The cusimanse is a species of dwarf mongoose found in western Africa in the countries of Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. They live in a range of habitats, from swampland and grasslands to forests. Their primary diet in the wild is insects, snails, crustaceans, and small mammals, but they will eat fruit if they come across it. In captivity, I use a ferret food as a base and then suppliment with crickets, meal worms, wax worms, earth worms, mice, apples, grapes, and whatever else he seems to be interested in. They live in family groups, often of 10 or more and wander their territory foraging for food, finding shelter wherever they can instead of returning to dens of any sort. They have 2 or 3 litters per year, the babies taking about three weeks to become developed enough to keep up with the family foraging.
In captivity they do extremely well if socialized from a young age. They enjoy the company of people, but do not generally tolerate other species of animal. They bond strongly, and see humans as their family so want to be in constant contact, and don't appreciate being left alone for long periods of time. They tend to play rough, but quickly learn their limits. They are good jumpers, strong climbers, and require opportunities to keep themselves active and interested to remain tame and healthy. They can be food aggressive, which is a natural behaviour - only the strong get to eat in their family group social structure. The slow or weak only get what is left behind by the others.
They make several vocalizations, from a light squeaking sound that almost sounds like pinky mice to barks, growls, and what I term 'gakking', basically spitting and hissing loudly when they don't like something.
Rav
