Category: housing

By Janice Metzger

bamboo browse primate diet

“Browse”, as it relates to primate diets, is plant material such as leaves, vines, berries, twigs and even branches. Wild-living primates consume many types of plant materials that are native to the regions in which they live. Browse is an important part of our captive-living primates’ diets as well. Though we do not have access to the native plants of our primates’ ancestral homes, many common plants in the U.S. are suitable to be fed as browse to our primates.

Browse supplies more fiber than even the high-fiber commercial biscuits, and more fiber than many of the vegetables that we feed to our primates. Fiber is an essential element in our primates’ diet as their “gut,” or intestinal tract utilizes fiber to properly digest and metabolize the food they eat. Primates need substantially more fiber in their diets than humans do. Not only does browse supply essential fiber, but is also a source of enrichment as our monkeys explore and manipulate the plant materials; picking the leaves and berries off the stems and stripping the bark from the branches.

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Magnetic Child Lock

Many primate owners allow their monkey to run around in the house for short periods of time since it provides great exercise.  Before doing so, it is important to monkey proof your house as much as possible.

Due to the speed monkeys are able to move, it only takes a few seconds for your monkey to get into trouble so it is important you keep an eye on them at all times.  While it might be very difficult to monkey proof your entire house, you can monkey proof certain rooms.   The only room that is rather hard to monkey proof is the kitchen.   It isn’t the first time a monkey gets burned from the stove top or by leaping into a pot of boiling water.  While the kitchen should truly be of limits, you most certainly should not be cooking while your monkey is in the room.  Many species are able to turn the stove handles so if your monkey is allowed to be in the kitchen, it is recommended you take the handles off and store them in a drawer.

Be carefull with appliance cords.  Your monkey might pull on them and if they get in contact with the current, it will most likely result in death.  It is also recommended to use child proof safety covers where you need to twist the plugin before you can make contact.   If your monkey remains unattended in a room with plugins, it is highly recommended to cover them completely.

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