Category: living with monkeys

A Very Special Re-Homing Story – by Mary Lynn Campbell

capuchin monkey with children

Welcome back to the Primate Care Site. We hope that you and your families have been able to remain healthy during this world pandemic. Although I have not been able to resume taking the monkeys of SunShine MonkeyShines out to local schools and birthday parties, I have been very busy networking with many of you who have needed help with your monkeys. This site has provided me with an ability to network with many monkey families all around the world. I thought it would be a wonderful time to share the story of one of these families unique experience with giving a home to two Capuchin monkeys.

Soon after writing my last post, I was contacted by someone from South America whose family in earlier years had been active in caring many of the smaller primate species. As we all know, in South America their are many different types of primates living on that continent. I hope you will enjoy hearing this story from a part of the world where New World Monkeys are actually born into wild troops.

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By Mary Lynn Campbell

capuchin monkey hugs

Welcome to the Primate Care Site once again. This is such a great question for us families who are not only living during such trying times with our family members, but who are also living with monkeys. I hope some of the following thoughts might help many of you cope a little easier with the issues of stress.

If someone were to send us a multiple answer questionnaire about how we are coping with the levels of stress we are living under, I believe most of us would need to mark many of the questions with the answer of high or medium. One moment I am doing great living the stay at home lifestyle and then I will see an update of the number of virus cases that have increased in the last week or maybe I have opened up Facebook and in my scrolling I come across a headline that says, “Women Receives Flowers From A Florist Delivery Person And Gets The Covid-19 Virus.”

It is almost addicting at times the way we seem to read one story after another about what people are experiencing with this virus. It is one thing for us to stay current on things that are happening in our world but it is quite another thing when we begin to feel pulled into not being balanced with what we are reading about. On the other hand, I wonder what the real truth is anymore when I do start to listen or read anything lately. Since I have begun to feel this way I today am making a new rule that I am going to add to my already huge list of rules. I am choosing to start limiting the time I spend reading and listening to things about the virus.

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By Mary Lynn Campbell
lisa and opie capuchin
Lisa Covington With Her Monkey “Tiki”

This is a post that I have wanted to write about for a very long time. My pathway with living with monkeys has been different from many others. Therefore, I have actually very limited experience with living with only one of them. My first monkey was only with me for 6 short months prior to receiving my second one.

After receiving my first monkey named Penny, I started acquiring monkeys, one, two, three, four, five, etc. I suppose it was meant to become another part of my journey with having them. I can truly say that this was not at all what I planned to do, but they started coming. Now I certainly can see how important it was for me to learn from having several monkeys in my life and being able to share my life experiences. My mission definitely evolved into a deep need to understand these special creatures that God had sent into my life.

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By Mary Lynn Campbell

capuching at vets office
Willy, Myself and Dr. David Ratliff DVM

This is a post that I wanted to share from my wonderful retired vet, Dr. David Ratliff, DVM from Sevierville, Tennessee.

“My name is Dr.David Ratliff. I am a retired veterinarian who has cared for many monkeys in my career. Please use extreme caution with your monkeys while this virus is circulating. Honestly we do not know just how species specific the COVID-19 is at this point. However, the primate community would be the most likely place for the virus to jump from human back into animals. Out of an abundance of caution, it is recommended that those ill with COVID-19 limit contact with animals until more information is known about the virus. Have another member of your household take care of walking, feeding, and playing with your pet. If you have a service animal or you must care for your pet, then wear a facemask; don’t share food, kiss, or hug them; and wash your hands before and after any contact with them. Currently macaques, marmosets, and African green monkeys are being tested as research models along with the SARS mice model and ferrets. “

Thank you Dr Ratliff for continuing to care about our beloved monkeys.

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By Mary Lynn Campbell

capuchin toddler
Silly Willy (age 3)

Welcome once again to the primate care site.  The creator of this site and I are both very passionate about helping other monkey enthusiasts to gain good information on becoming great monkey caregivers.

Although we’re one of the oldest sites out there regarding primate care, we’re just one of the many available resources regarding the care for primates.  About thirty years ago, when I first became a monkey caregiver, there were no search engines or Facebook groups to gather intel, and most of the information was passed along by other monkey owners.  In today’s world, information is much more readily available.

Social media has literally changed my life. I realized from the very beginning of adding it into my busy life that there was a big world out there full of other monkey owners. After just a few months of being involved in reading and posting on Facebook, I began enjoying adding other monkey owners to my friends list. Some of them were new to owning a monkey, and then others were like myself trying to make connections with other monkey owners. Before I knew it, I had several hundred friends and I was added to many of the groups that offer help with diet, monkey enrichment ideas, and of course, information about the day to day living with monkeys.

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By Mary Lynn Campbell

expensive monkeys
Leroy (18 years old) is a happy monkey in his special space.

Welcome once again to the Primate Care site. In my last post I spoke about toys and many of the safety issues surrounding using them for monkeys. I wanted to speak more about building a safe and happy place for your monkey but first I am writing about the importance of setting up an extra savings account for your monkey.

This special account will allow you to comfortably cover vet bills and other important needs that will arise for your baby monkey in the months and years that follow. We as monkey caregivers seem to experience many of the same things that parents of human children do. We begin to get all excited about our new monkey coming and begin to collect toys, diapers, diaper covers, clothes, monkey bottles and blankets, and of course, their travel cage and then their play cage.

Many of you who will be getting a monkey may already be part of a group of monkey caregivers, or have a friend that has a monkey or you may be choosing to get your information about caring for a monkey from this site.

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By Mary Lynn Campbell

monkeys in captivity
“Silly Willy” (age 14 weeks)

Welcome once again to this month’s post on the Primate Care Site. This “Special Topic” is an important subject for us to discuss due to the extreme number of monkeys who are loosing their lives every year to either a sickness or by a life taking accident. We will try to explore some of the reasons why this seems to be happening throughout the monkey owners community.

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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 Mary Lynn Campbell

opie rehomed capuchin

The story that you are about to read is an amazing story which we people who have been rehomers of monkeys could only dream about happening. We hope that it will give all of you a reason to not only learn more about becoming a caregiver of a rehomed monkey, but also to help you understand more about these wonderful creatures ability to love unconditionally as we humans do.

Let’s begin our story with a list.
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By Mary Lynn Campbell

chewie common marmoset pictures

I spent the last part of this year trying to not only run a “Hospice-care” for my beloved Chewie, but to also try to prepare myself for loosing him. I hope after reading this “Special Topic” and seeing the photos, that you will know (without a doubt) it was truly a wonderful experience to have him in my life.

I am very thankful for this set of photos. We had so much fun together. He loved to have his special “brush-you” time during each show and of course his very special “mirror” time. Even with his smallness he knew he was the “special star” of the SunShine MonkeyShine’s presentations. I must also add that he knew he was the boss of the troop of Capuchin monkeys as well! He grew to love my troop of monkeys and I feel that his love for the troop made him wish to stay with us as long as he possibly could.

Chewie was not always called my little monkey but I did know him for his entire life. The years that we were with each other were so very special as I am sure you can see from the photos that I am sharing. When he was with us for our presentations, he was chosen by many as their favorite monkey that was there for the special event.

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