By Mary Lynn Campbell
Thank you for once again joining us here on the primate care site. This time we will be talking about travel cages that will be needed for monkeys as we travel away from our homes. During this post we will not only be talking about cages but we will also be talking about important things you need to know if you choose to travel across state lines with your monkeys.
By Mary Lynn Campbell
Olivia – 5 Weeks Old
Happy New Year From Primate Care. We are excited to start 2018 with a post about monkey toys. All monkeys love toys from the very beginning of their lives. In my book “Living With Monkeys”, which is for sale on our sister site primatestore.com, I wrote about helping baby monkeys to not bite by offering things for them to chew on instead of your fingers, hands and hair. Yes, even your hair can become one of their favorite play things. Monkeys love to chew on everything.
When Bob and I were raising Silly Willy and he started to put his mouth on us, I knew it was time to offer him something to put his mouth on instead of us. Baby monkeys are not able to hold extremely large toys, so I went through the house and gathered things that I felt would fit into his small hands and then put small dishes full of these things into the rooms of the house that he was taken into.
The things that I chose to put into the dishes were things like: plastic Bic pen tops, medium size springs, medium size washers, large paper clips, medium key rings, plastic rings that are used to hang toys on baby cribs, plastic coke bottle caps, milk bottle caps, and any other small safe things that I could find. Of course, I washed these toys frequently to ensure that they were safe for my little guy.
I have also learned from many other monkey caregivers that some babies come with even more of a “mouthy problem” than Silly Willy came with and that their monkeys chose to put their mouth on everyone’s hands every time their baby monkey was being handle
. I know this must be a challenging behavior as a caregiver is trying to train their baby monkey to not do this. Due to this being such a problem, the little ones will become very hard to deal with when languaging with them using the word ‘NO’ so often.
By Mary Lynn Campbell
“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.
By Mary Lynn Campbell
“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.”
By Mary Lynn Campbell
Sissy Lou-La-La
Welcome friends to the Primate Care site. This month we will be talking about the issue of training. I certainly do not call myself a trainer but there are many others who do now in the world of monkeys. It is my opinion that you must first teach and (might I add the word demand) “Monkey Manners Training” before you can begin to train your monkey to do other things such as tricks.
Many years ago, I purchased my first dog. She had been sold back to the pet shop due to the owners having to move, and they could not take her. She was a wild little thing and had not been shown any manners at all. I was so excited to have my very own little Yorkie. She and my husband hit it off first thing and he started teaching her to jump from the floor to get a piece of cheese from his mouth and I of course, demanded that she learn how to go outside to do her business and to calm down and learn how to be held.
By Mary Lynn Campbell
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.
By Mary Lynn Campbell
In last month’s post for Primate Care, I began talking more about having a “A Monkey Caregiver’s Journal.” Therefore, I thought that it would be a good idea to devote an entire post to this very important tool. This is not only a great thing for you to have but it could be a special gift to someone else if they needed to be your monkey’s caregiver.
I can now see how important it can be to have one of these due to having monkeys who have come to me as rehomed monkeys. It would be wonderful to just be able to open a journal and have a record of many details about the earlier years of their lives. This type of tool would be worth it’s weight in gold to me because without it many times I must start blind in learning about my newest members of the troop.
So, now let us go to the list about what things would be helpful to put into “A Monkey Caregiver’s Journal.”
By Mary Lynn Campbell
Opie ( age 11) – this monkey asked to not be spoken about in this post due to her “very nutty behaviors.”
When I think of “nutty monkeys” many memories from the past 27 years come floating across my mind. Oh, the stories I could tell! We will also be talking about toys in this post too. But before we get to some important information about toys, I feel that the rest of the story about Casper from my last posting here on the Primate Care Site, would be the first story to start with for this posting.
By Mary Lynn Campbell
Silly Willy ( 9 weeks old)
The star of the “Living With Monkey” books
Hi, everyone, well, here it is, the long awaited posting on the Primate Care site that will tell you if you need to add another monkey into your home. Yes, I, Mary Lynn, actually have the answer for all of you who are struggling with your decision.
I wish I could take credit for what I am about to say but I cannot do it. This was not my idea at all, it actually belongs to another experienced monkey caregiver who has added many different types of monkeys into her life and into the life of her troop.
By Mary Lynn Campbell
Enjoying little Cheech (age 43)
This is the first posting of our “Special Topics” here at Primate Care. I was drawn to write about this topic due to the fact that I am now living with three older monkeys of my own. One of them is a soon to be twenty year old Common Marmoset, and I have a thirty-three year old Black-Cap Capuchin and then the oldest monkey in my troop is a Paraguayan Capuchin that is around forty-three. Much of my experience for the past 27 years has been with receiving monkeys who have been younger monkeys.