I somewhere road about a French lab. which did quite a lot of rechearch on tenrecs. I know they had ( have ? ) quite a number of species and where also quite succesfully in breeding them. Only problem is, I forgot where I road it ( I read quite a lot ) but if I find it, I'll let you know. Also maybe some-one else know about this French lab, if so, let us know.
What kind of personalities (or I guess, tenrec-alities) do your tenrecs have stubeanz? Are they shy, friendly, etc? I continue to be fascinated by tenrecs. Do you ever want to go see them in the wild?
Some are very shy and will only come out t eat once I have turned the lights off, mainly pregnant females. Some are handleable and tolerate handling, mainly the breeding males, and some are absolutely bomb proof will fall asleep in my hands, let children handle them and I can check their teeth everything, they are mainly the pet ones. There is something about them that is fascinating and I can sit and watch them moving around their enclosure all evening without getting bored. They make absolutely great pets for the right people and bad pets for people who don't put the effort in. If your interested in next months magazine 'small furry animals' there will be an article in there on tenrecs as pets which I helped contribute information for, it should be a good read. I don't know whether I can add links on the forum but I also run a tenrec Facebook group called Everything Tenrec and its a pet/hobby based group for people keeping all 5 spiny tenrec species. I would love to go madagascar! I love all Malagasy wildlife and to see wild tenrecs would be brilliant! Maybe one day I will
Not at all With more people working with the streaked tenrecs more information is found on their husbandry and breeding and so more people feel confident enough to keep the 2 species without worrying about whether they are keeping them correctly. Hopefully this might happen with other tenrecs but I doubt it will happen anytime soon, I suppose just like gorrilas and cheetahs back in the day were thought of as impossible to breed, it just takes the right zoo/person to get it right
A quick update, I have separated a male from one of my pairs as the female is definatly pregnant and resembles a spiny tennis ball! I would say she will give birth within the next 2 weeks. My other pair still don't seem to be showing much interest in mating unfortunately but time will tell. I can't wait until the babies are born, its the best part of keeping them and great watching the little ones grow.
When the babies are born maybe you could post some pictures here? It would be fun to follow their growth along with you.
Of course I will the female has started making a nest in her wooden house so hopefully it will be any day now!
Well even though I did say it would be any day now, she has decided to carry on growing and can just about fit into her nest (with a wiggle!). We have also has another exciting birth but I will save that for another thread!
Yesterday 26/05/2013 one of my females gave birth to 6 young, unfortunately 2 were still born but the other 4 seem to be growing well and so fingers crossed, in a week or so's time I will be able to get some photos for you all !
Ok well it's time for an update, with pictures! The first photo was taken when they were 5 days old and was taken on my phone hence the shoddy blurry picture but shows a baby on its back clearly relaxing Tenrecs grow incredibly quickly and can wean on 3-4 weeks! So the second photo is of the first handling session yesterday where I do a quick health check whilst mum is out and eating, It literally lasts 30 seconds or so. You can see how fast they have matured already. Not long and they will be exploring the I vivarium with mum!
Thank you, they are now exploring the enclosure and I got this photo last night of one being a bit 'nosey'!