Kinkajou Kado with The Happy Pet Vet
I live in a small city and even though the vet hospital I work at sees ~90% of the exotics that visit veterinarians within 100 miles we are certainly not exposed to everything. Kinkajou (Potus flavus, also known as honey bears) pets for example are a relatively new experience. Recently we were visited by one of these very unusual and special animals. I was awed by how adorable Kinkajou Kado was. Check out these Kinkajou pictures to see what I mean. He is about the size of a cat and his tail is entirely prehensile, wrapping around wrists and arms to support himself while saying hello. This inspired me to find out a bit more regarding these cousins to raccoons. Don’t even think about looking for a kinkajou for sale until you have considered what I’ve discovered.
Kinkajou Vet and Health Concerns
It is extremely important that you discover a vet that you are comfortable with and can take your kinkajou to on a regular basis. Regular vet visits (at least every 6 months after the initial vaccines) are h
important to keep your vet familiar with what is normal for your kinkajou. Finding a vet with experience handling kinkajou’s may be very difficult to almost impossible. This doesn’t mean you don’t try, but if you have to broaden your search then look for a vet who has experience with exotics or wildlife in general and is willing to get to know you and your kinkajou. When startled, or if poorly handled, Kinkajous can get aggressive as they mature and it is important that you visit your vet to build a trusting relationship. Below is a video of kinkajou Kado’s first visit with us.
Kinkajou Vaccines
Kinkajous are susceptible to many diseases that are carried by both cats and dogs and some of these are zoonotic (contagious to people). Kinkajou’s need vaccines starting at about 6 weeks of age and will need a series of them until about 16 weeks of age. Please note none of these vaccines are “approved” for use in kinkajous but having them done can save your pets life.
- Canine distemper/parvo/hepatitis combination vaccine starts between 6-8 weeks of age and given every 3-4 weeks until the kinkajou is older than 14 weeks old.
- Feline panleukopenia starts between 6-8 weeks of age and given every 3-4 weeks until the kinkajou is older than 14 weeks old.
- Leptospirosis is a zoonotic bacteria which infects the kidneys and can cause acute failure in these organs. Leptospirosis needs to be started between 10-12 weeks of age and boosted once.
- Rabies is given around 16 weeks of age.
All vaccines are boosted annually.
Should You Spay or Neuter Your Kinkajou?
If you are not going to be using your kinkajou as a breeding animal then it will be in your best interest to have your kinkajou spayed or neutered at about a year of age. This will help your kinkajou’s hormones keep from spiking too hard. Kinkajous are known to go into a terrible two stage where they become less predictable and possibly more aggressive as they go through puberty. Males go through sexual maturity around 1.5 years and females around 2.25-2.5 years. Often they settle out of this and calm down, though not to their pre-puberty selves, and become more civilized. The process of spaying or neutering a kinkajou is very similiar to how it is done in a dog and most Kinkajou Pets handle it just fine. Part of the terrible twos that is not regulated by hormones is their teething. So even if you do have your kinkajou pet spayed or neutered expect there to be a year or so of interesting days and nights.
Other Preventive Care for Kinkajous
- Internal parasites are a concern for your Kinkajou pet and routine fecal exams can give you an idea if they have picked up something that needs to be dealt with specifically.
- As Kinkajou’s are procyonids they can carry a specific type of round worm, Baylisascaris, which is highly contagious to people and can cause eye and brain damage among other concerns. These parasites can intermittent shed, which means they can live in the kinkajou but not always shed eggs into the feces to be noted on a routine screening. Because of this you should regularly deworm your kinkajou pet even if fecal tests return with no parasites noted.
- Kinkajous eat a very soft diet that is extremely high in sugars. Their teeth suffer from this and build plaque and tartar easily. They often benefit from papaya in the diet which acts as a mild enzyme and helps clean their teeth. They also benefit from regular teeth brushings. The steps to teaching a kinkajou pet to brush its teeth are the same as for a dog or cat.
Pet Kinkajou Habitat
Keep in mind that Kinkajous live an average of about 20 years in captivity so the home you design for them will be part of your house and life for a long time. Also a kinkajou pet that doesn’t get enough exercise or social interaction will frequently become frustrated and aggressive. Take the time and money to get this right. If you are going to keep a kinkajou as a pet then you need to keep in mind that they are a nocturnal animal that lives in trees. This means that they need large long and tall spaces with lots of branches, ropes, and shelves in an area where they can play and stay safe during the night. Minimum dimensions for one animal appears to be about 4 feet wide by 6 feet long and 6 feet tall. You should have ways for your kinkajou to forage for its food as this will help keep it from becoming obese and increase its mental stimulation at the same time. Many kinkajou owners like to use drip bottles to supply a constant source of water that the kinkajou can’t foul with it’s waste. A heavy or attached food bowl is also important to keep your kinkajou pet from overtipping its food to the floor. One kinkajou owner in Tennessee has Osito the Kinkajou and has put some great information together for potential Kinkajou pet parents.
Kinkajou Diet
Kinkajous are primarily frugivores in the carnivore family. They eat about 55% fruit, the wider the variety the better and 25-30% flowers and nectar with the remaining part of their diet being insects, eggs, and small vertebrates. The easiest way to mimic their diet is to feed monkey biscuits soaked in fruit juice followed with a large variety of fruit. Soaking the biscuits in fruit juice makes them mimic the ripe to over ripe fruit they would eat in the wild and conserves the vitamin C in the biscuits. Soaking them in simple water would quickly degrade the vitamin C. Kinkajous absolutely LOVE banana’s, as I’m sure you could tell in the video. The instinct is then to give them lots of them. This makes for an unbalanced diet and there are some kinkajou owners who choose to save bananas as training treats.
Not all fruits are to be used. Citrus fruits do not give the proper nutrition to the kinkajou. Also, there seems to be a common belief that Kinkajous are allergic to strawberries. I do not know where this comes from and have not been able to find a solid source but in cases like these it seems prudent to be safe rather than sorry and to simply avoid the fruit all together.
Conclusion
When raised properly kinkajou pets can be wonderfully social and fun animals. One must have a dedication to becoming at least partially nocturnal to provide the proper social interaction for them to be healthy and happy pets. And it must also be noted that this dedication is expected to be required of you for 20+ years. One kinkajou actually lived to be almost 40 years old. Getting a kinkajou as a pet is not something that one should do an a whim and is generally discouraged by most exotic veterinarians. That said if you have the proper love, set up, and lifestyle it can be a wonderful and rewarding journey.
