Native mammals

[hornet]

lol mayb the one i saw was in a good mood All i know if the ones at the zoo were very cranky

[-Peter]

I know of an illegally kept wombat here in Sydney. It was found wandering the street and taken to a carers home where upon it seized the blanket it had been transported in and climbed onto a lounge chair and went to sleep. Not long after we recieved a call about a lost wombat. I understand the carer descided to return the wombat to the caller. I am not in the loop on this one so thats all I know.

[darkangel]

they look so cuddly! i want one!!!! lol i want everything but can't get too much. 3 kids make it hard to have a lot of pets. i'll just stick to my reptiles and fish i think. for now anyway lol
always wanted to be a wildlife carer but unfortunately don't have the time the animals would need right now

[Hix]

I've worked with wombats occassionally over the years and I agree with - they don't make good pets, especially whn 18 months or older. Cranky ones can be a real pain, and when they bite they can go through to the bone. Their incisors are chisel-like and their cheekteeth are rootless (grow throughout their lives, like a rats).

Juveniles being handreared are cute as buggery and appear dim-witted, but the wombat has the largest brain (compared to it's bodysize) of any mammal. At around 11 months most go through a stage where it appears their only goal in life is to amputate every human foot they see at the ankles.



Hix

[Nephrurus]

Hix, I've heard exactly the same thing about southern hairy nosed wombats. Gorgeous, cuddley animals til they get to 18months, then they decide their sole purpose is to devour the keeper from the knees down. I did hear one story of a bloke who raised one as a family pet. At 18 months it was still as cuddley as ever with his wife and 3 kids (rolling over, cuddling up on the couch etc...) but it hated the bloke who'd raised the bloody thing. It's try to dig through doors to get at him............ gratitude


-H

[kirrachaos]

They aren't pets! They are not mean, they ar not evil but just simply aren't pets, they have never been domesticated and would take thousands of generations to even tyr and domesticate them and after my experience and believe it would be great to see them never domesticated. AMazing animals which I have the most amount of respect for.

[nuthn2do]

Originally Posted by Hix

I've worked with wombats occassionally over the years and I agree with - they don't make good pets, especially whn 18 months or older. Cranky ones can be a real pain, and when they bite they can go through to the bone. Their incisors are chisel-like and their cheekteeth are rootless (grow throughout their lives, like a rats).

Juveniles being handreared are cute as buggery and appear dim-witted, but the wombat has the largest brain (compared to it's bodysize) of any mammal. At around 11 months most go through a stage where it appears their only goal in life is to amputate every human foot they see at the ankles.



Hix

It's the achilles tendon they're after, they know if they snip that all threat is instantly disabled.

[Dragoness]

Have to agree that wombats arent great pets. At all the zoos Ive worked at you're not allowed in with them unless you're wearing steel capped shoes. I used to wear joggers as the boots hurt my feet too much, so was a case of spy wombat, them jump over and grab empty food dish and vault out as quickly as possible before it spotted me They have VERY sharp teeth!

Cheers

[Glidergirl]

I have 4 Squirrel Gliders, 4 Sugar Gliders and 4 Ringtail possums.
I am a wildlife carer and I raised the ringtail possums wich came in orphaned and for various reason are unreleasable.
I am also looking for a white tipped (tail) Sugar Glider female, preferably young, if anyone can help please let me know.
Thanks

[herptrader]

We do not have squirrel gliders on the Victorian schedules which is a shame.

We have a few ring tails but they are wild and live in our garden.

[Viridae]

The hopping mice I want to see a pic off too - I had considered them.

[pythonmum]

My flatmate and I kept Kowaris and some native mice (not spinifex hoppers) many years ago. We also fostered orphaned fruit bats - nothing like a big fruit bat hanging off your hand to scare off the Jehovah's Witnesses! (That was a VERY funny encounter...)

Anyway, the Kowaris belonged to my flatmate, but were pretty easy to keep. I think she'd gotten excess stock from someone at Taronga (?). We fed them a bit of dog food, some mixed veg, regular treats of meal worms and pinkie mice now and then. They enjoyed bogong moths, too. We kept them in a big aviary and a concerned neighbour once reported to us that we had rats in our parrot cage because she saw them running around at night.

I also spent a summer working in the Research Dept of the National Zoo in Washington DC. They kept a variety of marsupials including some S. Amer. species, sugar gliders and ringtails. The South American Monodelphis are much like the kowaris in diet and size. The zoo diet was minced vegetables (sw potato and kale), meat, fresh crickets, mealworms, a bit of fruit and pinkie mice as treats. That summer got me hooked on marsupials and led to the move to Australia - never know where your interests will take you!

[abbott75]

Originally Posted by pythonmum

We also fostered orphaned fruit bats - nothing like a big fruit bat hanging off your hand to scare off the Jehovah's Witnesses! (That was a VERY funny encounter...)

HAHA, I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses, you'll be amazed at the things we see whilst out annoying people!

[pythonmum]

Maybe you would have known what to say - the poor folks who came to our door just hyperventilated and ran!

[ari]

Hey now this is interesting.....which is the smallest of the species Sugar Gliders or Squirrel Gliders? And what is the smallest possum, the pygmy possum - if so are they available to keep or breed in captivity? Anyone have them?