Rats, mice, and ferrets are all pets but we’re leaving the cutest rodent on the table! Why?
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Even when “domesticated”, these animals still largely behave like their wild counterparts. They just become tolerant of humans, perhaps to the point of considering us family, and generally more docile because that’s a trait we wanted. Dogs are just less aggressive wolves that consider us pack members, and they are social animals so it works out nicely. Even a friendly dog that sees a squirrel behaves like any other predator. They just lack practice.
Squirrels… they are bundles of energy looking to escape. Friendly squirrels can be found and a few people have pet squirrels, but they still want to burrow into things, climb up on things using their claws, and find nice hiding spots. That’s their nature, even if your house isn’t going to appreciate that…. and breeding that behaviour out of them will take a LOT of very selective breeding, maybe thousands of years. Who wants to take that job on?
And… what are the benefits of having a pet squirrel?
So, yeah, high effort for low reward. Decision: don’t bother.
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