# Meerkats?



## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

hey,
i realy want some meerkats and i do know a few people that have them.....
um can some one please post a care gide??or pics if you own one?
thanks,
Saff


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## emerald (Nov 15, 2007)

would you be keeping them inside or outside


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

prob inside cos its pretty cold round here....but they could go out side in the summer i guess.


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

does someone on here own one???


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## Fixx (May 6, 2006)

Saff said:


> does someone on here own one???


PM Glidergirl, they keep them.


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## emerald (Nov 15, 2007)

ther best kept outside in what i call a pit basically a wall three foot high with a coping stone over haning the top about six inches i use three different size telegraph poles placed in the middle this iz ther lookout posts theres always the sentry guard on top watching for danger attached to the bottom of the pit i placed a six inch round plastic pipe this is burried underground and leads off to a heated nest box i used a reptile radiator the size of the box is 24/24/18 they have the choice to go out or stay in the box even in cold weather they come out to feed mine take chicks mealworms eggs chicken they are best kept in a group 2/1 if you do decide to keep them in the house be warned they do smell theres not many around at the min but i would expect in a couple of months you mite see some for sale 200/300 pound is the average price for them .ps they love garden snails the size of the pit is ten bye ten


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## 400runner (May 15, 2006)

i know nothing about their care, and i'm sure you plan to keep them properly, but i saw some meerkats in the rep shop in bournemouth that were in a smallish (for meerkats) viv under the desk.
they were displaying very disturbing repetitive behaviour.
make sure you give them plenty of space to enjoy them in their full glory!
good luck with it!


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

thanks emrald: victory:
can someone actually post a care sheet please?


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## emerald (Nov 15, 2007)

try and go on n.a.p.a.x i think someones done one there


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

emerald said:


> try and go on n.a.p.a.x i think someones done one there


whats that?


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

ive tried to find a care sheet on google but cant seem to find a good one (or a bad one).
help?


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

oh and whats a avrage price for one?
and does anyone know of any greeders in west yorkshire?
thanks alot,
saff


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## emerald (Nov 15, 2007)

national associtation of private animal keepers ie n.a.p.ak google that in. two to three hundred pound for one


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

TSKA-Rainbow Care Guides -- "Quest For Knowledge" <- meerkat info
average price...

well, the average price on the internet classifieds, is about £400-500 each

the average shop price varies from paid £1800 for a pair to £2500 paid for a pair.

NAPAX i think, _may_ mean NAPAK.. which *used* to be the National Association of Private Animal Keepers 

- run at the end, by a guy called Paul Owen, they ceased to function about 4 years back

whilst their website is still operative, it has not been updated for a long time now.. the magazine it mentions is also not in operation.

there is also, as far as i can see, nothing on meerkats on the site.. some nice bits and bobs on other things are tho.

N.A.P.A.K - National Association of Private Animal Keepers

Nerys


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## emerald (Nov 15, 2007)

were do you get your prices from get real


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## Mez (Feb 19, 2007)

Nerys said:


> well, the average price on the *internet classifieds*, is about £400-500 each
> 
> the *average shop* price varies from paid £1800 for a pair to £2500 paid for a pair.


Perhaps she got the prices from there emerald? :whistling2::whistling2:


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

thanks nerys!
would it be ol if i had one of thouse dog cages for it to sleep in on a night and then let it roam free in a room in the day?
oh and can you keep one on its own?


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

lol emmie, i know you have a problem with our pricing, but this time at least you can go moan at someone else! 

£1800 was paid for the pair at reptiles plus last year
£2500 is the sum i am told appleton exotics sold their pair for

£400-500 is the average price of meerkats being advertised online at present. in about 3-4 different places. 

search meerkat on preloved.co.uk and also on pets-classified.co.uk, and you will see ads for meerkats in essex for £500 each.

simons rodents charge £1200 a pair on meerkats, and currently have 3 males on sale for £475 each, or £450 each if you buy the trio.

so emerald, how about you stick your grudge against us, up your ass, and get on with more important things in life eh? like doing some trawling on ad sites to up to date your knowledge on pricing!!! the last advert meerkats were offered in the internet classifieds for £300 was in 2006 !

there were a load being offered for free to good homes earlier this last year, which i believe someone got hold of, and then sold on again for £600 each, that was 2007 also.

just coz you cannot afford our prices, does not automatically mean they are too high!

you challenged us on squirrel monkey prices, and i asked you to put your money where your mouth was and actually find a squirrel monkey at the prices you think you can get them for... needless to say, i have heard nothing about that since! could it be that you cannot actually find any real ones for the prices you sugested? or was it that you were too busy threatening to "come down your end and shut you up" as you wrote in your email to us? nice child you must be!

Nerys


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

Saff said:


> thanks nerys!
> can you keep one on its own?and whats best indoors or outdoors??


you can keep one on its own yes, but as a highly social pack animal, they would need to be part of the "pack" within the house... i do know of some people that have solo ones as house pets, but personally i would not recomend doing so. meerkats can be very dominant, and have a strong bite. they often take to one member of the family unit only, and can be very agressive to others. also, tbh, i think they do better with their own kind, certainly our pair interact with each other 110%, i would not think of keeping one solo myself..

ask Glidergirl about her experiences with their indoor kept one for the bad side.. talk to Saxon about their friends meerkat who is indoors and kept as a "pet" for the positive side.

you can see some of saxons friends one here

*http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/other-pets-exotics/77531-meerkat-pics-not-many-will.html
* 
we have a pair here at the moment, which are at present in a tempory set up in the garage, meerkats can dig well, so whatever you keep them in needs to be "floor proofed" concrete, or buried mesh.. something non dig through able! although they can climb, they are clumsy at doing so, and can fall easily, so overly high cages, or cages with high branches or runways, can lead to meerkats with broken bones.

this is some pics of our ones

*http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/exotic-mammals/72396-meerkats.html

hth

Nerys


*


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

aww!!there so cute nerys!!:flrt:
i have pm'd glidergirl.....
so is it a bad idea doing the cage at night and free in day?


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

ummm... personally.. and yes there may be some who have kept them like that, or will keep them like that... but _personally_ i would not feel comfy with the dog cage / room idea...

i guess it would depend on how big a dog cage, and how big a room tho! i mean if your dog cage is actually a 10ft pen for instance.. then it might be different...:whistling2:

N


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

hm not 10ft......but only for the night so its safe....


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## SiUK (Feb 15, 2007)

my personal opinion is that I think they should be kept outside in a "pit" as described back up the thread, I think in all fairness they should be let live as naturally as possible, not having a dig at anyone that does, thats just my feelings.


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

well its just gets cold round here so id be scared of em freezing.......
and i know someone who has just got a meerkat that is kept inside


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## TSKA Rory Matier (May 27, 2007)

Meerkats and their prices reflect heavily upon the seller/s.

At the start of 2004 prices on M/Kats were at starting points of between £250 - £400 each.

2005 and we were seeing slight rises of £300 for males to £400 for females.

2006 and here we saw a surge at the end of the year but a drop at the start, so prices were as low in the late winter/early spring of that year in the likes of £300 - £500 each, but towards the end of that year we were seeing pairs for up to £900.

2007 l was speaking to a lady who had five youngsters down in Devon which she sold at £350 each, and that was an excellent price.

But the rains of the early part of last year caused some pregnancies to be aborted and many other meerkats even in a lot of the game parks did not breed.

The big question is to be asked what is considered to be a fair price for the actual animal?

Well 
1] Down to the actual seller
2] Are they parent reared or hand reared?
3] Privately bred or commercially bred [zoo/game park]
4] Age? Young, juinor or elder.
5] Young or proven breeder.

I would say a fair price for a male would be around £350 - £500 pending any of the conditions above and for females anywhere between £425 - £600.

So a pair of good value would be around £775 - £800

In comparison to what some may consider expensive at £1100 pair.

Hope this aids as a guideline.

Rory Matier
TSKA


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

thanks that realy helped:no1:
been looking on preloved and stuff but no luck........


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## TSKA Rory Matier (May 27, 2007)

I used to keep a Meerkat, Brush Tail Porcupine and a Fancy Rat together in one enclosure, and they were kept outside in an habitat measuring 12Lx12Wx5H.

Originally they were wintered inside an outside building, and eventually from the spring they were then allowed to acclimatise to the years seasons and then they stayed outside.

I had plenty of interaction with them, and kept them bedded down in a huge substrate base of straw, hay and cork bark chippings.

No heat was provided apart from a large nesting box again nested out with straw and hay.

No problems, no freezing, no deaths - everything fine.

R


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

advert for meerkats in colchester, placed on preloved

Preloved | meerkats for sale in Colchester, Essex, UK

same seller is on pets-classifieds with this advert, which has a phone number on too

BABY MEERKATS at Pets Classifieds

in both ads he has them on for £500, tho i have seen a thrid ad from him which lists them at £550 each too

hth

N


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

yeh but its a bit far from west yorkshire.......


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## TSKA Rory Matier (May 27, 2007)

Snippet, 

Apply to some of the local colleges or uni's that may have animal departments...

R


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## emerald (Nov 15, 2007)

*pain in the a...se*

i think your right nerys nobody can afford your prices having said that rory seems to be the decent one and the inteligant one he seems more clued up and realistic with is prices your like one of them macaws (THEY NEVER SHUT UP ) so i susgest you go and sit in front of your computer and search the web while i go and actually see people that i no and have these animals and get back to the issue of trying to help the lady out


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## Esarosa (Jul 13, 2007)

emerald said:


> i think your right nerys nobody can afford your prices having said that rory seems to be the decent one and the inteligant one he seems more clued up and realistic with is prices your like one of them macaws (THEY NEVER SHUT UP ) so i susgest you go and sit in front of your computer and search the web while i go and actually see people that i no and have these animals and get back to the issue of trying to help the lady out



what's with all the snide remarks? If you don't agree with nerys' prices then surely you don't agree with rory either as they both work for TSKA? The forum doesn't need bashing like this unecessarily :bash:


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## TSKA Rory Matier (May 27, 2007)

Good Morning Emerald, 

What Katie says is the spoken truth.

TSKA is my business, and Nerys is my partner.

I have been a broker/consultant for roughly 10 years in the mammal industry and as such am 'clued up' on prices to do with mammals in the main, and Nerys knows her stuff on the reptile side.

The prices l quoted in the earlier post [previous page] went back over a period of four years, l can go back probably a further four from memory, but it serves no purpose.

If you attack Nerys, you are in turn attacking me, and in turn attacking TSKA, and vice versa.

The fact is, that her prices are in fact from the market - these are prices that are currently out there.

We - TSKA - are oft asked to produce a value to mammals for the client base, and in many other cases, the same question is asked of us from non clients. So l sit down with the information l have at hand and value the mammals, based on what details l have of those that are being offered for sale.

Some times prices are reflected upon actual availability.

But the end result is assisting.

Rory


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

we have a old out house, wish we are keeping the chickens in. If we moved the chickens out into there other shed could we do something like this??


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

i will add more stuff just couldnt think of any thing lol


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## Fixx (May 6, 2006)

I'd recommend putting a second door in to create a safety porch Saff, this means none of the little blighters shouldn't be able to sneak out as you enter and exit the room.


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

ok thakx!: victory:


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## emerald (Nov 15, 2007)

you could but im a big belever if you have nice animals to display them nice. money is not an issue for them you could spend on the pen more than the actually cost of the animal is there a way you can attach a pen outside and run a pipe to the shed and use this as a nestbox would you like to look at four walls everyday this is not meerkat habitat there an animal that live outside and always on there guard to me if you cant fit these requirements it might be best to look at some other animal or just bide your time till you get sorted out with a pen


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

i might atach a mesh avery type pen to it. would that be ok?


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## emerald (Nov 15, 2007)

not really meerkats can climb have seen them climb if they get alarmed they just jump resulting in injury or death if you build the sides out of brick /block i then render mine they cant climb up you can put on top of the wall wire mesh surround this way they can still see out but cant reach the wire to climb round on and cause injury


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

ok
do you own meerkats?


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## emerald (Nov 15, 2007)

pm me


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## HABU (Mar 21, 2007)

they are zoo animals... a proper habitat will be massive.... do it right.... with creatures like this, it's all about them...not the keeper.... welcome to big time responsibility!!:lol2::lol2::no1:


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

yeh i know ive been waching meerkat manor alot to see how they live in the wild.


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

does amy one who keeps them have any pics???
thanks,
saff


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## Saff (Jun 9, 2007)

anyone????


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## emerald (Nov 15, 2007)

did you have a look at the ground squirells there cheaper to buy can keep them inside very mischievous stand upright same as the meerkat and a lovely little animal to have


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## glidergirl (Nov 27, 2006)

Nerys said:


> you can keep one on its own yes, but as a highly social pack animal, they would need to be part of the "pack" within the house... i do know of some people that have solo ones as house pets, but personally i would not recomend doing so. meerkats can be very dominant, and have a strong bite. they often take to one member of the family unit only, and can be very agressive to others. also, tbh, i think they do better with their own kind, certainly our pair interact with each other 110%, i would not think of keeping one solo myself..
> 
> ask Glidergirl about her experiences with their indoor kept one for the bad side..


We have a colony of meerkats that are all handreared, they are not aggressive BUT they respect the head of the pack only and that's Rich, I cannot dominate them. Ours are all outdoor animals, we did have an indoor one, in fact one of the most famous meerkat pets kept in the UK (Merlin) was an indoor one, his owners were his colony, they ran their lives as though they themselves were Meerkats.

You *should* provide heat for Meerkats especially at night, as although the Kalahari does drop to minus figures overnight, they live in large colonies, so at night they go deep into their burrow and snuggle up to preserve body heat, something a single meerkat or a pair won't be able to do effectively. Also, every morning in the desert the sun comes up and they warm themselves up by standing on their back legs which acts as a solar panel. In winter time in the UK it doesn't get warm enough for them to get up, eat and raise their blood sugar level. Meerkats cannot tolerate prolonged periods of low temperatures. Also - I've just been reminded, a colony of meerkats as said will snuggle up together, but they also swap positions during the night, so those on the outside will swap with those on the inside.


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## HABU (Mar 21, 2007)




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## pecks (Dec 29, 2007)

had a pair of HR for nearly 7years. Their enclosure was a house and their run a very large garden.I wouldnt keep them again, Very, Very time consuming to keep well and happy. These creatures are remarkably bright, intelligent and active so need constant stimulation and things to do. One exotic i think that requires a stimulating enclosure and environment Not a cage.


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