According to many of our fellow citizens, loris lemurs are small, furry animals with large, sad eyes. As a rule, almost nothing else is known about them to the average person.
Most often, the first acquaintance with it takes place in zoos and menageries, and you can purchase such a pet in a professional nursery or a large pet store, where they will even give you accompanying documentation.
What are these mysterious lorises like?
However, if you decide to bring this animal home, you will probably be interested in how to keep loris at home.
Despite the exotic nature of such pets in our country, they take root quite well in captivity and do not require any special care. The first misconception is that the loris is not actually a lemur, but is one of the lower primates. Unlike lemurs, which live in Africa and on the island of Madagascar, lorises are inhabitants of the forests of Southeast Asia.
Most often, it is large and small lorises that are kept at home, of which the first reaches a weight of just over a kilogram, and the smaller representative weighs no more than 700 grams. Great loris, also called kukang, is usually light in color, reddish or brown. In addition, he has a white spot on his head, and the small one always has only red fur.
Character and lifestyle
The lemur loris is a nocturnal animal. Activity begins in the evening, night is the time of hunting, and the animal falls asleep only after the sun rises. Bright light is contraindicated for them; they can go blind and die from the blinding rays. Twilight is a comfortable living environment.
They sleep in balls of fur in the trees, holding their feet to a branch and hiding their heads at their feet. The animal can find a convenient place to rest in a hollow or fork in the branches.
Loris move slowly, carefully, grasping the branches from below with all their paws. At the slightest danger, they freeze and can remain motionless for a long time, without moving a single leaf, until the threat from some predatory night bird passes. Animals have excellent hearing.
They are naturally curious and playful. They explore and know their territories well. The animals are very tenacious and strong for their small size; their limbs are ideally suited for climbing branches.
It is known that lorises, in addition to hunting insects and small vertebrates, remove the bark of individual trees and drink the secreted sap. In nature, they never suffer from periodontal disease. There are lorises that are individualistic, having their own areas and leading a solitary lifestyle. And some species do not tolerate loneliness and live in pairs.
In captivity, as a rule, they live in family pairs or groups (a male and several females or a parent pair and cubs). Lorises protect their territory from random incursions of their relatives.
They always stay hidden, in the thick of green branches at a height, which makes it difficult to conduct research behind them. Many conclusions were drawn from studying animals in captivity at research centers.
The voices of lorises are different: at a great distance you can hear a whistle, and up close you can hear chattering sounds with cubs. Animals have the ability to communicate in an ultrasonic range that is inaudible to humans. You can observe animals silently pushing each other with their paws.
The exchange of information may occur in parallel at another level. Sometimes a ball of fur is formed from several lorises intertwined with limbs and hanging on a tree.
This is how they communicate, play, conduct their tidbit section and determine the internal hierarchy. The seemingly harmless animal has a secret and terrible weapon. The animal's elbows contain glands containing poison, the contents of which are sucked out and mixed with saliva. The bite can be fatal. But, fortunately, such danger overtakes the loris infrequently; secret weapons are used in exceptional cases.
Home equipment
If you are still interested in the loris lemur, keeping this animal at home will require equipping it with its own home.
The best solution for these purposes is not a cage, but a terrarium. This way you can make an excellent imitation home for your lorik.
Here you can already hang various branches and vines on which the animal can climb, but still not a single cage can provide a microclimate suitable for the pet. Additionally, you will have to maintain a certain humidity and room temperature for the health of the occupant.
So, the terrarium for a loric should be 1 meter in height and 60 centimeters in length, per animal.
What kind of animal is a lemur?
Different types of lemurs differ significantly from each other in their external characteristics. What an animal looks like depends on its species. Common to all representatives of the order is the presence of incisors and canines of the lower jaw, which protrude forward. Another unifying feature is the elongated claw on the second finger of the lower limbs, with which animals “comb” their thick fur.
Lemurs are endemic to Madagascar and the Comoros Islands. The name "lemur" in Ancient Rome meant "ghost", "spirit". This is probably due to the nocturnal lifestyle of mammals, as well as the large size of the eyes of these animals. A lemur with large eyes, flying from branch to branch, almost invisible to the human eye under the cover of darkness, emitting a specific cry, can really be associated with a mysterious spirit or ghost.
Primates range in size from the smallest (“mouse-sized”) to comparable to a small dog. Some fossil species were the size of a large dog. The largest representatives of lemur-like animals are the indri - they grow up to a meter and can weigh up to 10 kg. The smallest are dwarf lemurs, whose height does not exceed 23 cm, of which 10 cm is the length of the tail. The weight of mouse lemurs is 50 grams.
The habitat of these animals is tropical forests. In these conditions they feel very comfortable due to their ability to climb and jump well on tree branches. The limbs of lemurs are five-fingered, and the thumb of the front paws is opposed to the rest, which makes it possible to firmly cling to branches and irregularities in the bark.
Making a menu for the animal
Another important issue is the loris' diet - feeding it formula for dogs or cats will not work.
Your pet must be treated at least once a day with one of the following ingredients:
- pears and apples;
- cucumbers and carrots;
- melon and papaya;
- banana and kiwi;
- raspberries and cherries;
- quail eggs.
Don't forget about insects
A special place in the question of how to keep loris at home is occupied by a variety of insects. You shouldn't forget about them either.
Various caterpillars, crickets, scalded shrimp and even cockroaches are suitable for this role. For lorics, you can and should include baby fruit mixtures and purees, vitamins and cottage cheese in the diet. It is advisable to gradually treat your pet with nuts and unsweetened cookies.
These animals drink regular drinking water; sometimes you can add a little honey or dilute it with baby juice. Do not forget that at any time of the year, live and dry insects can be bought in zoological stores.
You can make preparations for the winter yourself; for this, you just need to freeze the insects and defrost a few at each feeding. To do this, simply lower the insects from the freezer into a glass of warm water for 20 seconds.
Classification
The internal taxonomy of the taxon is as follows. The lemur-like infraorder includes six families:
- hand-footed;
- dwarf lemurs;
- Lepilemuraceae;
- lemurs;
- megaladapids (an extinct group of animals);
- indriaceae.
The lemur family, in turn, is divided into five genera:
- common lemurs (includes species such as crowned lemur, white lemur, mongoose lemur);
- gentle lemurs (which includes the golden lemur, the gentle lemur);
- lemur (ring-tailed lemur);
- prolemur (includes the broad-nosed lemur);
- ruffed lemurs (including species such as ruffed lemur and rufous ruffed lemur);
- pachylemur (extinct).
Lemur with his child
Pet Care Basics
The main principles of keeping this animal at home:
- it does not have an unpleasant odor;
- can get along with pets;
- does not require regular washing;
- there are no allergies to their fur;
- this animal does not chew furniture, wallpaper, or wiring;
- males do not need to be castrated;
- animals do not need to cut their claws;
- however, it will not be possible to accustom him to his name and to the tray.
The first steps of an animal in your home
If you have a loris lemur, keeping it at home begins from the very first minutes of your acquaintance with it. Therefore, it is important that by the time the animal moves, its home is fully equipped and prepared.
Give the animal at least a couple of hours to get used to its new place of residence. Towards evening, you can feed your pet and let it out for a short walk around the apartment under supervision. You should not expect that the lorik will immediately come into your arms. Therefore, in the first days, slowly give him food from your hands, stroke and scratch him, as animals love this.
One more point - you should not even try to tear the animal away from the branches that are in its terrarium. Loris don't like this very much and can even bite their owner. But you should not limit animals in their movement around the apartment. Therefore, allow them to climb curtains, cabinets and cornices. These animals have very tenacious claws, with which they excellently hold themselves at heights.
You should get used to the special whispering and whistling sounds that lorises make. Don't forget that this is a nocturnal animal that wakes up in the evening and falls asleep only at dawn, so don't try to fit it into your schedule.
Building a house for loris
Before buying a loris, prepare a cozy place for it at home. You will need a fairly large cage or enclosure. Install the enclosure in a warm place where there are no drafts. Make sure that all dangerous objects are located as far away from the cage as possible. Lories are awake at night and therefore they definitely need a shelter in which they can hide from prying eyes during the day. Build the house higher, where this animal will feel calmer. Tie tree branches or wooden perches firmly to the walls. Laurie will be happy to climb on them. In addition, the lorises leave their marks on the tree and feel calmer. Place a tray with filler in the loris' enclosure. A smart animal will understand what it is intended for. Lorises are very curious, so you definitely need to reinforce the cage with a good bolt.
Before you go to the pet store
When choosing this, like any other pet, try to choose a healthy animal. It will look quite fluffy, have white teeth and shiny eyes.
If the animal is sick, then it has difficulty moving, experiences weakness and has a clouded look. The animal must have documents, which consist of a veterinary passport, a doctor’s certificate and a certificate of origin. Do not purchase lorises without any of these documents.
In recent years, the popularity associated with keeping these animals has increased every year, but usually their future owners know practically nothing about caring for them.
If you intend to have several lorises at once, keep in mind that the animals may not get along together, which will provoke conflicts. In this case, their home should have several tiers so that each of them can have their own untouchable territory.
Buying a Lemur
It is very difficult to buy a lemur; in captivity they practically do not reproduce, and the ebb tide and removal from their homeland are prohibited by local law, and there are few of them left in the wild.
Baby lemurs
When purchasing, study the documents very carefully to be sure that the lemur is domestic (born in a nursery or from breeders) and was not taken from the wild and smuggled. In addition to problems with the law, you risk being “rewarded” by tropical diseases, against which we have no immunity, and the animal will never become tame.
Considering that the price reaches 100,000 rubles, there is something to think about. If you decide to purchase more than one loris, they must be the same age, otherwise they will not get along.
