News Archive
UKpouchies and Knowsley Safari Park
Here is the latest news on the Pouched Rats, Dan and Eddie courtesy of Knowsley Safari Park.
"After an initial settling in period, the two boys were eating and growing well, but we were having difficulties in settling them down and keeping them calm. After a while we came to a decision that we would not be able to use them in a public display to demonstrate the mine clearing that they do in Africa.
Animal welfare is very important here at Knowsley Safari Park, so we decided to keep the stress to a minimum in order to keep them healthy. We approached UK Pouchies for some advice and after a lot of discussion it was decided that the boys should go to them for a while to see if they could be calmed down enough for the Safari Park to use as demonstration animals.
As the summer has progressed so have Dan and Eddie, but unfortunately they will always be too jumpy to be around a lot of people. Dan is staying at UK Pouchies and will form a breeding pair, while Eddie will be rehomed with someone who can give him the care and attention that he requires.
In the meantime Lesley at UK Pouchies has been hand rearing and training up a young male Pouched Rat. He is already sniffing out scents, and we hope to be able to show him to our visitors sometime later this year, definitely by Easter 2010".
You will be pleased to know that both Dan or Danar as he is now known and Eddie or Eddie-Bo as we call him have both settled in well to their new environments. We are pleased to announce that Eddie will also be staying at UKpouchies for the immediate future so not disrupt him any further from his new routine.
Both boys are making good progress with their development and Danar to date has really come out of his shell since being placed with a female called Nery's. Nery's is a bombproof female and she has formed a pair with Danar. Danar is getting on well with his new mate and she is having a positive effect on him, they love nothing better than snuggling up together for a nap!
We hope to find a friend for Eddie-bo in the future as we have with Danar in the hope that a positive role model will bring his development on even further. For the time being he is having plenty of one to one handling sessions to get him used to socialising and being handled.
