A Springhaas in Summer

This is mostly in the form of an email I sent to my friend. I'm just too tired to post much right now.


I am so tired I am almost hallucinating. I'm on a two hour feeding schedule, then the kinkajou is at 5 hours. It takes me a bit to get back to sleep, so I'm getting an hour 1/2 at a time at most. But wait until you see this baby. It is the funniest, weirdest baby yet. I'll find a pic..Here is a little bit about them, they aren't quite as rare as this person believes, obviously. http://www.lyberty.com/encyc/articles/animals.html Here's more http://www.treasureranch.com/treasure/rzuinfofiles/springhare.html

His huge eyes are shut still, but he can hop about a foot at least, and is already nibbling on hay. He has a grumbly little squeak, except when he's scared, then it's LOUD you can't believe the noise this baby can emit! He only talks when I'm feeding him, doesn't like to be pottyed, and will only poop in the cage. He has the softest, shiniest fur, and washes himself manically as soon as he finishes eating. Once in awhile he'll drink too fast and the milk comes out his nose, and he is REALLY insulted! Then he gets more insulted as I wipe off his little nose. He has a tiny little mouth tucked way under his nose and it's hard to get the bottle in there, so I have to tip him back, which gets him cranky again. Although he sits and leans back, I guess he doesn't trust me yet in that position until the nipple is in his mouth. I don't blame him, evidently they are a major food source, poor baby. Look at the tail on this one, you can already tell this baby will have a beautiful tail. http://public.srce.hr/XIIIgim/pictures/rodents/springhare.jpg They are also called springhare, their name is "springing rabbit" in Dutch. I'll try to get pics soon, he is just so...unlikely! I've never seen anything like him.

A gerbil on steriods....

I just got a call, I'm getting a springhaas to raise!! I had to look them up, they have a rabbity face on a kangarooish body. One source discribed them as "gerbils on steriods". Everyone mentioned how sweet they are. I'm so excited! She was born today, and I get her on Sunday. Mom must not be nursing her, to get her that early. Or maybe the mom is just one of those animals who can only nurse for a few days. At any rate, she will be tiny and I can hardly wait. K doesn't know yet, he is at work, but I'm sure he will be in love. His chinchilla died awhile back, and he was heartbroken. I just saw a table on lifespans, and actually, Sillispring lived much longer than the average. Springhaas live 14+ years. We are starting to really look at how long our animals will last, a three year lifespan is much too short for us. Although I would still like to raise short-tailed possums again.

Kinkababy is eating like a little piglet. She finished off an ounce and a half this feeding, more than she ever has at one feeding before. Her little tummy is finally rounding out like a baby should be. I want her on the pudgy side before she has to go to her new family, because the babies sometimes don't eat very well the first day or two. Not that we've had any problems with kinkajous being that way, but it's still nice to take precautions. Her new family already has a male kinkajou, so kinkababy will be in good hands. Since she has to go to business classes with us, she is certainly used to people.

I just read that African porcupines can live 20+ years, so April may be around longer than I am. I'm disappointed she isn't arriving until fall, but it's much too hot to transport animals this time of year. Who knows, maybe some of her children or grandchildren will be returned to the wild. Maybe a child who saw her in the educational program will grow up to be a porcupine advocate, LOL!

photoshoot

Anyone who has kids know how cute they are until Grandma gets on long distance (suddenly, the first silence you've heard from the kid in two weeks), or someone picks up a camera and aims in their direction. Species evidently doesn't matter!

My husband was taking pic for me tonight to send to the baby's new owner, I thought these turn out well....

Playtime

Whew, what a crummy day! Between sleep deprevation, not feeling good and needing to get ready for class and a major appointment...which I STILL haven't done anything on and it's almost one a.m., well, short entry is called for.

Baby kinkajou is doing so great! She decided to play last night. Now, she can't really even crawl well, or focus her eyes, but she doesn't let that stop her. Little head wavering, she opens her mouth wide and comes in for a pounce and bite. She almost has teeth! I can feel her fangs, just barely. She is already drinking better and even trying to suck today. Most kinkajou babies just lick, or swallow when you drop milk in their mouths, so this is a huge bit of progress. It takes 20 minutes sometimes for them to take about 1/8 oz milk.

Today she is much quieter, mostly just talking to me. She has a very creaky chirp she uses when I talk to her and she just wants to answer. If she gets upset and whuffles, I just pick her up and kiss her, and she quiets right down. She recognizes me as mom now, and trys to climb up to kiss (or bite) my nose. She has to go to our class with us tomorrow, so I guess if she ever wants to start a small business, she'll know how to network! We'll be gone all day, so we will just take her bottle, tuck her in a pouch and away we go. I can just imagine what will happen the first time people realize I have her. Well, luckily, it's not a formal type class anyway. She only needs a bottle every 4 hours now, so it shouldn't be too disruptive. So far no one has ever complained about me having to take a baby to class or an appointment. She will be the youngest baby I've taken to a class before, M needed me to babysit for HER, so she's not available, and I don't want to miss this class. Impossible to find qualified kinkajou babysitters, I think I'm pretty much it for this area, and for most of the state! Thank goodness she's a kinkajou, I couldn't possibly take a lemur out this young.

Eeek, look at the time, I still need to bring my books up to date, ect. ect. K was going to help me last night, but he didn't and tonight he's too tired. Dang it, with all the prescriptions I'm taking, you would think someone would come up with an antiprocrastination pill! And I was always so on top of things when I worked outside home, and my office was always neat. I wonder if hypnotisim would work! Back then I could still spell and had a memory too, dang, the spell check doesn't work. One of those days....

It's a girl...kinkajou!

Sleepless in Salem...

Tiny baby girl!

My goodness, I need to keep this updated more often. Changed the name today to The Daily Hairball. I got inspired as Jazzy was hacking one up into K's shoe yesterday.

Let's see, Rollo and his twin sister went out and are adored. Kissy went to her new home, and is now sleeping with her new mom there and enjoying all the attention she is getting as a educational animal. I'm sure she's just soaking up the attention every second, although I do miss her.

We have a new wallaby joey. She was much older than when we usually pull them, she was already weaned. We weren't sure how well she would tame down, since she didn't need the bottle. The first day I tried her with a bottle and water, and it was OK but not great. The next feeding I just gave her a glass of water, and she liked that much better. Her mom is Ivy, so we named her Clover, in case M decides to keep her, since she isn't sold yet. She is tame enough now to be a pet though. She loves to sit in K's lap and just have a look around. She really is too big for a pouch, so she doesn't get quite as much attention as we would like, but she's a very calm baby and it doesn't seem to matter. K takes care of her more than I do and she is very much a Daddy's girl. She has the long eyelashes and delicate little face. We still have to get pictures.

The newest baby doesn't have a name yet. We haven't had a girl kinkajou for almost two years, so I thought I'd send out announcements. After having rather large babies lately, she seems so tiny. I want to name her something girly, although since she is a June baby maybe I'll call her that. We already have an April, if she ever arrives. Weather hasn't been great for transporting her yet. She might not mind, April is an African porcupine so might not mind the heat, although she is a native Oregonian. I can hardly wait to see her all grown up.

At any rate, baby girl kinka is very loud. The first 12 hours she yelled if I picked her up and when I put her down. They have a really piercing cheep! Now she only yells when I put her down and she doesn't want to be, or if she wakes up and decides she is alooooonnnne! It would be easier for the both of us if I could sleep with her, but I'm afraid of crushing her, she is so tiny. Now she's been here more than 24 hours, she is much quieter, thank goodness. It's hard to work with all that noise going on! She will be spoiled enough as it is, I keep picking her up and checking on those tiny toes, when she sticks out the tip of her tongue it looks like a tiny rose petal. Then she yawns, and it looks like her tongue is as long as she is!

I've been spending so much time with the little kids and working, Moosie gets really anxious. The other day I sat down on the couch to cuddle with the cats for a few minutes, and Moosie was hugging my head, Morphy was in my lap, Princess and Jazz were behind me on the couch back and Ariel was trying to shove Morphy over so she could get in my lap too. They wouldn't let me up! Moosie weighs about 40 lbs now, Morphy is around 18lbs, that's a lot of cat! I took the hint and now make sure I spend some time with them every evening. In fact, I think I will go do that now.

I haven't had much sleep, I didn't sleep at all Friday night, and not much last night, finally got 4 hours in this afternoon. Now baby is eating more, I can let her go for 4 hours, maybe a little longer at night. K isn't taking a feeding yet because she is so small he's afraid something will go wrong. But he brings her and the bottle in to me, so I don't have to wake up too much. Then we just cuddle and snooze until he comes in and takes her back to her nest. He suggested since she is in a small cage, putting the cage in bed with us, maybe we will do that. She is much too small to be put in the large cage, although she did climb the bars on the little cage today, which surprised me, she is still crawling. Another reason she can't go in the big cage! As far as she is concerned, the little cage is too airy, she wants to be snuggled up tight. When we went to get her, there were three kinkajous all piled in there with her.

M has a new lady kinkajou. She only has one producing female now, so she thought she would retire the others and get another girl. Sugarbear has never had a baby, so she will go as a pet, but I think M is going to keep Honeybear. Sugar is the most out going and probably would like being a house pet to someone, even if she wasn't hand raised. Cocoabear is somewhere over forty, probably mid forties, so when she goes, M wants someone she can put in to keep Yoda company. Sadly Yoda is sterile, he would have made beautiful, sweet babies.

When baby was chirping, Emily gave her a look like, "What are you making so much noise for, brat!" She was in a bad mood anyway because her waterbottle was dry. Emily threw a hissy fit until I got the message. I can't get the lid off the waterbottle, so I just gave her a glass of water. She loves that, she thinks the water tastes better that way. I finally started to pull away and she very gently reached out, hooked those Manderian length claws around my fingers and pulled my hand back. I think she knows I love how gentle she is. I finally had to put the water in a bowl for her so she could have some through out the day, but she does love having a glass. Sometimes if I leave her with a plastic glass, she will take it into her nest to sleep with like a toy. Maybe she dreams it is full of juice! Hmm, I do have some grape juice for the baby, think I will get some for Emily, then go snuggle with my neurotic cats...ah, look at the time! Nope, guess I will feed baby first! Gee, it's nice to be needed and loved!