In article ,
Rusty Mase wrote:

On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 23:51:59 GMT, "Cindy"
wrote:

What about skunks? I thought the rationale behind banning skunks as pets is
that they carry rabies. Or are they not rodents?

No, skunks are not Rodents, they are Carnivores. The main carriers of
rabies are all Carnivores except for bats. So between bats and
Carnivores there are not many carriers of rabies and possibly not any.

Take for example horses. Horses bite people on occassion and yet I
have never heard of a horse being sacrificed for a rabies test.

They don't sacrifice the horse usually, but test it after it has died.
:-( Rabid horses bitten by rabid predators CAN transmit rabies. I know
of one family in my area that had to undergo the exposure vaccinations
after their horse died of rabies.

You don't have to be bitten to be exposed.


On the other hand if something bites you and you do not know much
about what bit you then you really should ask a doctor. Hopefully, if
you encountered a house mouse that took a nip out of your finger, the
doctor would know not run you through rabies injections.

Mice and rats can transmit other diseases tho'. Lots of them. ;-)

Haanta for one.

K.


Rusty Mase

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In article ,
Rusty Mase wrote:

On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 13:40:58 -0500, Katra
wrote:

It happened here in our town once. A guy had
a pet squirrel that he'd raised from a baby and it bit someone. The
shelter confiscated it and killed it.

Extremely mean people, I wager.

Rusty Mase

No, hand raised squirrels tend to do that.
Females especially!

I do some wildlife rehabbing and strongly try to discourage people from
taming baby squirrels! I turn all of mine over to Wildlife rescue inc.
now so that they can be raised with others and stay wild.

We hand raised a "loner" baby female squirrel one time. Named her
"flicka". As soon as she matured and her hormones kicked in, she started
attacking us. She'd run at us, bite, then run away.

We finally started throwing things at her (without harming her) to try
to teach her to be afraid of humans! It worked and she finally went wild
like she was supposed to.

It just seems to be a squirrel thing.

No, the shelter people actually felt very bad about it, but human
welfare comes before squirrel welfare unfortunately.

My point being is that if you have a pet squirrel and it's given to
attacking other humans, don't let it near other humans. Either teach if
to fear them, or keep it in it's cage. :-P

K.

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Rusty Mase wrote:
On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 23:51:59 GMT, "Cindy"
wrote:

What about skunks? I thought the rationale behind banning skunks as
pets is that they carry rabies. Or are they not rodents?

No, skunks are not Rodents, they are Carnivores. The main carriers of
rabies are all Carnivores except for bats. So between bats and
Carnivores there are not many carriers of rabies and possibly not any.

Take for example horses. Horses bite people on occassion and yet I
have never heard of a horse being sacrificed for a rabies test.

On the other hand if something bites you and you do not know much
about what bit you then you really should ask a doctor. Hopefully, if
you encountered a house mouse that took a nip out of your finger, the
doctor would know not run you through rabies injections.

Rusty Mase

Hell I'd be dead by now I guess if rodents carried it. I've been bit often
enough. I just hadn't ever really thought about it, and skunks sort of seem
like rodents.

I've always wanted a pet skunk....had a baby one for awhile whose mother got
shot (not by me), but it suffocated in the heat pad I was using to keep it
warm.

Cindy

On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 21:30:02 -0500, Katra
wrote:

We hand raised a "loner" baby female squirrel one time. Named her
"flicka". As soon as she matured and her hormones kicked in, she started
attacking us. She'd run at us, bite, then run away.

I did that once with a clutch of baby cottontail rabbits. Hand fed
then from a toy milk bottle. Once they became old enough to become
independent they turned mean (my interpretation here) and would bite
me regularly. I turned them loose and they seemed to have no imprint
of "benevolent humans" at all.

Almost all wildlife works that way although I had a friend that
domesticated a baby female Bobcat. She became an extremely
intelligent and friendly pet around his house. He lived alone way out
in the country and could get away with it.

She was hell on peoples dogs that came around, though, as the dogs had
no clue as to what a 25 pound, very territorial and very protective
cat would do if the dogs decided to mess with her.

Rusty Mase

We hand raised a "loner" baby female squirrel one time. Named her
"flicka". As soon as she matured and her hormones kicked in, she
started attacking us. She'd run at us, bite, then run away.

I did that once with a clutch of baby cottontail rabbits. Hand fed
then from a toy milk bottle. Once they became old enough to become
independent they turned mean (my interpretation here) and would bite
me regularly. I turned them loose and they seemed to have no imprint
of "benevolent humans" at all.

Almost all wildlife works that way although I had a friend that
domesticated a baby female Bobcat. She became an extremely
intelligent and friendly pet around his house. He lived alone way out
in the country and could get away with it.

She was hell on peoples dogs that came around, though, as the dogs had
no clue as to what a 25 pound, very territorial and very protective
cat would do if the dogs decided to mess with her.

Rusty Mase

That would be great! I'd love it! I used to hate it when dumb neighbors
brought their dogs to our farm and they got in fights with our dogs.
Luckily we always had big dogs, so they usually kicked butt, and my brother
and I got out the pellet gun if they needed a hand.

We tried raising cottontail babies once, but they died and we just got fleas
for our troubles. One time when I was a kid I stole a couple pigeon chicks
from a nest and tried to raise them on zebra finch food, but for some reason
that just didn't work. My brother and I had a lot of success with garter
snakes, though. Fed them all the mice they could eat that we caught in the
haystacks. And once we found a dead gopher and kept it until it started to
smell. Farm kids have such fun! Luckily I got to raise my kids on the
farm until the last few years.

Cindy

In article ,
Rusty Mase wrote:

On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 21:30:02 -0500, Katra
wrote:

We hand raised a "loner" baby female squirrel one time. Named her
"flicka". As soon as she matured and her hormones kicked in, she started
attacking us. She'd run at us, bite, then run away.

I did that once with a clutch of baby cottontail rabbits. Hand fed
then from a toy milk bottle. Once they became old enough to become
independent they turned mean (my interpretation here) and would bite
me regularly. I turned them loose and they seemed to have no imprint
of "benevolent humans" at all.

Rabbits are not as prone to that as rodents. ;-)
Rabbits are not rodents.


Almost all wildlife works that way although I had a friend that
domesticated a baby female Bobcat. She became an extremely
intelligent and friendly pet around his house. He lived alone way out
in the country and could get away with it.

Sounds wonderful!
With the larger cats, you just have to watch their teeth and claws in
"play" mode since they are so much more powerful than domestic tree cats.


She was hell on peoples dogs that came around, though, as the dogs had
no clue as to what a 25 pound, very territorial and very protective
cat would do if the dogs decided to mess with her.

That's what people get for letting their dogs run loose! lol

K.


Rusty Mase

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In article ,
"Cindy" wrote:


We hand raised a "loner" baby female squirrel one time. Named her
"flicka". As soon as she matured and her hormones kicked in, she
started attacking us. She'd run at us, bite, then run away.

I did that once with a clutch of baby cottontail rabbits. Hand fed
then from a toy milk bottle. Once they became old enough to become
independent they turned mean (my interpretation here) and would bite
me regularly. I turned them loose and they seemed to have no imprint
of "benevolent humans" at all.

Almost all wildlife works that way although I had a friend that
domesticated a baby female Bobcat. She became an extremely
intelligent and friendly pet around his house. He lived alone way out
in the country and could get away with it.

She was hell on peoples dogs that came around, though, as the dogs had
no clue as to what a 25 pound, very territorial and very protective
cat would do if the dogs decided to mess with her.

Rusty Mase

That would be great! I'd love it! I used to hate it when dumb neighbors
brought their dogs to our farm and they got in fights with our dogs.
Luckily we always had big dogs, so they usually kicked butt, and my brother
and I got out the pellet gun if they needed a hand.

We tried raising cottontail babies once, but they died and we just got fleas
for our troubles. One time when I was a kid I stole a couple pigeon chicks
from a nest and tried to raise them on zebra finch food, but for some reason
that just didn't work. My brother and I had a lot of success with garter
snakes, though. Fed them all the mice they could eat that we caught in the
haystacks. And once we found a dead gopher and kept it until it started to
smell. Farm kids have such fun! Luckily I got to raise my kids on the
farm until the last few years.

Cindy



Cool. :-)

K.

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About catching and trapping squirrels;

I am looking to adopt a family of black squirrels, (solid black, or black with red tails preferred) or white (not albino). If anyone wants to ship their family of squirrels to Missouri, I would be happy to care for them in my yard. I love these adorable guys, and our black squirrel population is nearly zero, though we do have greys all over, and few whites. I promise your squirrels won't come back home then! *grin* Send email to

About catching and trapping squirrels;

I am looking to adopt a family of black squirrels, (solid black, or
black with red tails preferred) or white (not albino). If anyone wants
to ship their family of squirrels to Missouri, I would be happy to care
for them in my yard. I love these adorable guys, and our black squirrel
population is nearly zero, though we do have greys all over, and few
whites. I promise your squirrels won't come back home then! *grin* Send
email to


--
Kryistina

Kryistina wrote:

If anyone wants
to ship their family of squirrels to Missouri,

How do you ship squirrels? Tranquilized and bubble-wrapped? In a
shoebox with airholes? FedEx next morning early delivery guaranteed?

Just curious . . .

In article ,
(God Bless Texas) wrote:

Kryistina wrote:

If anyone wants
to ship their family of squirrels to Missouri,

How do you ship squirrels? Tranquilized and bubble-wrapped? In a
shoebox with airholes? FedEx next morning early delivery guaranteed?

Just curious . . .


Best way would be "underground railroad" method in a good transport
kennel. :-) It'd be stressful to the squirells tho' no matter how you
did it.

This method is actually possible using the internet! I've been on
livestock lists that used it, passing on the animals to various list
members that transport them to meeting points.

The internet is a wonderful resource!

K.

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Katra wrote:

In article ,
(God Bless Texas) wrote:

Kryistina wrote:

If anyone wants
to ship their family of squirrels to Missouri,

How do you ship squirrels? Tranquilized and bubble-wrapped? In a
shoebox with airholes? FedEx next morning early delivery guaranteed?

Just curious . . .



Best way would be "underground railroad" method in a good transport
kennel. :-) It'd be stressful to the squirells tho' no matter how you
did it.

This method is actually possible using the internet! I've been on
livestock lists that used it, passing on the animals to various list
members that transport them to meeting points.

The internet is a wonderful resource!

You might tell Georgians about this. There's some town near Atlanta
(can't remember the name, but within 100 miles of Atlanta) so overrun
with gray squirrels that the town has authorized shooting the squirrels
between 8:15 and 12 a.m., Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The hours are
restricted to keep children out of harm's way.

chillled wrote:
Katra wrote:

In article ,
(God Bless Texas) wrote:

Kryistina wrote:

If anyone wants
to ship their family of squirrels to Missouri,


How do you ship squirrels? Tranquilized and bubble-wrapped? In a
shoebox with airholes? FedEx next morning early delivery guaranteed?

Just curious . . .



Best way would be "underground railroad" method in a good transport
kennel. :-) It'd be stressful to the squirells tho' no matter how you
did it.

This method is actually possible using the internet! I've been on
livestock lists that used it, passing on the animals to various list
members that transport them to meeting points.

The internet is a wonderful resource!


You might tell Georgians about this. There's some town near Atlanta
(can't remember the name, but within 100 miles of Atlanta) so overrun
with gray squirrels that the town has authorized shooting the squirrels
between 8:15 and 12 a.m., Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The hours are
restricted to keep children out of harm's way.

Washington, Ga., and they can only shoot them with a single-shot shotgun.