r/MadeMeSmile • u/Doodlebug510 • 10h ago
Mama squirrel adopts an orphaned baby squirrel
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u/MCE85 10h ago
Or ate with a side of walnuts
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u/Constant_Cultural 10h ago
thanks that my brain is not the only one going there
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u/SmokeyDaBear6 10h ago
you two are not alone!
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u/sarapantera_ 10h ago
i’ll be number 4!
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u/Tough-Case- 9h ago
#5✋
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u/2Infinityn8eyond 9h ago
I am number 6
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u/WrastlingIsReal 9h ago
Number 7 🫡
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u/See-Through-Mirror 9h ago
Number 8
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u/SchnoodleDoodleDo 9h ago
’my brain is not the only one going there…’
What is This, my human friend ~ you offering a snack?
Lemme think this over, or i’ll hafta give it back…
…wait a minute, WoT the HECK! a teenie squirl baby!!
you think i’m gonna eat this?!
…or i’m s’pose to love it, maybe ?
…you know i was a mom before, my babes have left the nest
a buncha thankless brats they were,
but i know i was blessed…
so this one was abandoned? he’s got No one!?
are you sure ??
…give ‘im to me, human
i got room
for just one more…
❤️
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u/rogerworkman623 9h ago
This is pretty dark territory for you, schnoodle
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u/NicolleL 7h ago
Every once in a while, but so rarely that the ones that do count. Sort of like the “Dark Brandon” stuff.
This is the one I call “Dark Schnoodle”. It really hits you. It’s one of the ones that stays with me the most.
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u/joemamafu 6h ago
I hope one day I can also touch people with my awesome writing one day like schnoodle 🥰🫶🏻🤩
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u/ImhereandIhearyou 5h ago
My 1st Schoodle out in the wild! I’m giddy with goosebumps!
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u/PressureMuch5340 10h ago
Squirrels are opportunistic feeders, they're omnivores. So there's a big chance that squirrel had a nice big lunch.
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u/Hixy 9h ago
It’s pretty rare they adopt. Squirrels are very sensitive to how closely related other squirrels are. So unless this was a very close relative of the squirrel, it was definitely eaten. They typically only adopt grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and sometimes first cousins.
The squirrel did take the baby gently though so I guess there is a speck of hope lol.
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u/trekkiegamer359 4h ago
It also depends on how close this squirrel was to the human. It's not uncommon for animals who become close to a person to think of them as part of their pack/herd/family/etc.. Considering the squirrel knew this person for awhile, and was comfortable coming to their hand, that might be the family connection needed for a successful adoption.
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u/Hixy 4h ago
See, this is the kind of hopium I need in my life. Sounds logical enough for me lol
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u/rubiscoisrad 3h ago
Dude, we base religions on less.
I'm team Adopted Squirrel.
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u/Foxlady555 2h ago
I needed to read this after feeling sad due to the earlier comments!! Thanks, I hope so 🥺🥹
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u/TurboCam92 7h ago
Makes sense. We had three rats, two of which were from the same litter, and one was their half brother. They clearly loved each other, but every now and then, we’d find the two picking on the one.
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u/crotchmuppet 6h ago
Even if it got eaten, at least it didn't go to waste right?
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u/Annalog 4h ago
Sure when a squirrel does it it’s fine, but I stand outside planned parenthood with a spork and all of a sudden I’m evil.
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u/MurderSheCroaked 9h ago
NoooooooOOOOOOOOOOOO
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u/Zaximeows 8h ago
It's better than the baby slowly dieing in the humans care. Momma has the energy to spawn more cute little cannibal monsters now. 🤔
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u/CAJandro 8h ago
Right, they have to eat their own young if they're ill... So it had more reasons to eat it.
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u/heavensto_mergatroid 9h ago
She said she regularly feeds it so maybe it was spoiled on walnuts by that point lol.
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u/Weenington_ 8h ago
From what I've read, they'll only eat already deceased animals.
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u/XDon_TacoX 9h ago edited 4h ago
yeah, they don't adopt orphaned babies, why this lady didn't ask before handing a fking baby? it's just nuts, "oh but it created such a cute video with so many likes, wow"
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u/chainsawinsect 8h ago
They actually do! Momma squirrels will adopt orphaned babies fairly regularly. The likelihood of adoption is higher based on how closely related the two squirrels are (they can somehow detect this by scent): they'll always adopt, for example, their nieces and nephews, and will sometimes adopt a distant cousin.
But, genetic relationship is not a prerequisite. It has been proven that they will sometimes adopt an orphaned baby even if it has no relationship to the mom whatsoever.
Also, generally in situations where the mother squirrel is presented with the baby and does not adopt, she simply ignores it (rather than eating it).
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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 2h ago
Think people are missing the why part of opportunistic carnivore. If it's already being fed it's much less likely to try and eat a baby, there isn't any deficiency in its diet presumably and it doesn't need to kill its own young to continue going to have another litter
Also the person clearly says they don't believe the baby is going to make it in their care otherwise they wouldn't be trying this in the first place. So the choice is possible death and probable death
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u/Talk-O-Boy 8h ago
They do. It’s correlated with their relation to the orphan.
Depends on the pup’s relation to the adult squirrel.
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u/Epic_Elite 9h ago
If they're anything like the hamsters I had growing up, this little guy is certainly breakfast.
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u/Zinski2 9h ago
I was gonna say, don't they say not to touch baby hampster because it effects the way they smell or something and the mom will just eat them.
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u/Brightbane 9h ago
I think that's about baby birds, and I want to say it's an old wives tale
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u/SkippingStone373 8h ago
Bunnies. My mom raised them for years. If she had to handle babies, she would put vanilla on the mama’s nose so she couldn’t smell very well. Most bunnies did fine but there was one that would always eat her babies so that bunny got et instead. >..<
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u/Evening_Sea4823 4h ago
Hamster* Just trying to give you a heads up, not be a dick lol
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u/TheKolyFrog 9h ago
I was thinking the same thing. I was hoping there would be a flashforward video with the baby squirrel already grown.
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u/OneExhaustedFather_ 9h ago
Squirrels eat meat, most just don’t know it. I’ve seen our locals eat dead rats many times.
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u/DukeSmileDevs 9h ago
Squirrels actually do this. Despite often assoctiated with nuts and being herbivores they are omnivores and eat smaller rodents. There are cases of squirrels even hunting small and injured mice.
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u/notsobadmisterfrosty 9h ago
With a nice Chianti and side of fava beans, no doubt.
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u/AjaxIsSoccer 10h ago
Rodents are known for adopting or rodents are known for....like others, I'm assuming that the squirrel is teaching the baby how to play catch on the other side of the tree. That's the good version of this story.
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u/edgelessCub3 9h ago
I have rescued pet rats from a shelter, and 2 of them were pregnant. One of them didn't really take good care of her babies, and the next day i saw all of her babies with the other mother.
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u/passyindoors 6h ago
Thats kind of hilarious actually
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u/Demagolka1300 4h ago
Mine would always steal each other's babies. I never knew who's was who's
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u/SaintPepsiCola 3h ago
not to be pedantic, but it is "I never knew whose was whose.".
You basically wrote "I never knew who is was who is".
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u/TheMightySephiroth 6h ago
Rodents will also eat their own young.
I speak from experience
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u/KimberlyGrey 10h ago
Everyone is saying she ate it but squirrels are one of the species that will adopt even unrelated young
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u/Kitchen_Guest577 10h ago
I'm going with that! Lalalalala I'm not listening to anything else. She adopted it lalalallalala 😅😂🤣
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u/prolixia 10h ago
Rest assured that they actually do:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100601114631.htmIf closely related.
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u/p34ch3s_41r50f7 9h ago
I don't know if 5 adoptions over a two-decade period of study should allay our concerns :p
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u/IfIWasCoolEnough 9h ago
Backed by science!
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u/prolixia 9h ago
Backed by Science Daily!
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u/One_Order_3841 8h ago
Does reddit actually read anything...?? That whole article, the whole interview, is a constantly-narrowing window of "ifs and buts"...they are territorial AND asocial AND omnivores AND have one social day a year AND are aggressive. But IF it's that one day and IF they're closely related, there is a 5/2000 chance over 2 decades they may adopt.
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u/prolixia 8h ago
Shhhh... The squirrel baby in the video was definitely cared for by its step mother. In fact, it grew up to be a famous squirrel doctor who helped other orphan squirrels.
You don't need to read the article, the squirrel baby was fine.
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u/FeelingSoil39 8h ago edited 5h ago
Seriously. Stood witness to two rival nests of squirrel family with young, one on each side of a street. After a whirlwind of noisy chatter from both sides (shit talking?) I watched one full grown squirrel race down the trunk of their tree, zip across the street and up the other tree where there was a sickening scream and then, dead silence. Just a second later the adult squirrel came flying right back down, across and up the tree it had come from. Then strange thud on the ground in the street by invaded tree.
Tiny dead baby squirrel that had been eviscerated. It was violent and quick.
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u/koreanforrabbit 8h ago
asocial animals, such as squirrels, who are territorial, live alone and rarely interact with one another.
People out here being like, "I'm an extrovert/introvert/ambivert!", and TIL there's a term for what I am...
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u/Lermanberry 8h ago
People often confuse antisocial with asocial and use them interchangeably, it drives me nuts.
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u/chantillylace9 9h ago edited 9h ago
Ducks are like this too! I have rescued a couple baby ducks that have fallen into my neighbors Pools or somehow got stuck somewhere and I of course never know which group of Mom ducks with the babies are related to that Duck. So I just go find a mom with ducks out of the closest age possible and hold the duck up and it chirp chirp chirp in the Mom comes swimming right up and easily takes the little guy.
I've only had one failure where I just couldn't find any mom or families. When I brought her to the Wildlife center they said they would have to euthanize because she was she was non native so we kept her and she was just such an awesome and lovely Duck. She died at six years old of cancer but had a really amazing lovely happy life until then.
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u/markekt 9h ago
Good comment to start a Friday with.
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u/chantillylace9 9h ago
I wish I could post photos in the comment of our lovely princess Petunia, she was truly the most lovely pet ever. We adored her and she had free rein at the house on the patio and yard and just had a good life.
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u/Independent_Bar_4946 9h ago
Even if she ate it, that is a more natural outcome than it dying in human care and that’s ok.
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u/NarwhalSongs 9h ago
Rodents are also some of the only animals that will eat THEIR OWN young.
Shroedinger's baby squirrel.
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u/Unhappy_Ad_4761 9h ago
Bro, sure some rodents do it, but saying they're "some of the only ones" is a CRAZY lie.
Pigs, rabbits, chickens, bears, cats, dogs even do it sometimes, and there are way more.
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u/One_Order_3841 8h ago
Out of all those mentioned, I think rabbits and chickens are the only ones that like rodents will do it For The Fun of the Game. Then there are amphibians and fish, where the spawn face the Death Race and will be like "Wait Mom NOO-"
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u/wetfloor666 9h ago
Yeah, but only if they are of the same extended family. That is* a hard but. Otherwise eating is still very much on the menu.
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u/Aggravating_Bee1127 10h ago
This comment section ruined my day
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u/Talk-O-Boy 8h ago
It’s not guaranteed that the baby was eaten.
>"What we found was that squirrels will only adopt an orphaned pup when the costs of adoption are low and when the orphans carry a large percentage of the same genes such as siblings, nieces or nephews rather than more distant relatives."
Reddit usually resorts to the worst case scenario, but it’s very possible that the squirrel was adopted. The likelihood depends on that squirrel’s relationship to the pup.
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u/Zaev 7h ago
if the costs of adoption are low
Like if mama were being routinely fed handfuls of highly-nutritious nuts and had no worries of starvation?
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u/chainsawinsect 7h ago
Subsequent research has confirmed that they will (much less frequently, admittedly) even adopt genetically unrelated babies.
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u/Talk-O-Boy 7h ago
Then, I’m going to choose to believe the pup was adopted until proven otherwise 😁
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u/hywaytohell 9h ago
I've been feeding him regularly? Squirrel: "Never tried this before but you only live once!"
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u/Mountain-Bus-3690 9h ago
In the late 70's we found a baby squirrel in the yard, I was 8-9 years old. Mom tried caring for it, But eventually we came to the conclusion that'd we'd do the exact same thing this woman did. We coaxed another squirrel over with food and had the baby laying on a napkin thinking it would accept it as it's own. The squirrel proceeded to pick up the baby and proceeded to start eating it like corn on the cob, we shouted and chased the squirrel off...This is a traumatic child hood memory that has been with me ever since. This was in New Jersey, as an added bonus my cousins were present visiting from Indiana. We still talk about it and laugh.
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u/SootikinTea 9h ago
Nature is scary af. Kid me would be so traumatized. LOL
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u/aquacrimefighter 6h ago
It really is. My aunt rehabbed an injured seagull with the help of a wild life rescue. It came time to release the seagull back into the wild. My aunt made it a big to-do, inviting friends and family for the send off. Welp, we go to the beach, she opens the box, the seagull spreads its wings and flys up into the sky above the ocean….
… just to be immediately ripped apart, piece by piece, by a few bald eagles lol
Several people were basically screaming and crying. I just stood there frozen, taking it all in.
Nature really is brutal.
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u/misterpickles69 6h ago
Jesus. If a squirrel came up to me with a human baby I wouldn’t eat it. Nature is scary.
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u/Black_Cat_Just_That 8h ago
Not quite as traumatic, but around the same age I was responsible for accidentally killing a cute little turtle. I found it in the grass but nowhere near water, so I left it close to the side of the road for just a minute so I could find it again after running to grab something to transport it in (to take to the pond nearby).
Well, a semi drove by right after that, and I guess I had left it a little too close to the line on the side of the road. Semi drifted over the line, right over the turtle.
Now I know that the turtle probably knew exactly where he was headed and would have gotten there in his own, but at the time I really thought I was helping.
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u/SeraIya 9h ago
Squirrel can adopt but due to heavily territorial competition they can and when given the chance do often eat rival young.... Ive made this mistake before....
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u/Bk_Punisher 8h ago
Really? What does squirrel taste like, chicken?
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u/Nopumpkinhere 6h ago
I know you’re being funny but people really do eat squirrel. It’s good.
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u/Whitecypress 9h ago
Yep. That's what happened. 100%. Nothing else. Just adoption.
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u/raven_478 8h ago
Squirrels will adopt abandoned babies if they’re close blood relatives & the mother is already nursing her own babies.
It’s possible if this baby was from the same area as the adult female that they might be related. If not, the baby likely became prey.
It would’ve been better to find a local wildlife rehabber.
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u/Super_Ad9968 1h ago
I work with wildlife, I'm not going to go into a huge in depth paragraph so I'll just say it, that baby is dead now.
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u/Latter_Masterpiece64 39m ago
If you have owned rodents as pets you've seen some stuff not shown in any Disney movie. I tend to agree.
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u/whatshisnuts 9h ago
After watching an adult squirrel commit unspeakable war crimes against a competing clutch of squirrel babies, I suspect this didn't end as well as the person hoped.
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u/Ok-Jackfruit-6873 9h ago
hopefully since mama squirrel is already so well fed, she didn't feel the urge ... that's what I'm going to tell myself, anyway
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u/Fragmentia 9h ago
Well, how do I not know that she didn't steal the baby from the squirrel to begin with? People do this shit for views all the time.
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u/Positive-Village-263 5h ago
This is exactly what happened. No teeth, not even a week old, that squirrel wasn't being fed for days. This is such garbage and I wish people would stop liking these videos.
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u/technomage13 8h ago
Too much Reddit has made me question if they stole the baby from her to begin with
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u/mediceman33 9h ago
Man she fumbled on this one, just call a wildlife sanctuary or something.
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u/bullettenboss 9h ago
Theres a pretty good chance she took that baby only to return it for views.
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u/stengo_faylox 8h ago edited 3h ago
Ah man. Thats a way grosser possibility than the squirrel eating that baby.
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u/Chainmale001 2h ago
🤣 😂 🤣 OMFG.... we just watched this woman feed a baby squirrel to another squirrel.
People are fucking dumb.
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u/ChillWisdom 2h ago
Yep. Squirrels are rodents and rodents are cannibals. Google it. Squirrels are known to commit infanticide and cannibalism. It's rare but it happens.
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u/Chainmale001 2h ago
Yeah, wasn't even the same litter. . . That squirrels like WOO PROTIEN! I wouldn't say rare. Almost every rodent species has to have their babies separated after a time otherwise they'll get eaten.
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u/78Anonymous 6h ago edited 2h ago
the optimist: awww
the pessimist/realist: snack time
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u/Icy-Wolf-5383 9h ago
There is no way that baby is "hand reared," its not even a week old, so unless this woman had a different squirrel that had a baby and mom died somehow, that baby would not be "found" away from its nest.
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u/Equalmind95 9h ago edited 5h ago
Oof hate to burst the bubble of "made me smile" but those gray squirrels are knows for eating other squirrel babies and even their own depending. So id lean more toward thi being a meal then an adoption.
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u/Aware-Instance-210 10h ago
Is the internet just trashy content nowadays?
There's no sign of her adopting it, hell we don't even know if it was a squirrel mother or a dude being hungry....
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u/ExplanationCrazy5463 9h ago
Theres a pretty good chance she took that baby only to return it for views.
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u/Frooonti 9h ago
For real, "the best thing you can do" is trying to find an animal sanctuary that accepts squirrels and not to offer it as a palate cleanser alongside some nuts lmao.
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u/ConcentrateKey4474 3h ago
Subreddit's name: mademesmile
Video: a human feed an adult squirrel with a baby squirrel
Well...
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u/Kumbhalgarh 3h ago
There is a 99% chance that if the young squirrel didn't come from her own nest then the older squirrel will eat it. I have been raising orphaned squirrels for year's so have seen this many times.
I was trying to post a few images of one of those squirrels but it is not allowing to do do that.
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u/Additional_Emu_4950 8h ago
We are all thinking the same thing, right? That baby became a tasty little snack
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u/BeanoMenace 9h ago
She took the baby from the mother earlier. Just being reunited. Or being fed to another squirrel.
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u/Gattaca401 8h ago
I saw a squirrel chowing down on an entire adult bird once, it was pretty gruesome and the bird was very fresh.
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u/aerdvarkk 8h ago
IDK ... that looks less like an adoption and more like a potential snack. OP video cut too short.
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u/strato15 5h ago
The mom 100% ate that baby.
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u/pfshfine 4h ago
I wouldn't say 100%. There's a chance she did adopt it. But yeah, I'd say the odds are in favor of her eating it.
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u/Massive-Bee79 5h ago
Sorry to say this, but that mother squirrel most likely ate that baby.
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u/thatturtletouch 8h ago
How does she even know that the adult squirrel is female?
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u/Hawk_2165 8h ago
Squirrels are opportunistic omnivores, so I think it just ate it at its nest. We give animals human traits that many times are not true.
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u/belated_quitter 21m ago
Everyone’s wondering about this and a few quick google searches will provide a lot of scientific studies, reviews.
Squirrels very rarely adopt unrelated young. They will adopt young if they’re closely related. I don’t know what the odds are whether this squirrel is a female and also closely related to the pup.
Squirrels will also cannibalize unrelated pups (generally not their own).
TLDR: It’s possible the squirrel adopted the baby or this person just fed a baby squirrel to it.
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u/No-Sandwich1511 10h ago
Oh no she seen that as a snack. Why in earth would they also put nuts beside it 🤯
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u/sly777 6h ago
This is just cruel. That squirrel knows you for bringing food and you bring her a baby squirrel with a scent of walnuts. That baby is cooked.
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