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Okay so will now try to update with the story as best I can. We picked up The tamandua from the airport Sat night, July 1st. She was claimed to be an 8mth old female. She does seem to be a female but is definatly an adult. I just decided to call her a year so her birthday can be July first. But she has scars that look like they are from fighting with other tamanduas over territory, mites on her ear with additional bumps around the eye and many little scabs which were likely mostly from the fleas she had and some from the wire bottumed crate.
She was all curled up and scared when we first got her crate at the airport. Taking her out of that crate was like pulling an octapuse out of a bottle. She held on with all four legs and tail. We did get her out though and into the soft sided crate thinking she would be more comfortable than the bigger plastic crate we also brought.
I tried offering her food and water then but she wasn't interested. She was a little fensive but did let me touch her some. I gave her one of my socks and she sniffed it really good then curled her tail around it tightly. Mostly she slept on the long drive home but I tried offering her a little jam on my fringer from my sandwich and she sniffed and took my finger in her claws but didn't eat any. She was actualy gentle but was slowly squeezing tighter so removed my hand.
Once home was a different matter. Hyzzie I know didn't help though she was trying to by welcoming the new "puppy" home. She was shooed away then we put Pua up. Her real name is Pŷa Katu. Pŷa is the Tupi word for heart and we agreed to ad the Katu which means good. I used Tupi since Tamandua is Tupi for ant-catcher. However pŷa is pronounced Pua so am just using the pheonetic spelling to make it easy for everyone.
Once she was in her cage she decided it was time to fight back and was lashing at us and everything in her path with those claws so we let her settle in.
Later she found the hammock I made her and slept there. The next day I did give her a quick wash and she discovered the pouch in the hammock and started sleeping mostly inside.
These pics are from the next few nights. She was drinking but not eating so we were real worried but she finaly ate and ate a lot last night and I think her little sneezes are just a varriation of her other snorts and she is talking in her sleep since she seems to just do it while in her bed. she seemed interested in wood and the woodshavings in Jupiter's litter tray so tried giving her some in a box and dumped the meal worms into it. She scattered the shavings and tore the box a bit but I found plenty of meal worms so don't think she ate any. She did try to sleep in the box but kept tossing and turning so put her back in her hammock.
We are thrilled she finaly is eating something and will slowly get her onto all the healthy ingredients she needs. When feeding her she kept checking us out with her claws and sniffing. My fingers even got a few licks. We have been holding the cup up for her when she wakes up. She has tried to climb out on me a couple times.
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