This exclusive glimpse into our busy indoor nursery is where vulnerable baby primates are nurtured around-the-clock to ensure they not only survive, but thrive!
Moreover, many of these newborns had either been rejected by their mothers shortly after birth and timeously rescued by us. In addition, occasionally in the case of a triplet birth, one sibling is removed and hand-reared indoors to enable the mother to adequately feed the other two siblings. Others are orphaned due to their mother dieing during the birthing process. In few cases we were fortunate enough to inherit various species from retiring breeders or simply were asked by other to foster their overflow and we have lovingly heeded the call.
Whatever the circumstance, due to Alta’s relentless nurturing, coupled with her unwavering dedication and loving care, has over the years, single-handedly ensured their survival rates have been extremely high. In scenarios where these babies are born prematurely, they require highly-specialised, round-the-clock observation comprising hourly feeding of trace amounts of 0.1ml of baby formula for the first day or 2, while the full-term babies initially require 1ml of baby formula every two to 3 hours around-the-clock, & increased to 0.3ml every couple of days depending on their growth rate.
These baby primates continue to be fed in small increments until they are slowly weaned onto soft pieces of fruit at approximately five to six weeks of age. When living in a family unit in their natural habitat, this weaning/feeding role is carried out by their father, who begins the weaning process by offering them small clumps of soft fruits, which he eventually drops onto the ground for them to pick up & eat thus encouraging them to become independent eaters.
Once these thriving babies are weaned onto solid foods, we migrate them to group cages where they have the opportunity to spend a couple of hours outdoors each day to acclimate to the outdoor air, and once more robust and old enough. Finally, when the time is right, we do the ‘rehabilitation’ process into an outdoor pod where they integrated back to living with their family unit to maturity.
