I have had many squirrel's in my home off and on since I was about 8 or 9. The first ones' name was Lucky, he was a grey squirrel that my mom found out at Pentwater woods (upnorth) in the early spring of lovery Michigan weather. In other words, his parents got started early and he was found freezing in the snow as a result. She brought him home (to redford, a very long drive) and nursed him tofull health, and he lived with us for about 4 Months, he was awesome! She went and built a little squirrel house and attacehed it to the roof and he came and went during the fall and winter months, then disappeared!
Since then we have moved and have raised at least another half dozen squirrels as a result of my mom being the neighborhood 'go to lady' when it comes to any animals. She gets so many new baby birds every spring it's not funny! And to put an old wives tale to rest, you can touch a baby bird, to put it back in it'snearby nest, or in a butter tub and nail it to a tree, and the mother will not turn it away...the only reason they do that is if they might feel the bird is helpless, not because he was touched!
We had another squirrel once, I don't remember how we got him, but he had his own big cage in the house, which he mostly only used to sleep, and would run around most of the day, this was always fun to be walkin the hallway, and have this little creature with VERY sharp nails JUMP on your leg and run up to your shoulder...scared the crap outta me and hurt like hell til he'd get his nails trimmed. This squirrel survived a house fire, all of my mom's birds and cats, but alas, curiosity didn't just harm the cat
He got into my brother's halloween stash and ate 3/4 of a hershey bar and it killed him. We were quite upset!
No chocolate for animals!!
Squirrels are really a lot of fun, we at one time had 2 black and 2 greys that were found by a friend who worked for a tree removal service. We raised them all until they were old enough to fend for themselves, and built another squirell house, they have long gone now, but you def. see more grey's and blacks in my moms' neighborhood
We didn't try to train them really, or teach them more then to come when called for food or to let us pet them. When we let them go, we had a few neighbors complain of them jumping on them looking for attention, but other then that it usually a pretty good outcome.
There was also one time we took in a wildlife rescue blind racoon, she was very ornery but very cute. Not sure what happened after they placed her, but they can be quite cuddly also, but only when you get them as babies. They are a LOT of work to raise and maintain and require a lot of handling to be tamed down, but it can be done. Most places have restrictions to do this though, so I'd weigh the pro's and con's and look up the legalities before I'd go lookin' for one to 'take in'.
://edit: We have NEVER dyed our animals
But that one is just adorable! I'm glad to see he's out and about, but I hope he's old enough and not to spoiled, to be able to fend for himself