Month: August 2017

By Mary Lynn Campbell

neck collar capuchin
“Leroy” (age 17) is “Sissy Lou La-La’s” new boyfriend

This topic is a very important one for all monkey caregivers to know about. Many of you may feel pulled by other people’s beliefs or opinions about what is the right way for you to tether your monkey for safety.

Networking on Facebook groups and other internet networks is absolutely wonderful for learning about how other monkey owners live with their monkeys but when it comes to a controversial subject like this, the lines can be drawn by judgments and opinions. It is my job to give you the facts about this subject so you can draw your own conclusions.

So, with your flexible mind I ask you to bear with me as I give you true facts and stories that will help you gain the information that you will need for making your own decisions about your monkey’s safety equipment. So, let’s begin our journey into this “Special Topic.”

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By Janice Metzger

monkey_diet

Feeding a nonhuman primate can be complicated. How many biscuits should you feed? What kind of vegetables? Are they getting enough fiber? What IS fiber?! Am I feeding too much? Am I feeding enough? It’s no wonder that most of the questions we primate owners have about caring for our monkeys are related to diet.

Mazuri, a leading manufacturer of commercial primate diets, recommends that 50% of the primate diet be made up of biscuits and the other 50% made up of everything else that our monkey eats; such as vegetables, fruits, browse, nuts, proteins, etc. BUT, animal diets are always measured by weight, not by volume. To make this even more difficult, foods are measured on a dry weight basis. This means that you must calculate what the food weighs minus the moisture, or water content, in the food. There are numerous complicated formulas for doing this, but most of us in private ownership do not have access to this information. So, what do we do?

Fortunately for us, Mazuri recently published a shortcut on their website that can be calculated easily with a kitchen scale. Mazuri recommends a diet of 30% biscuits, 70% other foods by actual weight (not dry weight). This shortcut considers that vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, proteins and browse have a higher water content than dry biscuits. So, if we were to somehow squeeze all the water out of a diet of 30% biscuits/70% other foods, the result would be a diet that is approximately 50% biscuits and 50% other foods by dry weight, the industry standard.

Still confused? Are you pulling your hair out and screaming, “JUST SHOW ME HOW TO FEED MY MONKEY!”?

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