Cassie update!

[Bradyloach]

Hey everyone! So I added leaf litter cause theres no snow! And Cassie is getting big!! I pick her up for 30 second handle sessions and she flicks her tongue and is not even scared! Taking it slow here she is :)


http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/bradyloach/c6184147.jpg
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/bradyloach/3b0469ae.jpg
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/bradyloach/22f65e76.jpg

And a monkey with my cousin! It's an exotic pet store and they owner has a pet monkey and only goes to a select few

http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/bradyloach/e434b3be.jpg

[Gungirl]

OMG I want a monkey!

Cassie looks happy in her nice home!

[BarelyBreathing]

Has she been playing in the leaves? What's with the soda bottle?

[Bradyloach]

Shes all over the leaves! Haha and I don't know I keep it full and the water drips Into the water bowl I find it raises humitdy >.<

[BarelyBreathing]

Hey, whatever works. :p

[Bradyloach]

She's getting sO big Hedy!!!! :D

[BarelyBreathing]

She looks really, really good.

[Bradyloach]

I've been following your advice word for word!

[alessia55]

Beautiful Cassie :D

also... Monkeys are one of those animals I feel should never be pets... :suspicious:

[Squirtle]

am i the only one who doesnt see an animal lol

[Bradyloach]

Beautiful Cassie :D

also... Monkeys are one of those animals I feel should never be pets... :suspicious:

Umm there great pets! They bond with the owners, like it's the owners child every second is spent with the monkey!

[crocdoc]

I'm with Alessia - monkeys are all fun until someone loses an eye (or a finger)! In my opinion, primates should never be trusted. They're one of the few non-human animals smart enough to be intentionally malicious.

[Bradyloach]

Yeah :) this one was really really sweet, on a harness all the time but it's not a pet I would have especially with young children around

[Gungirl]

Now why do you feel a monkey shouldn't be allowed to be a pet but you think it's ok for us to keep monitors and other animals?

[alessia55]

am i the only one who doesnt see an animal lol

Third photo ;)

[alessia55]

Now why do you feel a monkey shouldn't be allowed to be a pet but you think it's ok for us to keep monitors and other animals?

IDK... something along the lines of
- the space the animal needs ("territory")
- how far the animal likes to travel daily in the wild
- sociability of the animal (if the animal lives with a group in the wild)
- social and mental needs (stimulation; intelligence, etc)

and part of it is just instinctual for me. Some people "feel" we shouldn't keep snakes, I "feel" we shouldn't keep primates :p

[Gungirl]

Thanks Alessia.. I understand your points. Although If I had the time... i would still love to have a pet monkey :D

[Bradyloach]

umm monkeys are sweet! the guy that trains monkeys says its all about the owner, monkeys are like children, you have to discipline them. like if she does something wrong the owner lowers the tone and says no thats wrong and the monkey knows shes doing something wrong and puts her head down in shame. monekys are super super smart! i feel like with any pet its the owners. you can get pitbulls that are super cuddley and nice. its all the owners

[crocdoc]

IDK... something along the lines of
- the space the animal needs ("territory")
- how far the animal likes to travel daily in the wild
- sociability of the animal (if the animal lives with a group in the wild)
- social and mental needs (stimulation; intelligence, etc)


Although I agree with you about not keeping monkey (or apes) as pets because of their social needs (and also because of the damage they can do when things go pear shaped), if the first two items in your list were part of the reason then none of us would be keeping monitors, either. Many of them have huge home ranges in the wild.

As for monkeys, I've seen the damage they can (and will) do when things don't go their way - the times when a lowered voice just doesn't cut it. To say it's all the owners is to simplify it. It's not quite like disciplining a dog as the monkeys themselves have a fair bit more say in it and can decide to be bad. Yes, they may hang their head in shame when they do something wrong, but sometimes they do the 'something wrong' first and that may or may not involve biting someone, by which stage the head hanging in shame is all a bit too late. I grew up in Canada at a time when monkeys were available in pet stores and knew a few people that kept them. I've seen how all of their keepers had to do certain things in a very certain way to avoid things going very bad very quickly. I've also worked with primates in zoos and have seen a number of species in the wild, in South America and in Indonesia, so I have a reasonable idea what they're like. In my opinion, having them available in the pet trade is wrong on several levels.

When I was a kid and into snakes my grandmother used to ask me why I loved keeping such horrible animals when I could keep something nice, like a monkey. Even back then I would smile and think "you have no idea". Later, when I was in my late teens and had a reasonable collection of animals I was offered a pig-tailed macaque for free. I refused, but passed it on to a friend who was into exotic mammals. It was trouble for him in the end, too.

A few years ago I was watching some wild long-tailed macaques dealing with tourists in Indonesia.

It all started off really cute:
http://www.pbase.com/crocdoc/image/98636486.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/crocdoc/image/98636484.jpg

And then the unaware among the tourists started doing the wrong things with the cute little monkeys (surely they wouldn't do anything bad, right?) and started getting bitten. One woman got bitten because two monkeys took an interest in the sequins on her clothing and she tried to remove one of the monkeys from her head, another guy got bitten because he was busy watching monkeys come down the hand-rail of a bridge and leaned over to the other side to give them room, not realising there were other monkeys coming down the other hand rail. They wanted more room. A really nice couple tried buying a small bunch of bananas to feed the monkeys and managed to carry them for a whole four paces before they were set upon by a troop and had all of their bananas forcibly removed in seconds, along with a pair of sunglasses.

Sometimes all it takes to provoke an attack is too much attention. Like many other mammals, monkeys perceive a direct stare as a threat and react accordingly. This mother monkey was doing something cute and I made the mistake of paying a little too much attention to her with my camera. I had to avert my gaze immediately after taking this shot, to avoid an attack. I'd have loved to have photographed one of the males doing this, as their canine teeth were impressive and probably would have conveyed the message better.
http://www.pbase.com/crocdoc/image/98636479.jpg

As for apes, don't get me started on them. I worked with chimpanzees for a while (at the time, I think it was the largest colony of adults kept together in captivity in the world). I love them and was blown away by their intelligence and resourcefulness, but I also think they are probably the most dangerous animal in any zoo. At that particular zoo, if you were to ask any keeper which animals they most feared being locked in an enclosure with, the answer would almost invariably have been "the chimpanzees". There's a reason that in the old Tarzan television series his companion 'Cheetah the chimpanzee' was replaced every time he hit five years of age.

[SpOoKy]

Not too mention there is a good chance they are going to spend most of the day "loving" themselves lol