Living with Anteaters

4:55 PM

Okay, more questions. Just two though.

I see Pua doing a lot of finger poking and kneading of hands and arms, but I can't see how she kneads with those huge claws on her front paws. How does she do it without scratching? Has she ever slipped?

Hyzzie looks oblivious to Pua reaching for her...do they ever play fight or wrestle? How did the dogs adjust to an anteater?

4:39 PM

thought I had answered this one.

speaking of nails this post reminded me to trim hers. Well I went right at the big nail and broke the nail clippers! LOL. I'm not sure how much was due to tuff nail and how much was just because they are old. Well time to break down and dig out my dremmel where ever it is and try filing them like I've been threatening to do.

Anyway the big tails were never really sharp the smaller the nail the more of a point it had. Once I trimmed her rear claws they stayed blunt but they were like little cat claws before. The littlest claws on the front have more of tendancey to get pointy but they don't have much strength. So scratching isn't really an issue.

She's very gentle with her claws and knows her own strength. The only time there was an accident was when she was playing on the headboard and leapt onto my head unexpectedly and her big claw grazed my eye. I realized how serious that could have been though and am much more cautious now.

With finger poking the worse it does is pinch a bit if she does it to hard. I think sometimes she does try to make me squirm by poking at my cuticles but it depends on her mood.

No they don't play yet. Hyzzie will try to get Pua to play chase games when they get to be out in the yard but Pua doesn't go for that. Hyzzie did give it a try one night. Pua was playing and waving her arms ar me and having a dual and Hyzzie came up and gently mouthed in the dirrection of Pua's arm.

Pua even groomed Hyzzie one night while both were on my lap but Hyzzie left when she realized it was Pua doing it, lol. Hyzzie for the most part is just jelous of Pua.

When I first got her Hyzzie acted like Pua was her p[uppy, like she does Jupiter. She followed her around and whined when she climbed up on things. She did the same to Jupiter when he'd go up on a high shelf in his cage.

Quasi started off hiding in the closet when I let Pua out. He's fine with her now. He's not a big one for play though. He takes life to seriously. So he tolerates her as a member of the family but there's no affection. He gets along with her better than he does with the cat.

She gets along best with the bunny so far. She goes in his cage to drink his water and Jupiter will lick her back.

2:27 AM

Thanks for answering my many questions!

It's funny, we use a dremel to trim Roscoe's nails. We have to sedate him when we do it; the noise scares him and he's afraid of it near his nails. I'm working on desensitizing him to people touching his paws...he likes having his legs scratched and sometimes I'll scratch his paws, then rub them a bit...which he likes.

Is Pua afraid of the dremel?

Poor Hyzzie. I hope she warms up to Pua.

I saw your picture of Jupiter licking Pua and Pua scratching where Jupiter licked because she didn't know it was Jupiter. Taht was funny. Was she scared when she found out it was Jupiter?

9:36 PM

No she just finds my filing her nails an annoyance and it tickles doing her big ones from the vibrations.

No she did notice Jupiter there but not sure she noticed the connection.

1:54 PM

Hi Mary Faith,

My name is Jessica Hitandegüi Swanson Santiago. I'm president of an environmental group located in the Los Tuxtlas area of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. You can visit our web site at www.dematac.org

Four days ago a very undernourished and weak Tamandua Mexicano was brought to us to care for. We gave him the adopted name is "Dude". Dude apparently was captured in the wild and kept as a pet, and later abandoned. He has no fear of people or animals. I calculate his age to be 8 or 9 months. He is recuperating well and a couple of local vets believe he will be fine with time, although they have little anteater experience. The problem is getting him to eat. We have had to force feed him with a syringe, using a mixture from two of your recipes. He will eat ants and termites outside, but that occupies a considerable amount of time. He seems to have no interest in fruits or honey. He now drinks water from a bowl, but that took 2 days of patient work. I’m contacting you in the hope that you or one of your contacts might have some hints on how to coax him to eat. Any advice you can give will really be appreciated. You can email me at jessie@dematac.org. If you would like to see some pictures and a bit more information on Dude, visit http://dematac.org/TAMANDUA-ENGLISH.html at our web site. I hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks much,

Jessie

2:39 PM

I wouldn't be so sure he was ever a pet they seem to have little fear at that age. Even Pua coming in as an adult wasn't scared of the dogs but was the cat. Also the fact he will eat ants and termites shows he was brought up on his wild food.

First be sure he is worm free. Pua was loaded with worms. More than my vet has ever seen in a culture. She was amazed. That wont help the appetite if he has worms.

At that age you could also try a bottle and see if he might take infant formula make sure whatever type you use is lactose free. Offer it in a bowl as well. If he takes it you can start mixing the food into it and slowly switch.

I've read some can get weaned to a diet by using ground beef over the termites and slowly increasing the amount and slowly switching to a blend. Ground beef seems to be palatable for them. I'd try some termites or ants over the food as well.

Also try milk replacer in a bowl and mix with other things. Pua was very big on the milk replacer at first but seems to have gotten bored with it. Though she wouldn't take that the first few days either. After she decided she liked it she would drink it if made up or mixed in her food then later was good enough to sprinkle some on the food then she just stopped wanting it. She was obviously an adult when we got her so was just a flavor she liked but the young one might just like it too.

She would not eat for several days either and likely hadn't eaten for sometime before getting her. We did syringe some food also but then left her be for a bit. She finally ate a mixture of baby cereal, infant milk, a bit of sugar and a little ground beef. I'll try and dig up the exact recipe. Not the healthiest but was something she would eat.

They do imprint on their food so can be difficult to get them to change. Some wont even eat other species of ants and termites from what they are raised with but Pua will when she finds some. You just need to offer anything you can think of and mixtures of things till one entices it to eat. Especially given the age I think infant formula is the best thing to try. He should still be used to the flavor of milk from his mother. They can not have cow milk though it will make them sick. If you can't get formula but could get some goats milk that would be okay to start.

Pua likes apple cider vinegar as well now and often wont eat her food unless a little is in it. So a bit mixed with something might be worth a try.

Try fruits too. Pua had a few licks of mellon early on and will claw up and eats some fruit sometimes as treats. Even a tomatoe the other night.

I do have a information sharing group that includes other keepers of tamanduas but do not think any had to get theirs eating.http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/xenarthra_keepers/

I know one person who does deal with getting wild ones to eat and will send your message to him along with your email.

Be sure he is kept warm. If he's to cool it will hurt his appetite. They can slow their metabolism down in times of crisis or famine so there is some time though with his being young he will burn his energy more quickly than an adult.

I have read a warm bath helps the appetite as well. It makes Pua pee so may help stimulate everything to get moving.

How much is he being handled. By now he should be held quit a bit. They are used to being with mom all the time. I think that was part of Pua deciding to eat. We let her out to interact with us and she ate, had her out and cuddled more and she was eating more as well.

I know official info claims they are solitary but she really seems to NEED some attention and love.

My email Hyzenthlay.Forsight@gmail.com

3:14 PM

found a letter I had posted of the mix we made that she first agreed to eat. Also it had mentioned the curator at the Belize zoo suggested a little oil once in awhile for the skin and it mentions that but he wasn't any help in getting her to eat. She grew to hate the oil so don't do that now

We are still using the basic mixture my she first ate(we dried the ingredients in a food dehydrator)


1 ea dried and powdered Bannana

2 tbls dried yogurt

1 cup mixed baby cereal

1 tbls Similac(infant formula low or no lactose) ( approx.)

1/4 cup powdered oatmeal

1 tbls powdered suger

1 pinch salt

Then mix with water

(oh also try different temperatures of the food/formula. Pua wont eat warm food she wants it to be ice cold but some could be the other way around or in between.)

But have added some ground cat food and will be adding more and cut out the oat meal and maybe the baby cereal since will be adding flax seed for fiber but she likes the formula flavor. She finaly started excepting honey on it's own and gave her some with some probiotics in it. She also had some kiwi the last couple days and tonight blended up some plums and mixed a couple table spoons of that in booth are high in Vit K. the oil did really help her skin though and was only a couple drops and haven't added any more since so the flax should cover that with the omegas in it once it gets mixed in.