Helping Mona out….
Posted June 1, 2012 at 6:37 am by Ian Byington
Mona...photo by Cyndi Brast
Hey, I just talked to Vanessa, who is looking after Mona the Camel, out on Roche Harbor Road….she asked me to share with you that it would be a good idea for folks NOT to feed Mona. Someone gave her a bunch of carrots, and it made the camel so sick she couldn’t get up, and someone else gave her a bag of potato chips (which aren’t even good for people, people!)
Vanessa’s been studying the camel diet, and it would be good to help her take care of Mona the way she needs to….so let’s lay off “helping” with free handouts. Thanks!
Ian, not really an animal vet but wanting to hekp
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Categories: Around Here
6 comments:
6 comments...
A camel can go on for days without water it turns it’s hump fat into water if nessecary they eat grass, hay camels love carrots, apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, and many other crunchy vegetables and fruits. They also browse and nibble the tree leaves of just about any tree in their environment.
my camels mainly eat straw/hay/roughage in the wild they will nibble on small branches/leaves/shrubs
the diet from the zoo and private people owning camels is way -WAY- too rich; carrots, fruit etc is too rich for them; use these as nice snacks, but only snacks/rewards
also she has been fed hand outs for years and it has not hurt one bit. I agree that she shouldn’t have chips but one thing I have notice about mona is that if she doesn’t like something she won’t eat it. same when she not hungary she will not come to the fence. I don’t think feeding mona will hurt her. I am not a vet either. that why I look this up.
thanks
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_do_camel_eat#ixzz1wZxNUaSL
With so many visitors coming to the Island, perhaps it would be helpful to have a sign with some guidelines about Mona; what to feed her safely and how much, approaching her and staying within a comfortable distance for both, touching her, etc.
Amen!! I lived in Persi for several years as a nurse. Have seen hands gnawed off by camels. Mona is a terrific camel BUT she is still a wild animal.
yes true that…Mona will grab you and give you a nasty black and blue if you make her mad…ask tony who took care of her for many years… bout yanked his arm off and left him b & b for weeks. Its a wonder it hasn’t happend to someone else…(knock on wood)
I am NOT a vet. I did however write to the San Diego Zoo in an effort to find out what they feed the Camels there. They gave me a link to this http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes. In this site it clearly says they feed the camels carrots and sweet potatoes.
Nobody wants to make Mona sick but if indeed she WAS sick, it wasn’t carrots.Mona has many issues, not the least of which is the stress of not having a habitat to go into during winter. I’m working on that one and will soon contact Monas owner to see if we can work together on fixing that. I know he cares very deeply about her well being.
I agree that there should be a sign up for tourists to find out about what to feed Mona. Cheetos should not be consumed by anybody, let alone Camels.
We used to feed carrots to Mona. I swear she recognized our car after a couple visits. We haven’t fed her once the “no feeding” sign was posted. I’m relieved to see that carrots are in the camel diet according to the San Diego Zoo site, “Food…At the San Diego Zoo, the camels eat hay, pellets, browse, carrots, and yams.”
She’s a fun animal to visit and friends are blown away when we take them to see a camel on San Juan Island.
She does bite. I watched her gobble a bicyclist’s arm nearly to the elbow before the poor rider knew what was happening. I think she thought the bike glove was a treat! We pulled the arm out with a mighty slurping sound to reward our efforts. Fortunately only a couple of scratches and the residual panic was all that remained.
We hope we can feed her again someday.
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