I live in Indonesia, and our guard(*) has just this morning acquired what appears to be an Asian Palm Civet (musang, in Indonesian). Evidently this particularly type of civet is not endangered, or I would throw a fit, cultural sensitivities or no.
The guard is clearly an animal lover, but I worry about the quality of life this civet will have. It is in a large crate, has a water dish, and I’m sure the guard knows what to feed it. But … it is awake during the day (aren’t civets nocturnal?) and every time our dogs go outside, they run up to the civet crate and bark. (They’ll probably get used to it and calm down after a while, but still, I can’t imagine this is a happy environment for the civet).
I don’t want to take the pet away from the guard. We have 2 dogs, 2 cats, and a zillion fish, and there is plenty of separate space for the civet – except for when the dogs go outside, our pets will never interact with it. It seems kind of mean to have all these pets ourselves, but deny the guard the pleasure of animal companionship.
But … isn’t this sort of sad for the civet?
Dopers, tell me what you think. Have you ever had a pet civet? Is this inherently cruel? Is there anything I should make sure the guard does so that the civet is well cared for? (I’ll be glad to pay vet bills, if there is any need for vet care; do civets get vaccines or anything?)
(*) Please don’t make assumptions of any kind because our house has a guard. It just works that way in Jakarta. He came with the house and has cared for it for 14 years. I am not haughty, filthy rich, or otherwise deserving of stereotyping.
I have no opinion on whether or not it’s cruel, but thought I’d add a wiki link: Civet. I’m assuming there’s others like me who had no idea what a Civet is.
Sigh. I’ll use my complimentary bump here to say that yes, I thought about making some kopi luwak jokes in my OP. But I decided to stick with the real issue, which is whether a civet can have a happy life as a pet.
BTW, it’s totally cute. Right up there with widdle kitties, squee! and so on.
I’ll try to give some sort of relevent answer here, though I’m unsure of how helpful I can be. Apparently they fill the same ecological role as the raccoon. They appear to have similar physical traits and habits as well. I raised a raccoon, and if you have time to put into them, they are absolutely wonderful and rewarding pets. I would be certain that the civet receives adequate amounts of proper food (a little chubby is always better than skinny), Plenty of fresh water, and that the guard has adequate time and space to engage it in play and bonding exercises. They like to climb, so a cat tower would not be out of the question. I am assuming that it is still a kit at this point? If so the dogs need to be introduced properly with you or someone else they mind to discipline them. After the novelty of the animal wears off they may be able to play together, or at least ignore each other. At the moment, they are ganging up on the poor little thing.
I know nothing about civets, of course, but if it is like a raccoon then I guess my main concern would be to try to encourage the guard to let it out of the box for exercise (assuming he intends to keep it in there all the time).
Maybe you should offer to pay for a vet checkup just so that the vet can perhaps talk to the guard about proper care (I’m hoping vets there know something about civets).
