Bat at home. Unusual pet: bat Can you tame a bat

Proper care and maintenance of a bat at home brings a lot of trouble to exotic lovers. Yes, and not everyone decides to have such an animal, leading night image life and poorly adapting to a closed environment. Although the creation of a suitable atmosphere is possible by improvised means.

Appearance

The smallest representative is the pig-nosed bat, whose weight does not exceed 2.0 g, and the body length is 3.3 cm, the wingspan reaches 16 cm. This is one of the smallest animals on the planet.

A giant pseudo-vampire with a wingspan of 70 to 75 cm, a weight of 150-200 g and a body length of no more than 14 cm is considered major representative this family.

The hind limbs of bats, unlike other mammals, are turned backward with knee joints and are equipped with strong claws. The body is covered with short or long shaggy hair. The color is dominated by black, gray and brown shades.

The life span of representatives from the order of bats is about five, in some cases up to 30 years. In captivity, they live less time, because they do not have the opportunity to fully move around.

They are the only mammals on the planet that can fly. Their hind and front legs are interconnected by a thin membrane. Due to it, they develop speeds from 11 to 50 km / h.

Visually impaired bats have a unique sense of hearing that aids them in flight.

The animal is not adapted to life in captivity. Therefore, zoologists believe that breeding bats should not be in the house. And if someone decides to have an exotic animal in the apartment, you need to create the appropriate conditions for it.

Bats can be carriers of dangerous diseases, including rabies.

Peculiarities

The animal very quickly gets used to the person, he loves affection and attention. However, those who wish to have a pet bat need to know that:

• These mammals are nocturnal animals that stay awake from 11pm to 7am. Require active communication. Without this, they often become depressed, stop monitoring and caring for themselves. And at night they fly, interfering with the sleep of their owner.
• Bats usually defecate while flying, so if the mouse lives in an apartment, feces are found on furniture and curtains.
• They need a large number of insects that need to be caught somewhere.
• The mouse should be able to freely fly from one room to another in order to independently choose the optimal temperature regime and suitable conditions.
• Winters in its enclosure. Falling into hibernation, she takes cover with her voluminous wings, thereby creating a kind of cocoon around herself, inside which, even with a strong drop in temperature, she is warm and comfortable.

The decision to adopt such a pet should be considered and approached with all responsibility.

Home Improvement

Bat kept in captivity needs a spacious aviary, therefore, for comfortable breeding, a large cage is used (at least a meter long, depending on the size of the pet), with a fine mesh.

You need to check for:

• wood rods for shelter;
• clean paper;
• thermometer;
• humidifier.

IN different parts small containers with water are placed in the enclosure, thanks to which it is preserved optimal humidity, which is especially important for the bat. She can quench her thirst at any moment. During hibernation, in order to prevent dehydration of the body, it is necessary to spray water around the animal with a spray bottle, but it is not necessary to wet the mouse.

Temperature regime

In domestic mice, as well as their wild relatives, body temperature changes and depends on the activity of the pet. Therefore, the temperature in the room must be controlled.

The enclosure is divided into compartments, in each of which a certain temperature is maintained, the animal itself chooses the conditions suitable for it.

Warmth is necessary for good digestion, so a heating lamp or a bottle filled with hot water(Never boil water). Too unacceptable cold temperature: due to hypothermia, the mouse may fall into a state of suspended animation or die.

Living in captivity is the strongest stress for her, in order to avoid an unpleasant outcome, it is worth considering an adaptation period. Before planting in the aviary, live insects are planted, so it retains its hunting qualities. In the early days, you should not go into the room where the mouse lives, so that the animal gets used to the new place and calms down.

Feeding

IN natural conditions bats feed on insects, but in captivity they cannot feed themselves, so the diet should be as close to natural as possible.

Animals are given:

• flour worms;
• raw egg yolk;
• cockroaches;
• insect pupae;
• adult beetles and their larvae;
• pieces of lean boiled meat.

Raw yolk, a little honey and vitamin E are added to the milk mixture. The pet is taken by hand and fed through a pipette or medical syringe without a needle. It is better to cook a portion for one feeding, the leftovers are not stored in the refrigerator.

Mice in winter time hibernate, so three days before the onset of this period they are not fed.

The pet should not be overfed. The owner should take into account that an adult eats a portion equal to 1/2 of its weight. The manual animal cautiously accepts food from the hands.

Portion calculation for one feeding:

After eating, the pet is placed in a room with a temperature of at least +30 degrees Celsius. Optimal time to refresh, - 23 pm.

Schedule

In nature, bats live in colonies, in which there are several tens of thousands of animals. Some in daytime prefer to sleep in groups, others - alone. Activity starts from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Hand mice love affection and even “talk” with the owner, and without proper attention, they fall into prolonged depression, stop looking after themselves and may even die of longing. To prevent this from happening, her “attempts to communicate” should not be ignored.

Like any animal, a bat, at home, the care and maintenance of which presents some difficulties, needs care and affection from a person. After all, bats are not quite ordinary pets, they require special supervision. And only with a serious responsible attitude can we expect that the animal will live comfortably in captivity.

Often, people who have picked up wild bats on the street or indoors call and write to us, the Feldman Ecopark Chiroptera Rehabilitation Center, and ask “What to feed him?”, “I read on the Internet that you can milk, eggs and meat. This is true?".

What to feed?

All bats in Europe eat live insects. They can’t “baby meat puree, cat food, boiled meat, eggs, honey, etc. ...” Even if the animal eats a piece of meat or a banana, this does not mean at all that this food will benefit him. He may have problems with the intestines in the future, and eventually he will die. Bats eat milk only in the first month of life (early summer). All bats found in winter are already adults and do not need milk.

On maggots and bloodworms (larvae of flies and mosquitoes), they do not gain fat, so feeding is pointless. best food for bats it is larvae of flour beetles and zofobas, which can be found in some pet stores (by calling in advance). You can also give tropical cockroaches (by cutting) and banana crickets.

How to feed?

If you picked up the animal in winter, it can really be weakened. For this it needs weigh. Weight is an indicator of fatness. If redhead party weighs less than 27 grams, it must be fed. For late leather it's 25 grams Bat Kulya- 7 grams, two-tone leather- 13 grams.

First of all, you need to drink water. As much as the animal can drink. From a syringe, or from a spoon or drinkers for rodents.

Before feeding, the bat needs to be “warmed up” for 10-15 minutes, it can be done in the hands (with gloves) or near the battery. She will wake up and be ready to drink, eat. She may shake (this is rapid breathing), try to escape and squeak. This is normal and necessary so that the animal can then digest what it has eaten.

You can hold the animal in your hand or cover it from above with your hand, without pressing it to the surface. Insects should be given with tweezers. During the first feeding, it is better to cut the insects in half and give the juicy part first. Keep in mind that in nature, bats feed on the fly, so they may not immediately realize that you are giving them food. This requires patience and skill. Sometimes you need to put the insect directly into the mouth so that the animal understands that this is food. Crickets and cockroaches need to be crushed so that they do not run away, and then give them to the animal.

After feeding, it is necessary to offer the animal water. The second and subsequent feedings are already easier and faster, as the bat understands that food is being offered to it.

Feeding the animal once practically does not make sense. Its fat reserves may be running out, so you do not need to limit it in food - you need to feed the animal as much as it can eat, everything will be stored in the form of fat. It is necessary to feed daily in the evening, but not more than 7-10 days, until the required weight is reached. Then follows a day or two without feeding anything, so that the animal digests the remnants of what was eaten. After that, you can place the animal (at a temperature of plus 2-8 degrees). It is better to move from warm to cold in the morning or in the afternoon, then the animal falls asleep faster. If the animal has been fattening for some time, it is better to place it for wintering in the same bag or box in which it lived in warmth.

You should not check too often how the animal sleeps, since each awakening is a waste of energy. Approximately once every 2-3 weeks, the animal can be taken out of the refrigerator, watered, weighed and sent back. If the weight has dropped significantly again, start a new feeding cycle.

Everyone chooses a pet, guided by some of their motives. Sometimes the choice is very original. For example, keeping bats at home is obviously exotic. So far, an extremely small number of people decide to have such a pet at home, for home conditions, in general, not particularly adapted.

Bats belong to the order Chiroptera. The same detachment includes the family of fruit bats. Outwardly, both families are similar, but have some differences. Fruit bats have more developed vision, but their echolocation is less developed. Bats, on the contrary, have well-developed echolocation, but their eyesight is rather poor. There is fluff on the body of fruit bats, but the body of bats does not have hairline. The habitat of fruit bats are the crowns of trees. Bats prefer to settle in caves and rock crevices.

Bats are flying dogs, flying foxes and other similar animals. When kept at home, they are quite unpretentious. Fruits are suitable for feeding these animals. In particular, fruit bats love mangoes, avocados, papaya, bananas. The menu can be varied with yogurt, honey, fruit puree. To make it more convenient for the fruit bat to feast, it is better to hang fruit fruits under the ceiling of the enclosure. It is perfectly natural for fruit bats to eat fruit in flight, although sometimes they may hold the fruit with their paws and suck the juice out of it. Like any other animal, fruit bats need constant access to clean water. You can add a little to the water sea ​​salt or crushed berries.

Bats are much more difficult to keep at home than fruit bats. The main food of bats is larvae, pupae, beetles, mealworms. You can grow food yourself or buy it in special stores and pet markets. However, the necessary food is not always on sale, because it is seasonal and very in demand, and quickly sold out. The process of feeding a bat is also not the easiest task. Before you get a bat, you should think very carefully about whether you are ready to withstand all those rules that are needed in order to provide the animal with a comfortable life.

Being in their natural environment, both bats and fruit bats fly a lot. When keeping a house, they need to equip a spacious aviary so that the animals can fly freely. The floor of the aviary needs to be constantly cleaned, since the detection of bats and fruit bats occurs during the flight.

Bats have a variable body temperature, which depends on the animal's motor activity. Accordingly, the temperature in the room where bats live should change several times during the day. For a good digestive process, bats need a temperature of about thirty degrees. If the temperature is lower, then the stomach works inefficiently, which can lead to illness and death of the animal. However, the animal will not be able to fall asleep at this temperature, which will also negatively affect its health.

problem temperature regime allows you to solve an aviary with several compartments. A metal mesh is used as a separator between the compartments. The main thing is that the edges of the mesh are well processed, preventing the possibility of injury to the animal. Manholes should be made between the compartments so that the animal itself can choose at what temperature it will be more comfortable for him. this moment.

There must be drinking bowls in the aviary, and there must be a lot of them. Bats love humid climates. They can hover over the drinker and start flapping their wings rapidly. Water dust will rise from the water, which is extremely pleasant for a bat.

For the winter, bats fall into a short hibernation, which lasts about a month and a half. A few days before the expected hibernation, the animal does not need to be fed, and then moved to a compartment with a gradual decrease in air temperature to about seven degrees. If during the hibernation of the animal you notice any changes in its condition, then hibernation must be interrupted by transferring the animal to a warmer compartment of the enclosure. After the animal wakes up, you need to gradually begin to feed it with small portions of food.

Bats are unusual pets that need special care. The decision to have such an animal at home should be responsible and fully conscious.

Since childhood, a bat has been associated with something mysterious, incomprehensible and necessarily sinister. But there are always daredevils who go against the system, break stereotypes, and even have bats at home to prove their own originality.

What does Wikipedia say?

Before thinking about keeping bats at home, read the Wikipedia article about them. As it turns out, the WHO has recognized bats as a natural reservoir for rabies, Ebola and Marburg viruses. And these are the most dangerous pathogenic viruses for humans, you can learn more about them from the same Wikipedia.

What is a natural reservoir? This is a long-term carrier, host of pathogens, which provides them with the possibility of a long or even permanent existence. Humans are natural reservoirs for some viruses, while bats are natural reservoirs for rabies, Ebola and Marburg viruses.

The presence of infection in the reservoir does not always lead to its illness, sometimes it occurs without symptoms. But under certain conditions, the reservoir can open, and then the disease will manifest itself in full. Drawing conclusions is a must.

If you are bitten by a bat, domestic or wild, you should immediately go to the hospital. It is not at all necessary to think that you are already infected with a terrible infection and hopelessly ill, but caution will not hurt.

Maybe it's better to watch the wonderful comedy "The Bat", but not to have this animal at home? Apparently, after all, it is not in vain that people attribute to them a connection with the devil. By the way, the word "rabies" is based on the root "demon".

General information

Now let's talk a little about bats, their diet and lifestyle.

Bats belong to the order Chiroptera. They differ from their closest relatives - fruit bats in the absence of claws on the fingers of the front paws-wings. Their outer ears are complex in shape with a folded edge, so the hearing acuity of bats is several times stronger than that of humans.

Bats are small in size, weighing only 5-10 grams, although there are species larger than fruit bats. The wingspan is much larger than the body. The front part of the skull is shortened, the teeth are very sharp, they have a system of ridges and tubercles. The eyes are small, vision is poor, but mice are oriented in space due to well-developed ultrasound location, vision in this process plays a far from major role.

What do they eat?

There are about 1100 species of bats on the planet, all of them are slightly different and feed on different foods. So, insectivorous bats feed on insects, and can catch and eat more than two hundred mosquitoes in 1 hour. large species bats prey on lizards, frogs, fish.

Bats are vampires that live in South America, suck the blood of mammals and birds, only three species of vampire mice live on the planet, the main thing is not to get them at home. If a mouse has tasted human blood, it will try to find it in order to get some more delicious food. The animal recognizes its prey by smell.

However, there are also vegetarians among them who eat exclusively vegetable food- nectar, pollen, nuts, berries, fruits.

Therefore, before adopting a bat, it is necessary to identify what type it belongs to, how it differs from other bats, and how it needs to be fed. For advice, you should contact scientists - chiropterologists, it is they who are engaged in the research of these animals.

Depending on the species, the domestic bat eats oranges, bananas, apples, as well as beetles, mealworms, larvae, wax moths. Insects will have to be grown or caught on their own, or bought at pet stores.

Most species of bats are nocturnal animals. During the day they sleep upside down, at night they fly in search of food. These animals can fall into a torpor, during which metabolism slows down, breathing intensity decreases, and heart rhythms decrease. In addition, bats hibernate for 7-8 months a year, and all this time they go without food and without water. As a result, weakened individuals die due to dehydration.

But during the active period, their metabolism is very fast, and they need a lot of food. During the night of hunting, 1 individual can eat food weighing about 1/3 of its weight.

However, a mouse living at home is not advised to overfeed, this can lead to obesity and diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. On the eve of hibernation, the mouse is not fed at all for several days, but there should be plenty of water in the drinkers.

But are they needed at home?

Collecting insect pests of the forest and Agriculture, mice, thus, bring great benefits to a person, but why are they needed at home? What conditions need to be created for keeping domestic bats, and is it worth pulling them out of natural environment a habitat?

When planning to get an exotic animal at home, first of all, you need to think about where it will live. Most likely, a domestic bat should live in a spacious enclosure, because it should be able to fly, and not sit still. In addition, the enclosure must protect the mouse from birds of prey, domestic cats and other animals that want to catch and eat it.

In nature, the bat hunts and eats at night, and sleeps during the day - in different time days on the street different temperature, it turns out, this is important for the normal life of the animal. Therefore, at home, you will need two rooms with different temperatures - for sleeping and for eating. The temperature in the room for digestion should be within +30 degrees, +20 degrees is enough for sleep. The temperature can be controlled with heaters.

Moreover, the mouse should be able to freely fly from one room to another in order to independently choose the required temperature and comfortable conditions.

There should be many jars of water in different compartments of the aviary, thanks to this, high humidity will remain in the aviary, which is so important for a bat, and it will always be able to quench its thirst.

During hibernation, so that the animal does not die without water, it is necessary to spray water next to it with a spray gun, but it is not necessary to wet the mouse.

A bat can spend the winter in the same enclosure. Falling into hibernation, she takes cover with her large wings, which creates a kind of cocoon, inside which even in very coldy positive temperature is maintained.

Under favorable conditions, the average life expectancy of these animals reaches 30 years.

Nowadays, you can meet a lot of unusual pets. Basically, their acquisition is carried out under the influence of fashion, books, films, etc. But not all animals easily adapt to life in apartments.

Feeding

A bat at home involves a very complex and extensive set of care measures. Provide for the animals the necessary conditions only an experienced chiropterologist can do it. In order to exotic pet did not feel discomfort in captivity, the owner will have to overcome a lot of difficulties in order to provide his ward with good nutrition.

Since mealworms, beetles, and larvae form the basis of the fruit bat's diet in captivity, the main difficulty will come down to acquiring or growing live food on your own.

Aviary

Since representatives of this family often fly, they need a lot of space in the aviary. In addition, the allocated area must be constantly kept clean - for this it is recommended to cover the floor with newspapers (for its prompt cleaning).

Domestic bats, like their relatives in nature, constantly change their body temperature, which depends on the motor activity of the animal. During the flight, sleep or awakening, the temperature regime is always different. In this regard, in the room in which bats are kept, the air temperature must constantly change. For example, the temperature that is supposed for the digestive process is in no way suitable for sleep, and so on.

If you ignore the observance of the correct temperature regime, processes can develop that will significantly shorten the life of nocturnal animals. To solve this problem, the enclosure is divided into compartments, each of which is maintained at a different temperature; "rooms" are interconnected.

At similar organization the mouse itself will choose the conditions that are comfortable for it at the moment.

night guest

Not everyone dares to keep a bat, however, it happens that the animals themselves accidentally end up in a house, apartment, outbuildings. In these cases, it is necessary to carefully, without injuring the animal, catch it and release it into the wild. However, how to catch a bat at home? One of the common methods for catching these bats is the method in which spider webs are placed, but in this case a person cannot predict the route of the animal's flight. In addition, with such fishing, there is a high probability of damage to the animal.

If the mouse flew into the house, then you can use a white sheet to catch it: the animal has this color special love, and it is highly likely that he will sit there.