What is a squirrel’s mating habits, when do they give birth, and how does it raise its young?

It is important to know that squirrels are mammals belonging to a family known as sciuridae (small and medium rodents). These animals are indigenous to Africa, the Americas, and Eurasia. Overall, there are more than 200 species of these rodents, which vary in size, color, and eating and other habits. Nevertheless, their mating habits and how they raise their young ones are more or less the same. This said, these rodents are usually categorized into three major groups and these are: flying squirrels, ground squirrels, and tree squirrels.

The species of a squirrel will determine its mating habit, when they give birth and how they raise the young ones. For instance, with the fox squirrel the males will always compete to see who will mate with the female first and they are known to breed all year round. Remember, in this group females can mate with multiple partners;it’s only a matter of which male is the first. Their average gestation period is only 45 days and they typically give birth to an average of 2-4 babies. In some cases they can have up to 7 babies.

The flying squirrel will mate two times in a year and their gestation period averages 40 days, whereas the red squirrel gestation period will take an average of 30 days. On the other hand, the ground squirrel mates only one time every 12 months and the males and females are known to mate with multiple partners and so a litter of babies might have different fathers. This is a little bit different from gray squirrels where one female is chased by an average of 10 male squirrels and their gestation period lasts about 44 days.

Wild animals cannot be kept as pets. This is what our common sense tells us. However, if we think, anyone of us sees a wild animal in our premises, what should we do? Do we let them live in the property region or will try to get them out? Off course, the second option is preferable by all of us.On average, a female gestation period is anything between 29-65 days, and after their birth the squirrels will depend on their mothers for about 2 or 3 months. In 8 weeks time they are weaned and allowed to leave the nest. In almost all cases, the females do take care of the young ones and males see no point in raising the kittens.

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