Raising an animal companion of your own is a common practice for households everywhere. Most households would opt for relatively domestic species such as cats, or dogs, or rabbits – but some have taken the liking of raising civets.
In retrospect, this isn’t much of a surprise, considering that raising civets has a relatively light investment. By default of being wild animals, civets are accustomed to a low maintenance diet – just as long as they are fed the right amount of nutrients daily. Most civets are omnivores and nocturnals, so they would hunt smaller preys in the wild.
If you’re considering on domesticating your own civet companion, do read through this article for some helpful points on how to maintain your civet’s appetite.
1. Multivitamin Supplements
Just as humans do, civets would often require multivitamin supplements to help regain their appetite. Aside from that, civets could benefit from the extra nutrients and vitamins the multivitamin has to offer.
2. Sanitise and Clean Dining Areas
One of the most important point to take is to maintain the cleanliness of your civet’s dining areas. Most civets would rather skip their meals than to dine in an unsanitary location. Be sure to change their drinking waters as routinely as possible to regain their appetites.
3. Rewards and Other Stimuli
Rewarding and offering other positive stimuli when they eat can encourage civets to repeat their actions. These rewards could be in the form of cuddles or even materialistic rewards (e.g. a new cozy bed or toys). Civets would then develop a basic understanding on what is a rewardable deed and would learn to repeat them.
4. Spoon Feed and Assists
There will always be the possibility that the loss of a civet’s appetite is due to their inability to feed themselves in the first place. If you feel that your civet companion is experiencing this, allow some time to try gently spoon feed them their food. If the problem persists or your civet is showing signs of pain, consult medical professionals immediately.
5. Bananas
Though it may seem unpredictable, civets love the sweet tangy taste of bananas. By feeding them bananas as a reward or as a temporary meal replacement, the nutritional values of bananas could help soothe any internal digestive problems.
On that note, a banana’s smooth texture and its nutritional value makes this fruit an excellent meal choice for civets younger than 2 months. This fruit could help boost their immune systems when they grown into healthy adults.
6. Papaya
Aside from Bananas, Papayas are also an excellent source of nutrients. Their distinct sweet taste and soft texture has been a default civet’s favorite.
Freshly cut your papaya fruit into small bitesize pieces and serve them on a dish for at least twice a week to ensure that your civet gets their daily optimal nutritional needs. After recognising an improving pattern in their appetite, do not forget to serve them other nutritional foods as well.
7. Milk
Last, but not least, civet love milk too. By rewarding them with non lactose milk (to prevent diarrhea and stomach problems) would provide them the temporary nutrients they would need due to the absence of their appetites. More so, this enables the reward system we’ve discussed earlier.
Strong and healthy civets are usually fed milk by the earliest age of 0-2 months. During this age, breeders would routinely feed them milk in every 4 hours to ensure they get the vitamins they need to grow as healthy adults.
This marks several tips on how to maintain your civet’s appetite. Note that these are just tips and it is advised that you consult professionals if the problem persists. Good luck!