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Author
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Topic: These are going to be big 'uns
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Leonard
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posted April 30, 2010 09:57 PM
Bobcat Cubs Milk Attention From Adopted Moms
Updated: 8 hours 4 minutes ago
David Moye
Contributor
AOL News (April 30) -- Two separate groups of bobcat babies are really milking the attention they're getting from their adopted moms.
In Tampa, Fla., three bobcat kittens, whose mother was killed by a hunter in Alabama, are being nursed by a domestic cat named Bobbi, whose own babies recently jumped to solid food.
If that isn't strange enough, a similar case is occurring in Columbia, S.C., where three other bobcat babies are being nursed by a domestic tabby named Zoe, after they were orphaned when the abandoned house they were living under was demolished.
After being orphaned when the abandoned house they were living under was demolished, a litter of bobcats nursed with Zoe, a house cat, on April 29 in Columbia, S.C
Carole Baskin, who runs Big Cat Rescue, a Tampa organization that takes care of big cats that have been abused, abandoned or risk extinction, has used domestic cats to nurse orphaned bobcats in the past, but says it's very rare -- and having two cases at the same time is even more unusual.
Sadly, she says this may happen more frequently than it should.
"Part of this could be because this is the nursing season for many wild animals, and as we destroy their native habitat, cases like this may become more common," Baskin said.
Joanna Weitzel, executive director of the Carolina Wildlife Center in Columbia, has been rescuing wild animals for 20 years, and this is her first hands-on contact with baby bobcats. When the babies were discovered a few days ago, Weitzel called Baskin for advice.
"You want to keep the animals as wild as possible," Weitzel said. "We tried to reunite the babies with their mom, but if there's a lot of activity in the area, the mom probably isn't going to come back."
Baskin concurs, adding, "Our babies haven't opened their eyes yet and you don't want the first thing they see to be a human, bottle-feeding them."
Not every mother cat wants a few more mouths to feed, so introducing the bobcats takes a little finesse. Baskin's approach is to wet down the mother cat's real kittens, rub them and then rub the bobcat babies, to transfer the smell.
"After a while, hopefully, she can't tell the difference," she said.
In Weitzel's case, they used a towel to transfer the scent.
It's a little bit of work, but she says it's worth it.
"If we're going to spend 12 to 18 months raising these babies to go back into the wild, we want to give them the best chance to survive," she said,
Weitzel admits getting the bobcats to actually nurse on the cat had its challenges as well.
"The hard part is getting the bobcats to root around and attach to the mom," Weitzel said. "The nipples we were using were much bigger."
Still, if the cats hadn't taken to Zoe, they likely would have had to be hand fed every two hours.
Baskin says she lucked out with Bobbi. She had a similar experience a year ago with a different cat and thought the odds of finding another feline willing to nurse animals of another species were "one in a million."
"But we lucked out," she said. "Zoe was perfectly fine with it."
Both sets of bobcat babies will spend the next couple of weeks with their adopted moms, but not much more than that. In a short while, the bobcats' teeth will get too sharp for their adopted mom and it's likely they will start increasing in size.
By the time the cats are fully grown, they will weigh around 70 pounds, seven times more than their new moms. In both cases, they will be reintroduced into the wild.
Filed under: Weird News
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[ April 30, 2010, 09:58 PM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
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fgf4
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posted April 30, 2010 10:33 PM
quote:
By the time the cats are fully grown, they will weigh around 70 pounds
I've read several differing biology books that claim bobcats can reach that size but I've never even seen a picture of one remotely close to that!
70lbs!!!! WOW! That would be a really BIG Bobcat! The healthy ones I've seen run about a pound per inch of body, so that could be a 6'plus cat!
Nikonut ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
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Andy L
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posted May 01, 2010 05:45 AM
I have a friend who lets me hunt his ranch. His now ex wife, had bobcats in a cage. They were huge! I dont know what they would weigh,but I asked many times if I could have em. LOL He said it was ok with him, but would cause a divorce. Now that they are divorced, I should have been awarded them in court. LOL
Anyway, they were huge. I guess maybe from being fed good and not exercising?
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Andy
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3 Toes
El Guapo
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posted May 01, 2010 07:13 AM
They don't have anything on me. I raised 2 coyote pups on a mother house cat. Let them try that!
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Posts: 1034 | From: out yonder | Registered: Apr 2007
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luckyjack
Knows what it's all about
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posted May 01, 2010 08:06 AM
Cal, You have any pics you could post up of the pups nursing on the cat? Or other pics of the pups as they were growing up? I'd like to see them if you have any.
I tried raising coyote pups two different times many years ago. Both times they were to old when I first got the little bastards. Neither one ever got even remotely "tame" around me or anybody else.
Think about posting pics if you have any.
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Leonard
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posted May 01, 2010 08:18 AM
Let's not get carried away, here. I posted that, (above) as an example of stupideastern reporters writing stuff they know nothing about. If there is the rare bobcat approaching 70 pounds, it is in a class along with 250 pound lions, extinct as dinosaurs.
I can tell you this, Pull My Finger; a 40 pound bobcat looks about 70 pounds, on the hoof.
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
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Andy L
HI, I'M THE NEW MODERATOR OF THE CENTRAL MISSOURI FORUM, PULL MY FINGER!
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posted May 01, 2010 09:18 AM
I dont doubt that a bit Knuckle Dragger, I was simply stating those caged cats were bigger than any cat I have seen in the wild around here.
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Andy
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3 Toes
El Guapo
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posted May 01, 2010 11:12 AM
I don't believe a 70 pounder ever existed in the wild, but I have seen some penned cats that were being raised as pets or for fur and they do get substantially larger. 50 to 60 lbs for sure that I personally know of. So the cat Andy seen probably was huge.  And coyote pups and kitties picture
[ May 01, 2010, 11:16 AM: Message edited by: 3 Toes ]
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Violence may not be the best option....
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Leonard
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posted May 01, 2010 01:33 PM
I had a friend who shot a bobcat in Arizona. Where it was, I don't remember, but I'm fairly sure it was no further east than Wickenberg, and probably central. This cat looked like a friggin' bulldog! Squatty, short legs..... like a bulldog. But, I only saw it dead, at a check in. The weight, (again) I don't remember exactly, wish I could, but it was very heavy. An abnormal, sorta ugly animal but this guy was real proud, had a rug made out of it. A less worthy candidate I have never seen.
It weighed at least ten pounds more than it looked and I'm thinking fifteen, but the actual weight, I can't tell ya. A freak, for sure. Momma was a badger?
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
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Kokopelli
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posted May 01, 2010 02:14 PM
Cal;
I gotta ask.................. Did those coyote pups end up eating that cat when they got big enough to????
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Az-Hunter
Hi, I'm Vic WELCOME TO THE U.S. Free baloney sandwiches here
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posted May 01, 2010 04:06 PM
Glenn Guess always said; a 200 pound hog weighs more than a 200 pound whitetail....maybe it's that way with cats:)
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RagnCajn
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posted May 01, 2010 09:22 PM
My folks raised a bobcat when I was a kid. It was crossing a road with the mama cat when my dad jumped out and grabbed it. Never did tame that cat down. It would let you pet it only when it wanted to be pet. It would crawl up in our laps to be held but don't dare touch it unless it came to you. Turned it out the front door one day to do his business and it never came back.
I have been on ky mom for the last few years to find some pictures of it, but hasnt happened yet.
The coons, squirrels, screech owl, possum and deer all tamed down to domestic attitudes but not that cat.
caught a cotten mouth one time and put it in the pen, when dad found it he made us kill it.
He built a set of pens when we were kids and told us if we caught it we could keep it.
When it came to that snake, he drew the line.
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Leonard
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posted May 02, 2010 01:48 AM
Every thing I have ever heard, or read, personal conversation and one friend that had one when I was in high school. They never get tame, in the normal sense of the word.
We used to mess with Mike's cat. He would be laying on his back ledge, always aware but still casual. So we would stand by or walk by the cage and hand motion didn't do it but swinging your head and torso suddenly in his direction and he would crash that wire, head high, quicker than you ever imagined. Kinda scary, even when we knew what was going to happen.
I have heard that the females are more nasty disposition than the males. Just rumors, don't know?
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
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Andy L
HI, I'M THE NEW MODERATOR OF THE CENTRAL MISSOURI FORUM, PULL MY FINGER!
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posted May 02, 2010 05:45 AM
They are quick, KD, hence the expression, "Quicker than a cat can lick its ass"
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Andy
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