The squirrel mating season usually starts already at the turn of the year. You can usually recognize this by wild chases. The female animal is chased by several males through trees and bushes. A game that looks very amusing to the viewer.

How often do squirrels mate?

Squirrel mating season occurs up to three times a year - beginning at the turn of the year and continuing into late August.

The animals build a so-called litter burrow in a branch fork, which is at least 6 m above the ground. After mating, the females do not tolerate males in their vicinity.

If there was little food available for the squirrels during the previous winter, the first mating may be delayed until summer.

Litter and first time in the kobel

As a rule, a litter of squirrels consists of 5 animals. These are born after a gestation period of 38 to 42 days, both blind and naked. The young are cared for and suckled by the mother in the nest for about 8 weeks. After that, the little squirrels live together with the mother for a few more months.

At about 12 months the animals become sexually mature. Whereby you must know that only about every 4th or 5th young animal survives the first year. In this first year they are easy prey like predators like pine martens and co.

Squirrel mating season - when is sexual maturity?

Normally you can hardly tell the females from the males in squirrels. Only during the squirrel mating season the testicles of the males are very prominent. You can not miss them, because they are really very large.

If you observe the animals closely, you will notice that the females are much more restless than usual during their heat. They defend the hutch much more during this time than at other times.

Squirrel mating season - How does mating happen?

As already mentioned, squirrels hunt each other during the mating season. Females emit a secretion, among other things, which attracts the males. The females are still a little bitchy at the beginning and sometimes bite the males. Sometimes there are fights, but they never end badly. During this time the male animal gives peculiar Loud of themselves. These resemble the young animals. With this, the male animal wants to attract the attention of the lady of his heart. If the female is finally ready, then she releases a little urine on the branch, puts her tail on her back and lets the male copulate.

How do you recognize a pregnant squirrel?

You can't always tell this condition for sure by the girth. Some females will certainly become roly-poly, others will only increase in abdominal girth at the end of pregnancy. However, a clear sign of pregnancy is the breast size. During pregnancy, females get very large teats that cannot be overlooked.

What happens immediately after birth?

No matter how curious you are, now it is called fingers away from the hutch and the mother animal. Otherwise, the female may bite her young to death.

After birth she licks the young and cleans them that way. As already mentioned, the young are naked at birth. However, on the basis of their skin color, the later fur coloration can be recognized.

The young weigh about 10 g at birth. Squirrels belong to the nesting group and are therefore completely dependent on the mother.

Can the native squirrel mate with a gray squirrel?

One thing in advance in our regions there are no gray squirrels yet. But it is also not possible that the American gray squirrels mate with our native squirrels. This is proven by several studies. Among other things one has in England already starting from 1876 over a long period of time again and again American gray squirrels exposed, in order to see what happens.  

Squirrel mating season - Is the squirrel faithful?

Certainly, there are also loners among squirrels. Mostly it is then about older male animals. Many squirrels live together in loose groups of 4 to 5 animals. You can recognize this by the fact that they scurry together through the trees. But there are also squirrels that have firm friendships with another squirrel and thus always stay together.

Females in squirrels, unlike males, are very promiscuous. If there are several suitors during the squirrel mating season, the female will mate with almost any male present.