Animal of the Week - Bill the Ground Squirrel

As I have been going bunny mad this week I thought I ought to do a different animal for "Animal Of The Week"


"I can't talk I'm eating!" 

So this week's feature is the very lovely Bill who is a Richardson Ground Squirrel. Ground squirrels are found in quite a few different countries however mainly from the prairies of Mid-West USA. Bill has came to us about four years ago along with another one. At first it was thought they were both males so they were named Bill and Ben. It came apparent shortly after that Ben was a girl so she was renamed Belle - that seems to happen with our animals :)




"YUM YUM!"

Bill is one of my favourite non- bunny animals that we have but does not come out much as he needs close monitoring. I try to get him out as much as possible otherwise he is in his cage for long periods of time. Male ground squirrels are quite solitary and happy to live on their own, while female's prefer to live in groups. Sadly Belle died a couple of years ago but Bill continues to thrive and is getting towards the top end of his age which is 4-5 years old. In the USA they are known as gophers and they are great characters. Technically they are herbivores but do like the odd insect or two.





"Move away from my mealworms"