All creatures great and small … some people feed them all
By Gina Spadafori
December 19, 2008
Stopped at the feed store at lunch, for chicken feed (which isn’t contrary to popular belief, cheap). The woman ahead of me was picking up a special order — four sacks of ZuPreem monkey food. Now, I know some people give monkey food to their parrots, and but 160 pounds of monkey food is a lot.
Pretty sure she didn’t have a monkey, so I asked, “What’s with the monkey food?”
“For the squirrels,” she says.
Now, can you imagine people buying monkey food to keep the neighborhood rats well-fed? OF course not. And yet … squirrels. Well, sure, the tails make them cuter than a rat, but they’re both pretty obnoxious and destructive. And feed them will make more. Lots more.
What am I missing here?
I’ve always been bemused by the stance by so many animal lovers who seem to think nothing good about squirrels. I have always had yards where the squirrels coexisted well with birds (other than eating more than their share from the bird feeders), and have never suffered any property destruction by squirrels, so I guess I just don’t get it.
Maybe part of it is that I saved a baby squirrel from the road and nursed it to health about 10 years ago. My squirrel was given to a rehab releaser and I never saw him again, but it was really rewarding, and a skill I later transferred to raising unweaned kittens.
Anyhow, I had to cut back on feeding the birds this year, but I would feed squirrels. My cats enjoy watching the activity in the yard, and I’ve never had issues with them. Anyone care to tell me what the problem is with squirrels?
Comment by Feline — December 19, 2008 @ 2:54 pm
Got no problem with squirrels. Or anything else roaming out there, for that matter. I just don’t get why we LOVE squirrels and HATE rats.
Seem pretty much the same thing to me.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — December 19, 2008 @ 3:19 pm
I love my squirrels, too! Don’t mind rats, either. My squirrels provide hours of entertainment for me and for my cats ~ they are the most amazing little gymnasts. Don’t have any problems with them ~ they share all the food at the feeder with the birds that show up. My colleague always had rats in his classroom and they often would come over to visit in the morning before school started. Very intelligent and personable.
I actually have also rescued racoons and a possum once. Unfortunately, the possum didn’t survive, but she was a pretty little thing.
Guess I care about them all . . .
Comment by catmom5 — December 19, 2008 @ 3:30 pm
I love all animals too (have saved a few litters of opossums) and have great admiration for squirrels.
I always make sure there’s lots of food available so they don’t clean out the bird feeders and more importantly - don’t dig up my spring bulbs.
There really aren’t any animals I can think of that I don’t like…well, maybe there’s one :>)
Comment by Selma — December 19, 2008 @ 3:45 pm
My problem with rats . . . Rat Poison. Also, it’s a tad unnerving to be walking by a pile of trash set out for pickup in the dark and hear a bunch of rat noises! We have some BIG rats here. When a critter of a certain size crosses my path in the dark, I look at the tail to see if it’s a rat, or of the feline variety.
Dot loves squirrels. Play bows and all, lol!~ It’s really quite cute. She just can’t understand why they don’t want to play!
Comment by straybaby — December 19, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
Squirrels are cuter than rats. Also, unfair as it is, squirrels have no history of having helped spread bubonic plague among humans at a time when existing medical knowledge was wholly unable to cope with it.
Some friends of mine, after moving to their new home several years ago, set up a bird feeder. They did their best, but discovered that they had not, in fact, set up a squirrel-proof bird feeder. One day, they were standing on their porch watching a squirrel eat the birdfeed, and discussing what they could do to make it a bird feeder and not a squirrel feeder.
And a hawk swooped down and took the squirrel.
They concluded that they had an especially well-stocked bird feeder, feeding a wider variety of birds than they had anticipated.
Comment by Lis — December 19, 2008 @ 5:17 pm
Squirrels are adorable but an out of control population can be a problem I suppose. I don’t know what the answer is to reducing squirel overpopulation other than stopping people from feeding them, but poisoning and/or bombarding them with cayenne pepper is not the answer! We had an issue here in San Diego last summer..thankfully, we had a wonderful advocate in our City Attorney Mike Aguirre who put a stop to the poisoning. Sadly though, Aguirre lost his re-election bid this Nov…the squirrels will miss him.
Balboa Park video here -
http://video.google.com/videop.....7117793244
Squirrel Hunter Sets House on Fire -
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/new.....Do-It.html
Karma!
Comment by Barb — December 19, 2008 @ 6:43 pm
>>Pretty sure she didn’t have a monkey, <<
What makes you sure of that?
http://nosheep.net/story/pet-monkey-1895/
Lots of people bought monkeys through the mail in the 60’s. If you check out the comments or if you type in Darling pet monkey into google you will see that plent of people want them and apparently find ways to purchase them. Maybe the lady has a monkey but doesn’t want you to know about it.
Comment by Robert Forman — December 19, 2008 @ 6:46 pm
I am missing the same thing. Rodents are rodents no matter what suit they are wearing. We had an outbreak of bubonic plague a while back.
People forget that the suckers also bite.
My bet is the woman has a primate stashed somewhere.
Around these parts squirrels get corn cobs, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and other odds and ends.
Comment by Ark Lady — December 19, 2008 @ 10:36 pm
It took me more than a few years to say “yes” to my son when he really really realy wanted a pet rat. We are now on our third and Tila while sweet and smart, still has a tail that gives me the willies. Let’s face it, for some reason, we think bushy tails are cuter. Maybe it simply just goes back to being tramatized by the movie Willard.
Comment by nancy freedman-smith — December 20, 2008 @ 4:36 am
My dogs LOVE squirrels! crunch, crunch. Consequently, we don’t have any grey squirrels as they have learned to avoid us or face mortal peril. It’s been years since I have seen any here, but I can still say “Squirrels? Are there squirrels? Get ‘em!” and the dogs will go screaming out the door to ring the maple tree in the dog yard.
I do have flying squirrels. They are small, nocturnal, and have a more generalized diet than their cousins, as they will include insects on a regular basis.
But talk about CUTE! Big black eyes, and the world’s softest fur! You may have them regularly visiting your feeders after dark and never know it.
Comment by Anne T — December 20, 2008 @ 6:56 am
We are guilty of squirrel feeding, I’m afraid. We do it to keep them away from our bird feeder, and it’s entertaining for the dogs to chase them. My old boss was such an avid birder, though, that he placed a Hav-a-Hart trap under his bird feeder and would catch the squirrels and drown them. I’m not a big fan of squirrels (love birds too much), but we’ve kind of taken a “can’t beat ‘em” attitude. We are still getting lots of baby birds each spring in spite of having squirrels.
Comment by Sara Jo — December 20, 2008 @ 11:48 am
I actually love squirrels but never had the impression that they need feeding by humans!
Comment by Barbara Saunders — January 13, 2009 @ 2:57 pm