Living with Anteaters

7/21

I tried giving her a lemon. She clawed right into it but then gave a huff and clawed at her nose, To acidic. Mabye if I mix the juice with something like honey and water or tea. She drinks my iced tea if it has honey in it. Oh I know I could mix lemon honey and infant milk I have from when she used to like it and she might go for that.

I think the food bars are working though. She woke up at a normal time tonight and played with Stewie a normal amount of time. Napped with me. She then bugged me till I gave her her food bar drink then went to eat some more. And then got their blue cheese water too.

I needed to get some more and took a short cut with the new stuff and blended it with water. I thought there was to much water still looked white but didn't smell of blue cheese really but they were still all over it. I had been soaking it in water and pouring the juice off but worried about it spoiling. I got a blender full of blue cheese juice so can freeze some. They got to lick the wrapper too when they first got up.

hbngffffffffffffffffffffffffffc :?

Stewie say's hi, and nearly didn't notice him change the tittle too. That would have looked odd.

Okay Pua is being a piggy tonight. She had some more food bar soup and went back to eat reall food again too.

She also indicated something feels off down there. She pulled my hand to her lower belly to rub. "gently mind you, and not to much, that's enough" *shoves hand away.* Her nipples do feel a wee bit different now and her genitles look a wee bit enlarged

Stewie wants a window hammock

Don't believe he was sleeping?

Hey. What's with the flashing lights

A compromise

tried putting the clothes basket in the window

Sniffing the out doors

Stewie likes to sit in a window and look out but he doesn't like me actually taking him outside. He heads right back for the house.

Stewie plays dead

help I can't get up

What's he thinking?

The headlights made me think of thought bubbles

Checking out his belly

He got daily walks around the ranch on set so he wouldn't pee in the crate but he wasn't thrilled with it. Had to drag him out of the crate then he wanted back in so best to car him off then walk him. He still knew which way was back normaly but could be lead some. He knew what was going on though and would head back once he peed. He did enjoy the part of finding ants when we came across a nest though.

He is just under 11 pounds now and was the same when we first got back he was 9.5 when we left. So he's slowing down on growing it seems. His arms are a bit longer and his but not so fuzzy now.

7/22

If she misses her cycle then I'll talk to the vet about it and see when is best for an ultrasound. Long as she cooperates and doesn't need drugged then it would be nice to do, especialy since she did have the false pregnancy before.

Don't know what to make of tonight. She had time up and playing in my room with Stewie before I let her out and saw her come out of the closet but when I let her out she went right for the farthest corner of the house she could find and let loose a flood of pee. She usualy is really good and most likely to do that when at the point in her cycle to advertise herself. She may just be marking her turf too. Stewie's been doing it but he's a pro, lol. He can be ambling along and leave a tinny puddle with no signs till you see the wet. Otherwise they are like mice and rats and just leave smears but not all the time. I did catch Pua try a couple times before but scooped her up in time and placed her where she should be. Was to late when I picked her up tonight. We know from experience she doesn't stop once she starts so Put her back down.

On the other hand took a lemon minus the peel and blended it up with a big glob of honey, infant milk powder and water. She loved it. Unfortunatly Stewie came to investigate and loved it too. Prying something from one set of tamandua claws is hard enough so they shared half a container of it. I'm going to need a lot more honey. Funny she is loving stuff she didn't like before or had lost intrest in before.

Oh a funny on Stewie. He came and licked the milk off her claws first then investigated her nipples well before he realised she had a containter of it.

A safe place to sleep

No flies bug her in here. Stupid summer bugs. She used to have fly snappping syndrome so the real things really upset her.

Wrestle in the laundry area

Pua begs for blue cheese

She was trying to get in so had her stand then gave her some

Gimme that blue cheese

I smell a treat

I slipped that on trying to get a cute pic and enticed him to stand but he was cheating.

Stewie's monkey impression

Orange plup reward

a treat of orange and some food on his nose

Pua's claws

Looking nice now. They had gotten all out of shape due to trimming. Taking the tips all the time made them the same width the whole length but after time, lots of filing, a little oil and some nature's help they are nice and normal looking again.

Pua got to lick the blue cheese lid

I blended the wedge of blue cheese in water and some settled into a creamy foam on top. They still loved it.

Good to the last lick

I took 8 pictures just to catch one with her tongue out. It moves fast.

Hopeing for more

Instinct says clawing at it might make more appear.

7/23 preggers for sure?

No but am going with the theory that she is as she has a lot of symptoms that say she might be. If she isn't she's playing me and getting special treatment for nothing, lol.

She stopped spotting blood the 11th so if she hasn't had cycle spotting by Aug 11th or a few days after we should be able to assume she is preggers and I'll talk to her vet about it and see when might be best to do an ultrasound. Probably not considered nesissary but since she had the false pregnancy before it will save me months of wondering and torturing myself. Till then I'm discussing the details here but keeping quiet otherwise

He usually wakes up for about an hour each day but today he was up and around for several hours. He's sleeping in tonight.

One photo from last night. Gave him some wood to ocupy him durring our dinner.

He ate he played her ran around the house

He looked out his favorite window in my parent's room, lacking a screen so not in there un watched but he doesn't try to go out

Sleeping in the window sill

Vailed anteater

Afternoon grooming

He did a lot of that, nap, goom, nap groom. Think he thought he could groom the heat out of his fur. Then he finaly gave up and left.

Behind the curtain

Tree Time

My he looks chubby here

Ha poor kid. He's not he's just shaped differently than Pua. His ribs feel nice and firm.

Braving the ground

He came down and decided he wanted to check things out

What was that?

Stewie on the woodpile

Mud is fun

Since he was active and feeling brave decided it was time for him to take his first real hike. He did good since he had lots of practice in Canada on the ranch.

Ambling along

He doesn't get to running like Pua does but he gets to investigate more that way.

He's found ants

he had a lot of false starts licking and clawing where none were but he did find some.

Off the beaten path

Looking for ants

Wanting to climb

A few more ants

A long nap to end a long day

Tamandua Tree Time

7/24

Blue cheese, "no thanks", milk/honey/lemon, "just a sip", food, "nah". And she lost intrest in those food bars once she got tghe milk mix instead.

Hmm okay cider vinegar poured over your food "YES."

Stewie was excited so I held the bottle out. I thought he would think it to acidic strait like Pua. He wanted to drink the whole bottle! LOL. He's trying to raid the vinegar bottle now but that should be an impossible feat the way I have it.

Silly boy every time Pua has some milk he wants some and checks her nipples first then gives her a weird look till he realises she's driking it and not making it.

7/25 with cravings like these

Pua simply MUST be pregnant. Either that or the ants have made a nest in her brain. I think I know my finiky girl pretty well and what she does like, doesn't, or has an occasional taste for. Tonight she ate a raw beef rib, with some help from me.

Was giving the dogs their nightly bones and she wanted to see what I had sure she'd give a insulted disgusted hiss at the offer I held one out to her. She seized onto it clawing and licking away. So much against her will I gave it to Quasi the rightful owner and went and trimmed rib meat into the blender with some water and strained the fiberous bits out. Brought back a full 16 oz container of raw rib soup and she drank nearly the whole thing!

Copycat stewie came and forced his way in and after licking some fat off the sides gave drinking the liquified meat a try. He gave Pua a weird look then drank more. I gave him some in a cup and he said yuck and came back wanting what Pua had. If Pua is eating it then it must be good. So I locked him away till she was done, telling him he wasn't pregnant and doesn't need all the special stuff she does.

Anyway not something she would have lowered her standards to try in the past, (and we did try not ribs but ground beef) much less devore it.

Just had another heaping helping of rib soup

Stewie is sleeping in tonight because he threw a tantrum last night over Pua getting treats he wasn't, so tired himself out. Funny because Pua was up right on time, like they switched places.

Vet finaly called and said found nothing on the slide, was a message so will call tomarrow as he asked how she is. I didn't hound him over the slides since she did stop spotting. Will discuss pregnancy if I get to talk to him since she's drinking rib soup she just has to be.

I'll have to get some buttermilk. She liked that last year and she might decide she likes/craves it again now.

Oh my. I had put her soup away because she came to snuggle but then she went back and after sipping at her food a bit I left then came back and she was in the fridge but clawing at the bag of ribs not after the blue cheese. Those are some serious cravings for something she used to think was gross. She's got her soup again for now.

7/26

Pua made a cliche of herself. I had a cup of vanilla ice cream and she wanted some. Then Stewie needed to have what she was shaving. and Hyzzie too. I didn't get much ice cream, lol. Again Pua would normaly turn her nose up at ice cream. Stewie normaly wouldn't eat ice cream either unless it's like a fruit bar but he wants anything she has.

Now she's eating some of her real dinner topped with blue cheese this is after a whole container of rib soup and some milk/honey/lemon mix and ice cream. She's still 9.5 pounds but if this keeps up should start gaining some weight soon.

She also just showed a new sign she had before during her flase pregnancy but it just just a bit this time. She went under the bed after her ice cream for a bit then went to eat her dinner. She had that behavior of looking for a "place" before though never found one she liked. I will get her a nest box set up soon in her cage and maybe something out here but there is the crate with blankets in it out here. I don't really think she'll use it, based on her practice run, but will offer it just in case.

She also did not like me taking her out of my room to weigh and headed right back in after. She's starting to feel homey.

7/31

LOL. Well Pua now has the closest to morning sickness she'll probably get though I remember when one of my favorite goats was pregnant she got morning sickness. She was normaly the biggest eater and for that time wouldn't eat much and looked misserable. Pua's got the OMG that smells gross thing or the opposite of cravings. I've been giving her, her craving snacks on the wash machine a lot to be away from Stewie who will steal it away or try hard too. She refused to eat there but would on the fridge where there was no bad smell from the washer. Also she refused some treats that were in the little fridge and to her sensitive nose had picked up a bad odar from something else in there. She seems to be getting out of the fat cravings and not want the rib mix so much but more into the infant milk mix now, but without the lemon. Most nights she's not even leaving my room but has gone to check the doors a few times. Last night she asked Stewie to play on m bed but then kept falling asleep during so I was wrestling with him more.

With all Pua's cravings Stewie has gained another pound and is now 11.5 pounds. He's also the moody one since Pua wont play with him as much and she gets those extra goodies and he wants to pig out too. He gets some though.

poor Stewie

He vomited today. It was awful. Pua's never even vomited. She just spits up a little bit of clear stuff with whatever irritant in it, like hair. After he finished and I evaluated him decided on wait and see. I did remember to call leslie just now, a little after the fact I admit, not terribly long just wasn't the first thing I thought off. No answer though they either went to bed early or are out somewhere. Anyway it was awful. He just started making these horrible wretching noises and spewing out white mucuas stuff. Just moments before he had been peacfully sleeping on his back and now he was hanging his head out of the hammock puking. Was getting ready to rush him off to the vet if it dodn't stop but it did.

So foolish as it may seem one of the first things I do is offer a sick animal food, preferably a favorite since if they refuse that you know they feel awful. All he would do was take a little sip of juice. So now that he wasn't wretching any more I got him out of the cage, hammock and all, but he did not cooperate for temperature taking like Pua does so it took two of us. He was 94.6 high compaired to Pua but within normal range for the species sort of a high normal. Never got a normal temp on him and since he didn't do well with the procedure doupt I'll do that to him.

He went back to sleep and seems okay and is sleeping now. I think what happened is the baby milk he drank last night backed up on him and turned in there from the heat. The heat seems to have all the animals and me down today but I hadn't really noticed it yet. I turned the AC on right after.

SO long as he eats and is okay tonight I think it was just a case of heat and "bad food".

6pm He's still sleeping but he makes little noises in his sleep once in awhile, which is normal for him, so know he's doing okay. Will just let him wake up in his own time unless it gets to late then I'll disturb him and see how he is.

something in there could cause him to gag like that but don't think it would have stopped. I'll check him close tonghit and be sure he uses his tongue normal though. I don't think it's to common but it can and has happened in zoo animals but usualy from senue/meat fibers from unstrained meat. Why I run their food through a strainer. While out comes were always bad for zoo animals I think if you caught it early on it wouldn't be to horrible. Put him under him and a skilled vet could scope up in there and get it free.

7pm

He's up and his tongue is fine. I offered him the honey bottle and at first he just licked around the rim but then finaly figured out there was honey lower down and got some good tongue extention as he licked it up. And he also felt well enough to eat the honey so he should be fine. He's bugging Pua awake right now.

Well he ate some of his dinner and he just got cage time for getting on the
table and clawing into the mellon we bought today but at least the rest was
left alone and just a couple claw marks. He was checking out the oragano
when I spotted him. I had tried giving him an apple and an orange already
but it's more fun to steal. He kind of got over oranges after he discovered
concentrate and other goodies like blue cheese. He just enjoys tearing
things up.

They get tummy bugs sometimes but they get the runs and I usaly get it too
so maybe I bring it home to them or it's some food we shared but it doesn't
happen often. Plus he didn't have a fever. Even asuming his norm is the
average like Pua's is he would have only been a degree over but wthin normal
range.