So, you’re looking for Pokemon Fire Red squirrels. It sounds like a simple enough search, right? You probably remember seeing a bushy tail darting through the tall grass of Route 1 or maybe you've seen a YouTube thumbnail featuring a bright orange rodent that doesn't look like a Rattata.
Here is the thing. There are no squirrels in Pokemon Fire Red.
Wait. Let me rephrase that. There are no Pokémon explicitly named "Squirrel" or designed to be a literal gray or red squirrel in the Generation III Kanto remakes. If you’re scouring the tall grass near Pallet Town hoping to find a secret Squirrel encounter, you’re going to be looking for a very long time. It doesn't exist. This is one of those classic Mandela Effect situations, mixed with some very specific early-2000s ROM hack culture that has muddied the waters for years.
The Squirtle Confusion and the "Squirrel" Myth
The most obvious reason people search for Pokemon Fire Red squirrels is actually a linguistic one. Look at the name Squirtle. It’s a portmanteau of "Squir" (from squirrel) and "tle" (from turtle). While Squirtle is fundamentally a turtle, its tail is famously curled and bushy, resembling a squirrel’s tail. This wasn't an accident. Ken Sugimori’s original design for the Squirtle line—specifically Wartortle—leans heavily into Japanese folklore involving the minogame, a turtle that lives so long it grows a tail of seaweed. To Western kids in 2004 playing Fire Red on their GameBoy Advance, that looked like a squirrel tail.
But it goes deeper than just a starter Pokémon’s tail.
The internet in the mid-2000s was a wild west of "Pikablu" rumors and "Mew under the truck" hoaxes. Because Fire Red was a remake of the original 1996 games, people expected new secrets. Rumors circulated on old forums like GameFAQs and Serebii about "secret" regional variants. Some players insisted that if you used a Fire Stone on a Pikachu, you'd get a "Fire Squirrel." They were wrong, obviously. You just get a Raichu. But the search term stuck.
Pachirisu and the Generation Gap
Another reason you might be thinking of Pokemon Fire Red squirrels is that you're mixing up your timelines. Pokémon didn't actually introduce a proper "Squirrel Pokémon" until Generation IV. That’s Pachirisu, the Electric-type squirrel from the Sinnoh region (Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum).
If you grew up playing these games back-to-back, it is incredibly easy to mentally backport Pachirisu into the Kanto region. You might remember catching a small, blue-and-white squirrel and think, "Oh, that was in Fire Red." It wasn't. Fire Red only contains the original 151 Pokémon, plus some Johto evolutions and babies (like Crobat or Pichu) accessible via the Sevii Islands post-game. No Pachirisu. No Greedent. No Emolga.
The World of ROM Hacks and "Squirrels"
If you are 100% certain you saw a squirrel in a game that looked like Fire Red, you were almost certainly playing a ROM hack. This is where the factual "squirrel" presence lives.
For the uninitiated, ROM hacking is when fans take the base engine of a game like Fire Red and completely rewrite the code to add new maps, stories, and Pokémon. One of the most famous tools for this is called Advance Map. Thousands of these hacks exist. Some, like Pokemon Clover or Pokemon Vega, add "Fakemon"—entirely fan-made creatures.
There are also "Extreme Randomizers." If you've watched a Nuzlocke challenge on Twitch or YouTube lately, you’ve seen these. A streamer might be playing Fire Red, but every sprite is swapped with a Pokémon from a later generation. If you see a streamer catching a Skwovet (the Galar squirrel) in the Viridian Forest, they aren't playing a standard copy of Fire Red. They are playing a modified version. This has led to a massive spike in people searching for how to find these creatures in their own legitimate cartridges, only to be disappointed.
Why the Search Persists in 2026
It is fascinating how certain myths refuse to die. Even now, twenty-plus years after the original release of the Kanto remakes, the "Pokemon Fire Red squirrels" query pops up.
A lot of it is driven by AI-generated content and "content farms" that scrape keywords without understanding the context of the game. They see people searching for squirrels and Pokémon, so they generate pages that claim you can find them. It's digital pollution. Honestly, it makes it harder for actual players to find real strategies for the game.
Let's look at the actual "rodents" available in the game, because that’s usually what people are looking for when they want a squirrel-like teammate:
- Rattata/Raticate: The classic. They're rats, obviously. Not squirrels. But they fill that early-game "Normal-type rodent" niche.
- Pikachu: Technically a "Mouse Pokémon," though its design has become so iconic it’s its own thing.
- Sandshrew: Based on a pangolin or an armadillo, but often grouped into the "small brown mammal" category by casual players.
If you want a squirrel, you have to move forward in the timeline. You won't find one in the Kanto of Fire Red or Leaf Green.
🔗 Read more: Why Grand Theft Auto Cheat Codes PS4 Still Matter in 2026
Real Technical Limits of the GBA
We also have to talk about the hardware. The GameBoy Advance was a powerhouse for its time, but it had strict storage limits. A Fire Red ROM is only about 16 megabytes. Game Freak had to be incredibly selective about which Pokémon were included.
At the time of Fire Red's development (around 2003), the concept of "regional forms" didn't exist yet. That didn't happen until Sun and Moon in 2016. Back then, if a Pokémon wasn't in the National Dex of that specific generation, it simply didn't exist in the game's code. There was no DLC. There were no patches. What was on the cartridge was the final version. Since the squirrel-based designs like Pachirisu hadn't been drawn yet, they couldn't be in the game.
How to Get a Squirrel-like Experience in Kanto
If you are dead-set on playing Fire Red but you really want that squirrel "vibe," you have a few options that don't involve chasing ghosts.
First, lean into the Squirtle evolution line. As mentioned, Wartortle is the closest thing to a "Squirrel-Turtle" hybrid in the franchise. Its Japanese name, Kameil, even hints at this more elegant, furred-tail design. To get the most out of a Wartortle, you'll want to focus on a balanced moveset. In Fire Red, the Special/Physical split hadn't happened yet. This means all Water moves are Special and all Normal moves are Physical.
If you’re playing a ROM hack—and let's be real, many people are—you can use tools like PKHeX to inject a squirrel Pokémon from a later generation into your save file. Just know that if the game doesn't have the sprites for a squirrel (like Skwovet) pre-loaded in its data, the game will likely crash or display a "MissingNo" style glitch.
Actionable Steps for Players
If you're currently playing through Fire Red and feeling the itch for a bushy-tailed companion, here is what you should actually do instead of looking for squirrels:
✨ Don't miss: Final Fantasy XVI Characters: Why Clive Rosfield and the Dominants Feel So Different
- Hunt for Pikachu in Viridian Forest: It has a 5% encounter rate. It's the "rare rodent" of the early game and provides the high-speed glass cannon gameplay that squirrel Pokémon usually offer.
- Capture a Meowth on Route 5: While it's a cat, Meowth has the "Pickup" ability in Fire Red. This is a game-changer. It will randomly find items like Rare Candies and Ultra Balls after battles. It provides that "foraging" feel that you’d expect from a squirrel character.
- Visit the Sevii Islands: Once you beat the Cinnabar Island gym, Bill will take you to One Island. This is where the game opens up. While you still won't find squirrels, you will find Pokémon from the Johto region (Gold/Silver/Crystal). This is as "new" as the game gets.
- Check your Version: If you see something in a video that you can't find in your game, check the title screen. If it says "Pokemon Fire Red" but the colors look slightly off or the music is different, it’s a hack. Look for names like Liquid Crystal or Fire Red Omega.
The world of Pokémon is massive, and while Fire Red is a masterpiece of nostalgia, it’s a product of its time. It’s a 2004 remake of a 1996 game. Squirrels just weren't on the menu back then. Stick to the rats and the mice; they've served Kanto trainers well for decades.
To make the most of your Fire Red run, focus on building a team that covers the core types—Fire, Water, Grass, and Electric. Forget the squirrels. Grab a Nidoking. It’s significantly more useful in the long run anyway.