She’s about 5 inches long, and 3 inches more if you add her scruffy tail. (In fact, for a while they called her Hoover, like the vacuum cleaner, but the name Chippie is the one that stuck.) On the very next day, she ate out of Grammy’s hand, and before long, was jumping up on their laps for the seeds they piled up there.Ĭhippie is an Eastern chipmunk and a member of the squirrel family but much smaller than a squirrel. Sure enough, the chipmunk came up to the chairs and started vacuuming up seeds. “Why don’t we place some sunflower seeds close to where we sit and see if she comes?” Grammy suggested. The local squirrels rummage around to eat the seeds, but one day in June, Bop and Grammy noticed a different visitor, a little striped rodent who was on the deck zipping back and forth getting seeds. So, how were Marcus’ grandparents able to tame a wild chipmunk? It started on their deck, where they work in warm weather and where they’ve hung a few bird feeders. I’d like to have her be my pet inside but it’s better for her to be outside in the woods,” he says. You can imagine how excited Marcus was when he got to feed Chippie from his hand.
![chipmunk pet chipmunk pet](https://www.for-sale.co.uk/sh-img/hqdefault_pet%2Bchipmunk.jpg)
![chipmunk pet chipmunk pet](http://photos.demandstudios.com/181/77/fotolia_602737_XS.jpg)
And while she’s busy stuffing her cheeks with black sunflower seeds, they can gently stroke her fur.
![chipmunk pet chipmunk pet](https://pixfeeds.com/images/animals/chipmunks/1280-486565590-chipmunk.jpg)
Grammy and Bop, as Marcus calls his grandparents, tamed the little critter to eat out of their hands and jump up on their laps. Most kids have pets like cats, dogs, fish and hamsters, but how many have a pet chipmunk? When eight-year-old Marcus recently visited his grandparents in Fayetteville, he got to feed and pet Chippie.īut Chippie isn’t an indoor pet.