By Mary Lynn Campbell

lostmonkey

In this posting about “Safety First” we are once again talking about a topic that has a lot of emotional charge to it. There have been many times in my life that I have picked up the phone, or gone on line and read on Facebook that a monkey has gotten away. So let’s get started with some important information that could be very helpful for you or someone who you know that has a monkey that has gotten away.

I would like to think that because of my experience with this issue that this is one reason I have always been successful with getting a monkey back when it has gotten away. However, I know that it is not always the case with many people that I know.

There have been stories of monkeys getting out and being run over by cars on city streets and then others have been killed by dogs. There have been stories of people who have chased after monkeys for several days with them scampering away just as they were about to be caught. I even know a story of someone that got a call about their monkey being found and returned after 6 months.

Many of the above stories were in subdivisions, country settings, apartments and even some have been in the tropical forest and heavy vegetation around Florida. Monkey escapes can happen in all different types of living areas or types of accommodations that we are keeping our monkeys in. I think that it might be the best thing to start this “Safety First” subject by asking yourself some very important questions.

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By Mary Lynn Campbell

Monkey Stolen

Of course, we are still talking about “Safety First” in yet another posting. When I type the words (a monkey is stolen) it makes me have a sinking feeling in my heart. This is a subject that I do not like to talk about but it is yet another part of the “Safety First” topic that needs to be covered thoroughly. So let’s begin.

Recently, in the monkey circles on Facebook there was a family that had someone break into their home while everyone was gone, and take their young baby monkey. This actually was what prompted me to begin my first posting about becoming a “Safety First” type of monkey caregiver, here on the Primate Care site. It is important to us monkey caregivers to have well thought out plans formed in our minds if something devastating takes place with our monkeys.

I am so happy to report that the outcome was wonderful for this little monkey and it’s family. They used good judgment and choose to instantly kick into action upon finding the monkey was missing from it’s cage. They did many of the same things that will be listed here on our list. This story touched my heart and soul.

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By Mary Lynn Campbell

maggiewithcapuchins

We as monkey caregivers must live everyday with the knowledge that safety is the most important thing to be aware of with our monkeys. In choosing to follow Safety First monkey care-giving, when you are away from your home with your monkey, you will be able to relax and enjoy your time with your friends and family. I have found that peace of mind when it comes to monkeys is something that I must have at all times. So, it is very important for me to make plans ahead of time in order to know what I would do in case of a real emergency; such as a monkey is stolen, or one escapes, or even an accident, such as a bite or scratch happens involving another person.

A motto that I live by is to always choose to think about Safety First when planning the events or outings that I will be attending. These are just a few of the questions that I will ask myself before I say yes to taking the monkeys out: Is this okay to do with my monkeys? Will their safety be in prosody? Will anyone else be put in danger with what I am planning to do with my monkey? Will the temperatures be acceptable? Will there be pets that are not tethered?

The following information will always be here on this site for you and your loved ones to access if one of the above listed events takes place with your monkey. These are suggestions, of course, but I do know they have been tried and tested many times with a lot of people that have had to respond quickly to monkey emergencies.

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By Mary Lynn Campbell

maggiewithcapuchins

Due to the recent changes with the rules and regulations in many of our states across the country, the issue of keeping our monkey’s safe and under control has become very important.

When an accident happens and a monkey gets away or when something worse happens, the media is right on the story immediately. It is evidently big news to many but to us as monkey caregivers, we begin to think about what we would do if this happened to our beloved monkey. The next things that enters into our minds is what is another incident going to do to the already challenging situation that we have been dealing with due to fearful people and the activist who are working to push more regulations and changes for us monkey caregivers.

Are you using the proper safety procedures and equipment for your monkey?  Let’s find out!

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By Donna Bandy

Let me start with; before deciding to get a ring-tailed lemur or any Primate for that matter, please check the laws in your state as well as the county you dwell in to be sure it is legal to have one where you live.

I NEVER leave my primates alone ever.  If I need to go somewhere without them, then my husband watches them and if something requires my husband and I to be there together, then we have a very close experienced friend that is family to us, babysit them for us.  We bring them to her and pick them up when we are done doing what we had to do.  And a baby, never leave them.  I have cancelled important appointments when we first got Rocky, because he was in no way at a point as to me being able to leave him with anyone and hasn’t been fully ready now either, but we have done it twice recently and the first time he did call for me at first and then settled down, but he did do a Panic Poop.

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By Donna Bandy

We got our first ring-tailed lemur Rocky 11 1/2 mos. ago, but before getting him, I learned a lot from a couple friends that have them and did a lot of research on them and amp-ted up my research and notes the closer I got to getting Rocky. Everyone kept telling me to get a male and not a female because the females are the dominate of the troop with lemurs. I already knew I wanted a boy anyways, however if my mind had of been set on a female, then a female is what I would have gotten. From all my many years of working with and training domestic and exotic animals, I already knew not to listen to that reasoning, for me, because I already know how to deal with those types of behaviors with dominant males and females.

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Experienced primate owners like Donna often come up with special recipes where they integrate monkey chow directly into the recipe since they know how important these biscuits are for their monkeys.  This recipe contains a bunch of healthy ingredients that most primates are sure to love. Donna’s monkeys love these veggie squares and we’re pretty excited she allowed us to share this recipe with the rest of the monkey community.  Let’s find out how to make these tasteful Bandy Boys Pumpkin Spice Veggie Delight Biscuits.  Thanks Donna!

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Looking to “Mix” things up in your monkey’s diet?  This is a smoothie mix for your monkeys or you could even make this into popsicles and give this to your monkeys on a hot day or as a treat. You can get the plastic popsicle containers from the dollar store and our monkeys love them because they have a plastic handle they can hold on to and it keeps their hands from getting cold.

Thank you Winona for sharing!

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One of my favorite topics to talk about is primate enrichment.  In the wild primates spent a lot of time hunting for food.  As a matter of fact, that is how they mainly keep themselves busy during the day so why not try to mimic this behavior in our homes?   The design above is my own creation but it is based on the design of several others that I’ve seen over the years.  Some people prefer to use plastic drinking cups but to make this enrichment unit virtual indestructible, I decided to use pipe caps.  I had to make some tweaks along the way but am pretty happy with the end-result.   I’ve been using these primate enrichment cups with my capuchin for several months now and he loves it.  It’s fairly easy to make, so let’s get started!

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Monkey Chow

Are you feeding your monkey a commercial primate diet?  If you don’t, you really should because it contains all the necessary ingredients to keep your primate healthy.   The most popular primate diets are made by Zupreem and Mazuri.   The primate dry food shown above is also often referred to in the primate world as monkey chow.  Many primate owners soak their biscuits in juice to make them more interesting for their primate but if you’re still having a hard time feeding these essential biscuits to your primate(s), maybe it’s time to make some monkey cookies.  Listed below we have several recipes for monkey cookies that are sure to be a hit with your monkey.  Thank you Eva and Donna for sending these in!

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