Chocoholic squirrel steals treats from shop

[Shammu]

Chocoholic squirrel steals treats from shop

Thu Aug 2, 10:44 AM ET

HELSINKI (Reuters) - A Finnish squirrel with a sweet tooth heads to a Finnish grocery shop at least twice a day to steal "Kinder Surprise" chocolate-shelled eggs.

"I named it the Kinder-squirrel, after the treats. It always goes after them, other sweets do not seem to interest it as much," the manager of the store in Jyvaskyla, central Finland, told Reuters.

The confectionary, which is intended for children, has a toy inside.

"It removes the foil carefully, eats the chocolate and leaves the store with the toy," Irene Lindroos said.

Unfortunately, the bushy-tailed thief does not clean up after itself, but leaves the wrappers behind, she added.

Squirrels have a well deserved reputation for being clever and adaptable animals. Many a home owner has seen the small rodents raiding their supposedly "squirrel-proof" bird feeders.

Chocoholic squirrel steals treats from shop

[Shammu]

Look out the squirrels are at it again...........

Is that chocolate I see??




Yummmmmmmmmmm!!!!

[Soldier4Christ]

I think this is a squirrelly situation.

[Soldier4Christ]

It looks like he got too much chocolate.

[Shammu]

[Soldier4Christ]

Where's the white chocolate?

[nChrist]

          ROFL! - Thanks, I needed this laugh.

I love to feed and watch squirrels. That reminds me to fill up my feeder. I feed mine of mixture of seeds and yellow corn. It's funny how some of the little ones actually eat so much of the corn that parts of them turn yellow. I know this sounds funny, but I don't know of any other reason for some of the lighter parts to turn yellow. I just love to watch them and make sure that they have plenty to eat and water to drink. I have a squirrel feeder box with a lid on it. They have to open the lid to eat the contents, and they learn that REAL QUICK!

Consider the pictures snagged.   

[Debp]

Look out the squirrels are at it again...........

Cute story!!  And love all of the photos.

That reminds me....here in California, the squirrels got into archaelogy about a month ago.  (I remember we had another topic going about how diverse their talents are.)

Apparently they dug up some artifacts in a place where no one has been allowed to excavate.  (I think because it was part of Native American grounds.)  So now we have little archeologist squirrels, too!   

[nChrist]

Hello Debp,

    Squirrels remind me of the old show, "The Little Rascals". They get into everything, and they are a ton of fun to watch. They are very inventive in terms of getting into things, and they are determined little rascals, especially if it involves food. I remember the first day I brought my squirrel feeder home. I was afraid they wouldn't be able to get into it. WOW! - Was I wrong. I think it took all of 5 minutes, and we had a gang of squirrels taking turns getting into the feeding box. It was especially fun to watch the little ones. Some of them climbed all the way inside the box so they wouldn't have to stand on their tip-toes over and over again to open the lid. One can get a pretty big bag of squirrel food for several dollars, and the entertainment is well worth it. Some of them get greedy and can't carry off all they try to get. As a result, some always falls on the ground, and the birds appreciate that. You'd be surprised how many beautiful birds will also come if you leave out the proper food and some water.

[Soldier4Christ]

My dog (Buster) loves small animals. He wants to play with them as if they were another small dog. My gran daughter has a hamster she puts inside a plastic ball so it can run around the house.He usually follows the hamster around and frees it when it gets stuck on something if he can. It got stuck under the edge of the bed and Buster couldn't free it so he barked and ran between us and the hamster until we freed it.  We also have squirrels that we feed outside. Buster wants to play with them also but the squirrels don't trust him so they stay just outside of the reach of his chain and torment him by running back and forth sometimes coming up just within his reach. When he goes towards them they run off a little ways and sit down looking back at him while he hits the end of the chain and falls down. Yes it does remind me of Foghorn Leghorn and Barnyard Dawg.

[Jon-Marc]

When I first read the title, I saw CHOCOLATE instead of chocoholic and wondered how a chocolate squirrel could steal anything. I have learned that squirrels are very clever at getting into bird feeders. There's no such thing as squirrel proof. I learned not to hang them from a tree, or anything that they can climb. I hung a bird feeder from a long hook on my porch and saw a squirrel climb the wooden post on the porch and stretch across to reach the feeder. In doing so he/she managed to damage the feeder.

[nChrist]

Reading this just reminded me of an Australian Shepherd that I used to have. The squirrels drove him almost crazy. He wasn't on a chain, and they loved to make him run around and around the trees. The squirrels even made noises like they were laughing at him. The trees were two big cottonwoods, and I know that the squirrels have a nest in at least one of them. Max was the name of my poor, squirrel tormented dog, and Max got so upset with them that he started attacking the trees. He actually bit through the bark in numerous places, and those rascal squirrels knew exactly how high he could jump.

I quit worrying about trying to specifically feed the birds. I buy feed that works for squirrels and birds. The squirrels make enough of a mess to take care of the birds. I buy mine at Wal-Mart, and the big bags marked squirrel food are much cheaper than anything labeled as bird feed. In fact, the bird feed is pretty expensive. I think that the only difference is that it's limited to smaller seeds. Most birds and squirrels will gladly eat the same thing, and it's much cheaper. I really don't know why feed marked for birds is so much more expensive.

[Soldier4Christ]

Maybe the bird feed is injected with air so they can fly better.   

I get a lot of my squirrel feed straight from the farmers fields. When it comes harvest time there is always some that gets left behind and the farmers let me have some of that, especially from the corn fields. I also get various nuts from different trees here. My brother has walnuts in his back yard and even though there are a lot of squirrels there, too he always has to pick a lot of them up come spring time.

We also throw out some old unsalted peanuts and already popped unsalted, unbuttered popcorn. The birds love that, too. We have a duck family that comes around each day for the popcorn.

[Debp]

Hello Debp,

    Squirrels remind me of the old show, "The Little Rascals". They get into everything, and they are a ton of fun to watch. They are very inventive in terms of getting into things, and they are determined little rascals, especially if it involves food. I remember the first day I brought my squirrel feeder home. I was afraid they wouldn't be able to get into it. WOW! - Was I wrong. I think it took all of 5 minutes, and we had a gang of squirrels taking turns getting into the feeding box. It was especially fun to watch the little ones. Some of them climbed all the way inside the box so they wouldn't have to stand on their tip-toes over and over again to open the lid. One can get a pretty big bag of squirrel food for several dollars, and the entertainment is well worth it. Some of them get greedy and can't carry off all they try to get. As a result, some always falls on the ground, and the birds appreciate that. You'd be surprised how many beautiful birds will also come if you leave out the proper food and some water.

That sounds wonderful, something I would enjoy.  (I'm in an apartment building and just have my flowers on the patio.  I rarely see a squirrel and never on the patio, as it's contained.  The birds don't fly in either.)

When I was a child back in PA, I fed one squirrel that jumped up on my hand and ran around the back of my neck and down the other arm....when he got on my other hand, I shook it and got a scratch.  I didn't realize not to shake my hand to get him off since I was pretty young.  Got some iodine on the scratch and was ok.

At the next place we lived in PA, I threw peanuts out of the window for them, especially in the winter.  Also, fed the birds this way....the Cardinals were so pretty.  And, of course, the Robins in Spring and Summer.

[Debp]

My dog (Buster) loves small animals. He wants to play with them as if they were another small dog. My gran daughter has a hamster she puts inside a plastic ball so it can run around the house.He usually follows the hamster around and frees it when it gets stuck on something if he can. It got stuck under the edge of the bed and Buster couldn't free it so he barked and ran between us and the hamster until we freed it.  We also have squirrels that we feed outside. Buster wants to play with them also but the squirrels don't trust him so they stay just outside of the reach of his chain and torment him by running back and forth sometimes coming up just within his reach. When he goes towards them they run off a little ways and sit down looking back at him while he hits the end of the chain and falls down. Yes it does remind me of Foghorn Leghorn and Barnyard Dawg.

Sounds like quite a fun show with Buster, the hamster and the squirrels!!  And imagine getting your feed straight from the farmer's!!  Sounds great.