Mona's first squirrel!

Guess what this is?

A squirrel!  My sister's boyfriend shot this critter was was gracious enough to wrap it up and save it for me!  I left in the freezer for about a month, just to kill off any possible parasites, and decided it was finally time to give Mona her first taste of squirrel.

I'd never skinned a squirrel, and only remembered vaguely about another raw feeder's explanation of skinning a feeder guinea pig, so when it came to skinning it, I just had to wing it.  Turns out, there are much easier ways than what I did, but I managed!

I left the tail on simply so I had something to pick it up by.  Plus I was curious to see what Mona would think. :)

This was our first actual whole prey meal, and I was excited to see what Mona thought of it.  It took her quite a while before she decided to really get going on it.  Once she did, though, she seemed to really like it!  She went for a head-first approach, and ate the whole head off in about 15 minutes.  At first, it appeared as if she'd eaten the ENTIRE head.  However, once I got a closer look, I found that she'd carefully spit out all 4 of the large front incisors and attached molars.  Not sure how she managed that, but I was impressed!

When she'd finished with the head, she did as she always does and buried the rest of her food:

Couldn't help but laugh at the tail sticking out.  :)

She ate on that squirrel for 4 days... The head one day, front limbs/chest the next, then the midsection, and finally the back legs.  I think in the future she'll eat it a little more quickly, now that she's figured out what she's doing.  Hopefully I'll be able to get more squirrels in the future.  I've also been making friends with a rabbit breeder who said he'd bring me a rabbit to try (already skinned, thankfully!).  I'm really looking forward to more whole prey meals!