We do not breed Coatimundi.

Click here for pictures of Arthur the Coatimundi.

ARTHUR THE COATIMUNDI

In December of 1999, a friend from an egroup (now Yahoo Group) list told me about a 2 year old "pair" of Coatimundi in a pet store in Washington state. She would visit this store frequently to check on these 2 Coatis and to bring them real food. They were being fed dog food, pizzas, hamburgers, marshmallows and who know what else by the pet store.

The owner of the pet store was getting desperate to sell the Coatis as they kept escaping from their cage. Which isn't much of a surprise since their cage was approximately 5 feet by 3 feet by 6 feet high. The cage was made out of drywall (which they had torn huge holes in), with one small window, one shelf and one branch, nothing else, not even toys. When they escaped from this box (oops, I meant cage) they had fun trashing the pet shop and one time even climbed through the rafters into the pizza joint next door, you can imagine the fun they had there. That little escapade even made the local newspapers. With his desperation to sell them, our friend decided to try and help find them a good home, that's when we came into the picture.

After many phone calls and emails to the pet store, our friend and numerous government officials on both sides of the border, we finally got things arranged to get the 2 Coatimundi. To our surprise we had to register Petite Paws Exotics as an Importer/Exporter for the US with the US Fish & Wildlife, so that we could export them from the US to Canada.

We drove down to pick them up, which put us on a very tight schedule. For us to get the Coatis checked by the Department of Agriculture Veterinarian at border meant that we had to be at the border before he left for the day. We made it, barely, he had his coat on and was waiting for us (cell phones are handy sometimes). Unfortunately, due to this time restriction, we didn't get much of a chance to inspect the Coatis. All that we could do was confirm that they looked healthy and didn't have any obvious problems. When we got home and we let them settle in we were able to give them a more thorough exam. The ends of their tails were raw, both of them were missing hair on their bodies and quite a bit on their tails, but otherwise they were healthy. There was just one little problem, the "pair" turned out to be 2 boys. Sexing a Coatimundi is like sexing a dog, except the male Coati isn't as pronounced as a male dog usually is. These were definitely males! We phoned the pet store back and to no surprise, they were still adamant that it was a pair. That's one pet store that has a real problem if it can't sex something that obvious, and they had them for almost 2 years, duh!

After about a month of hard thinking, we decided that we had better find a good home for one of them. We were having a hard time deciding, Angus, the larger of the two, was very loving and outgoing, but he was also a bit pushy with the smaller Coati and us. Arthur, the smaller of the two (they thought was the female), was very shy and reserved and Angus was always picking on him. We were told, by the pet shop (of course) that "Arthur" wasn't tame and you couldn't trust "her". Well I guess we are suckers for the underdog (Rob's note: this is an understatement if you knew the history of most of Chris' pets), so we chose to keep Arthur.

We were able to find a wonderful home for Angus. He now resides in the state of Tennessee. Where he enjoys his new family and he even has a girlfriend now.

Since then, Arthur has blossomed. He has become an extremely affectionate, loving, playful, sensitive, intelligent - the list goes on! We have found that he was probably abused though, he is afraid of brooms, sticks, loud noises, etc. He is slowly getting better about these things. When he was closely examined, the Veterinarian found possible signs of physical abuse, but it is unclear whether they came from his brother or ???.

Since he was fed such a lousy diet, we have been working very hard to get him to eat a balanced diet. This wasn't easy, it's like trying to get a kid who has been spoiled with chocolates and ice cream to eat vegetables. Now Arthur is doing a lot better, he has all of his fur, all the open sores that were on him have heeled, he's eating Mazuri Omnivore diet, plus a wide range of fruits and whatever else we can get him to eat. Yes, we still treat him to the occasional marshmallow, 2 or 3 a week.

At one point, we thought Arthur needed a friend. We found Alex, a young female (yes, she was female) Coatimundi and brought her home to try her with Arthur. Unfortunately this didn't work. Arthur couldn't have cared less about Alex, all he wanted to do was to be with us. After a few months of trying, we even ignored Arthur, which just frustrated him, we gave up. We were able to find Alex a good home in the state of Minnesota. Alex also now has a new boyfriend "Taz" that she is very happy with. Arthur, on the other hand, didn't even notice that she was gone. He is too bonded with our family to care.

PLEASE NOTE: ARTHUR IS A RARE COATIMUNDI - MOST COATIMUNDI ARE NOT SUITABLE AS A PET FOR MOST PEOPLE

Arthur has since gone to a new home where they were able to give him more space than we could.

Click here for pictures of Arthur the Coatimundi.

We do not breed Coatimundi.

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