I thought I'd introduce my little friend in the corner. His name is Imba and he comes from Africa. He is a Cusimanse which is related to the mongoose family. He is a crazy little guy, constantly squeaking and rummaging around his cage trying to find something to get in to.
His story started at the airport where he and a friend were shipped and didn't get picked up by the people who shipped him. He was small, just a couple of months old, but even then he was cute in his own way. The airport called and asked for someone to come get them and take care of them, so thats where my part of his adventure began.
Not knowing much about cusimanse, most of the info that we found about them was on the web. Because they are not that well known not much is published about them so part of his initial care was guesswork. In the wild these guys will eat insects and small rodents but we found out fast that they don't limit themselves with just a couple of different tastes. Imba will eat just about anything if he's given the chance to get to it, including french fries(yes we know its bad for him). As he's gotten older his diet has been modified so he gets less junk food. He gets alot of catfood, ferret food and loves meat. In fact if you aren't careful your finger could be mistaken for grub. He also absolutely loves to be scratched everywhere and will grab you to get a scratch.
He has been with us for 5 or 6 years now and is starting to become a senior citizen. The average lifespan is about 9 years in the wild but we are hoping for longer than that. He has become a big part of our daily lives and we would miss him a great deal. I for one have really gotten attached to this little monster. He has been wonderful fun and a great learning experience. Although I wouldn't recommend cusimanse as pets, I wouldn't have missed this for anything.
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