You know the ones Im talking about. The "Aww its so sweet that you drew on the walls!" and "My child isn't a bully! Hes just expressing himself.".
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| Bruce |
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| Hedgwick |
Whenever Hedgwick has a chance he tries to get hold of Bruce and tear him to shreds... literally. He goes for the jugular.
We had one of these incidents recently where Bruce was on the upper level (separated from the lower levels) hiding behind a log and Hedgwick, accidentally got placed on the same level... Within the blink of an eye Hedgwick had covered the length of the cage, jumped of Bruce and bitten into his quills!
Mom, realising what was happening reached in within 2 seconds and pulled Hedgwick off! Hedgwick was not ok with this turn in events and promptly decided to sink his fangs into MOM!
Being the softy I am, I didn’t shake him off too vigorously but instead called for Dad. He managed to get Hedgwick off after about 30 seconds of being locked onto Moms thumb and leaving behind a mangled piece of broken skin.
Bruce has made a full recovery and is back to his normal self doing belly flops off the edge of the cage hoping Mom will catch him. But the moral of this story is, Males can not cohabit. Especially after mating.
This is a lesson you often hear about as a Tenrec parent but we hadn't experienced until recently. Please learn from our experience and be careful when interacting to potentially aggressive (almost all) male Tenrecs.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI live in sweden and have had my very first tenrec boy for 2 weeks.
It is very unusual here to own tenrecs as pets so I have no advice page to turn to.
I need advice how to bond with my tenny.
He is 1,5 years old and we held him and specifically asked if he is tame before we bought him.
However, it seems to me that my perception of "tame" is different then the former owners.
He doesnt come out of his hide, he doesnt seem to like to be touched or held at all, and once he even bit me which came as a shock- I've never been bitten by any of my animals, they usually feel that I love them and therefor somehow instinctly trust me.
Also he went into torpor and is new to us at the same time so that makes me wonder if I should just let him sleep 24/7 or try to have laptime/offhands bonding (let him sleep on my lap) or what to do to get him used to us?
I tried to allure him out with treats but he just sticks his nose out. Also he can hiss which really sounds scary.
I dont know what we are doing wrong, I never had a bonding issue ever with an animal.
I was so looking forward to getting this animal and now I cant interact with him at all it seems.
I'm so very very sad about this and desperate for some hope and good advice!
Kindest regards,
T
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry this reply is so late. I stopped on the blog when I had some family issue and just didn't get back to it until recently.
Honestly my best advice is to join the Everything Tenrec group on Facebook. We are a whole community there that offer support and advice. As I have not dealt with an anti social tenrec I would only be guessing where to start to bond him to you.
I hope things have been better this last year. I hope you get this message.
Again I'm so sorry. The blog should be continuing again soon.