We are now working with two subspecies of the Tuft-Eared squirrels(Sciurus vulgarus). The brown phase pictured is the European variety and the white or light smoke gray one is the Russian subspecies. The subspecies on the Russian is unknown at this point. The European variety come chocolate brown with white as shown and a variety of other color mixes. They range from a solid brown to a solid white and some being a black phase. We feed a variety of fruits and vegetables. We feed oranges, cored apples, rodents blocks, squirrel diet and mixed unshelled nuts. The nuts are pecans, walnuts, and almonds. The tuft-Eared squirrel is a awesome looking animal as you can see. The characteristics of the squirrels is pretty funny too. When mad they stomp with all four feet and chatter at you as if scolding you. Cage size; we keep our pairs in cages 9 foot tall, 6 foot long and 4 foot wide. We attach a box of my own design with three compartments all having a separate entrance. We have found that you either have to feed on top of the box or on a elevated shelf. These animals do not like to go to the ground to eat. They also need to have several shelf's partially hid from view to sit on. As these are our first ones we assume they will become calmer as time goes. I think hand raised babies will be the key here. Our Russians love to be rubbed but not picked up. in fact I carried our Russian Male into a school and with hundreds of children walking by he was quite calm. We are hoping to have babies of both sub species this spring.

Pic on the left is an unknown Russian subspecies. Right pic is brown phase of the European tuft-ear squirrel.