Living with Anteaters

I keep getting certain questions repeated so I'll try answering them here though I don't mind answering questions it's obvious many are wondering these things.

Mainly does Pua just need more time to warm up to Eldorado and maybe this is normal behavior and in the wild she would reject him till she comes into heat and she might become receptive once ready. There is a lot at play in answering those but the short simple answer to both is no.

While they have the solitary label on them and are not known to live in groups there's still not a great deal of research into how they react to each other in the wild to say they are solitary in the antisocial sense and what there is of research seems focused on the vested variety so even less is known about how the blond(non or partly vested) so we can just ignore wild for now and look at captive. One fact I do know is the vested ones in Panama do fight over females.

So let's look at captive behavior. Pua took to Stewie right away other than protecting her food at first and after a week they were playing together. There were just some scared hisses from Stewie that she would respond in kind to and some avoiding till they warmed up. No fighting at all.

Like wise other blonds have been introduced with no real troubles. Vested to vested pairing also seem to go fairly well but some older reports make them out to sometimes take a little longer to warm up to each other and need a little more care introducing. So far though Eldorado seems like he would be accepting of Pua if she were open to it.

Pua also cycles monthly and Eldorado has been here two months. She hasn't cycled very heavy or been as interested in licking herself. She does vary some but this could be from stress. Either way she has shown interest in herself twice but no interest in letting him help.

Another strike against this being just a natural female thing is that her new suitor which we should be able to arrange coming here soon accepted a female blond easily but tried with the vested girl he rejects her and despite her being little has gone through a cycle of spotting. She like Eldorado is wanting to be friends with the blond but blond boy says no, though he is not so violent about is as Pua has been. If it were just the way females act till ready the male should be okay with her.

So this is not a girl thing but a subspecies thing. Which answers the first question too, no she will not warm up to him in time. The best we could hope for would be to wear her down enough she eventually puts up with his existence. This doesn't make for the happiest of lives for either of them.

The other question sometimes is if jealousy comes into play. I'm sure it does. Pua owns us and our home is her kingdom but I don't think that is the main issue. It just doesn't help.

I'd guess the subspecies difference in smell makes him smell like a "monster" or something to her. She's been accepting of other species additions before. I guess smelling like an anteater but not like one she's ever smelled is just a little too much for her.

She hasn't been pulling hair since I last trimmed her nails so now he is getting pushy and just pushes past her sometimes to get behind the washer or where he wants. This attitude isn't helping his cause much either.

On the bright side it's not really hurt my relationship with her. She plays with me more as a way to reassure herself.

So it should not be much longer till we can do the trial switch. I will just need to go slowly with her and the new guy so she knows this is someone new and not her rival.

The new guy has been sleeping in a cat cubby so I snatched Jake's old condo for my room.

Eldorado checks out the cat condo

Going in

It's a little snug

Tamandua butt

I liked the way it looked framed in the hole

He looks like a rat

This thing smells like kitten

In the cat condo


He still likes playing with me and the other night when I was busy with Pua he was hanging out the hammock playing with the hanging toy in his cage.

Enjoying the closet

Cheesy toy

Yummy

Relaxing

He likes digging in the toys and blankets in the play pen.

Cushy bed

He smashed in the top of the house bed to lay on top.

Backing up

Is this a log?

One last note is my public service announcement. Now I get a lot of odd looks when I mention this but my mentioning this last time bleeding nails came up recently save a life, so here goes:

Cayenne pepper!
I keep a little baggy of it in my purse in case of emergency and a jar of it in my pet medicine drawer. It can stop bleeding even life threatening bleeding. I nicked Eldorado's quick last night when I trimmed his big nail. It was dripping all over. I began dipping his nicked nail in the pepper powder and the bleeding stopped shortly.

Recently a friend's animal got bit in a scuffle and it nicked the artery in it's leg. She's a doctor so knows what that looks like. She packed the wound with the pepper powder and it worked. She had to reapply a few times but by the time she got to the vet the next day he had nothing to offer her but an E-collar.

There have been cases like that in people even packing gun shot wounds with it. It's not widely known or used but it works when it is used. It also helps from the inside out. It can help even more if you give some internally too.

The standard dose is one teaspoon in a hot/warm glass of water(1 cup). The heat makes it work faster but in a pinch cold water will work. If the person/animal is not alert enough to drink it just add enough water it's not powdery so they don't inhale it and put it in their mouth.

Which brings us to how it works and the fact it can help other life threatening conditions. It works on the circulatory system to make sure it performs in top shape. So if a vein or vessel is cut open then it will restrict blood flow into the vein. It helps speed healing though because the undamaged veins will get blood flow to the area and make up for the damaged veins.

This means if you have a heart attack or stroke it will open up the veins to allow more blood through as well as boost the healthy veins to compensate. It has saved lives in this way too.

One more note is that when treating wounds it is also antiseptic. Remember it's used as one of the ingredients to preserve meats in sausages and such. It will also help in fighting the microbes in a wound. So applying cayenne to a wound is a bonus all around.

Does it burn? Well results very by individual as some people have more sensitivity to it than others, some say no some say yes. Some birds don't have the burn receptors at all so if you were one of those birds the peppers would taste sweet and not burn. In my experience any thing you put in a cut burns/stings anyway so to me it's a none issue as it does more good that the small harm of the discomfort.

Oh and the other plus is it discourages an animal from messing with the wound and if they do lick it then they get some internally. Eldorado made that mistake and after going to bed licked his claw. I know this because a short time later he got up and chugged some water, lol. This effect also made the E-collar not needed for the previously mentioned animal as neither animal wanted to lick the wound after the first licks.

You can buy extracts at health food stores instead of the spice powder if you like. Just do not buy any that say they have the hot/burn taken out as that removes the best parts.

Time for a hike


Trying to decide, Is this walk worth waking up for?


I found ants!

That will wake her up

Yummy ant eggs

Those are her favorite. She stayed awhile trying to get them all.

Under the fallen tree, Digging in the dirt


Enjoying dirt


I think I'll nap now


Which way?

After her nap was rudely disturbed she needed time for her brain to wake up.

Okay we go this way!

We didn't make it to the hallow tree before she decided to go back so I don't know yet if it has given way to the river.

I need some attention