrel-infanticide-Yukon-cannibalism/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/03/red-squirrel...
- mutatio 6y agoRabbits surprisingly not being rodents.
- andrewflnr 6y agoCats do the same thing sometimes, feral cats and lions, at least. Some cats are still gentle.
- anonfornoreason 6y agoThank you for feeding them, as I occasionally enjoy eating well fed squirrels in my own neighborhood. Keep filling them up with peanuts, please!
- andrewflnr 6y agoMy family got roped into fostering some baby squirrels that had lost their nest. They're very cute, but in my experience they were very skittish and frankly their claws are too sharp to make comfortable pets. I wish it were otherwise, since I really admire them as highly capable animals. We raised them with the intent of releasing them into "the wild" (of Burbank) and eventually did get them to be pretty much independent of us. So that worked pretty well.
- ChrisArchitect 6y agoprevious https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14481535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14481535
- DannyB2 6y agoIf you love a squirrel, set it free. If it comes back to you, then it is truly your duty to set it free again but in a location further away.
- birgitt 6y agoGroundhogs are wonderful too! I had one for 4 years before she passed away. Best pet I've ever had. https://instagram.com/winniethewoodchuck https://instagram.com/winniethewoodchuck