This is your chance to impress you friends, neighbors, parents, teachers, students, coworkers, employers, employees, friends, enemies and strangers with actual knowledge rather than just stuff you made up to sound smart. Read this blog and you can sound smart by actually knowing something! And it won’t be hard either. The capybara facts covered in this blog entry are fun and easy to remember. You just have to remember to read it. Which you can do right now so you don’t forget. Okay, here goes:
General rodent facts:
- Rabbits are NOT rodents.
- Capybaras are rodents.
- One quarter of all mammal species are rodents.
- Rodents have four big teeth called incisors at the front of their mouths.
- Rodent teeth grow throughout their lives and are razor sharp. ADVICE: don’t get bitten by a rodent.
- Some rodents, like beavers, can actually cut down trees with their super-sharp teeth.
- Beavers are the world’s second largest rodents.
- All rodents have bacteria that can digest cellulose in their gut. Cellulose is the stuff that makes the cell walls of plants. Mammals cannot digest it on their own.
- Some mammals, the ruminants including cows, chew their cud to get the nutrients released by bacteria in their stomachs that digest cellulose. This is like throwing up into your mouth and then eating it again.
- Rodent bacteria are in their hind gut so must defecate and then eat the poop. Eating poop is called coprophagy.
General capybara facts:
- Capybaras are the world’s largest rodents.
- Our scientific name is Hydochoenus hydrochaeris.
- We are in a strictly South American group of rodents called the Caviidae.
- Some of our closest relatives are guinea pigs and maras.
- There are some wild capybaras in Louisiana and southern Florida.
- Baby capybaras can walk as soon as they are born.
- Capybaras mostly eat grass. We are herbivores.
- Mostly we poop in the water, but the special poop we eat, we eat directly as it comes out of us on land, not in the water.
- We have very coarse hair that is also very sparse. You can see skin through it most places.
- Our fur dries very quickly.
- We puff up our fur when we are happy.
- Capybaras have little tiny tails that are just nubs. We can’t move them at all.
- We like to live in marshes.
- Our feet are webbed.
- We have three toes in the back and four in the front.
- Our main predators are jaguars, anacondas, caiman, crocodiles, large raptors, and people.
- Our skin is very, very tough so, tragically, we make good leather.
- All capybaras are basically the same color.
- A typical capybara weighs between 120 – 140 lbs.
- Capybaras live about 12-14 years in captivity and less in the wild.
- Capybaras live in herds or bands in the wild with one or a few males and several females and babies.
- Capybaras do not dig.
Facts about me:
- I am 3rd or 4th generation captive bred.
- I was born on July 10, 2007 in Nacogdoches, Texas.
- My parents are carnies. They go around to small fairs as a sideshow attraction.
- I was one of five babies in my litter and the only one left when my owner came to pick me out.
- I was 11 days old when my owner got me and I weighed about 3 lbs.
- I reached 100 lbs and stayed there at around 18 months of age.
- I was house-trained from the first day home. My owner just put out a bowl of water for me to go in.
- I know several tricks including: sit, stand (beg), go up, do a circle, shake, wave and something called tap-a-tap-a
- My favorite food is blueberry yogurt.
- I do not like fruit pieces in my yogurt. I have to eat around them.
- My tongue is so short it doesn’t come out of my mouth so I have to rub my nose on the wall and then lick the excess yogurt off the wall. I will also use a chair for that purpose.
- I also love fruit popsicles.
- And best of all, yogurt popsicles.
- I go swimming every single day at least once, unless it is too cold.
- Most days I also take a long soak in the bathtub.
- When I was growing up I went through an aggressive phase and I bit my owner.
- I am sometimes territorial but I am always very gentle away from home where I don’t think you’re trying to steal my stuff.
- I can “eep” very loudly but I only do that when my owner abandons me.
- I like to bark and run up and down the hallway.
- When I am happiest, I sound like a Geiger counter.
- When I’m excited, I popcorn like a guinea pig.
- When the weather is cold, I like to sleep under the covers with my humans.
- When the weather is hot, I sleep on the floor next to my owner.
If you want a pet capybara:
- My owner DOES NOT BREED CAPYBARAS! I am her one and only pet capybara and I’d like to keep it that way.
- Read my whole blog and watch my YouTube videos at www.YouTube.com/CaplinCapybara.
- Read Capyboppy by Bill Peet.
- Capybaras are a lot of work, need lots of room and a swimming pool, can be territorial and have big, sharp teeth. We are not the right pet for everyone…or very many people.
- Make sure you have the right facilities to keep a capybara in your climate.
- Check your local laws and agricultural office to make sure we are legal where you live.
- Most “pet” capybaras live outside and are treated more like goats.
- Don’t get a pet capybara if you have young children. We are still wild animals and won’t tolerate half of what a dog or cat will.
- Contact Mary Lee at capybaras.org. She is in Arkansas. Or Justin at Kapi’yva Exotics. He is in Houston.
- If you are in the UK, you can try Peculiar Pets.
You could impress everyone you know just like this girl did.
My owner loves me.
Photo facts
I weighed only 3 lbs in this photo.
A cat harness like this one was too big for me.
Porcupines are the 3rd largest rodents.
Me with my co-pet Seabiscuit when I was 8 months old.
My giant rodent teeth.
I am not a morning animal.
Capybaras are great swimmers.
This is why we need rain.
Facts about fans of Caplin:
– prone to Neil Diamond earworms (Caplin Rous, you’re a famous pet cappy/You puff your fur out to show you’re happy/etc)
– think that a world where you can get tweets from Caplin, NASA robots and delivery trucks is a pretty cool place
Others fans – more facts please!
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Never heard of these creatures before…so cute in a weird sort of way.
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aww i think capys are really cute u were an adorable baby I saw you on youtube eating toilet paper and such. I found out about capys in my science project and i had to right ten sentences about them then draw a pic of one and I used u (Caplin) as my model 😀 these could be my favorite animals along with sea otters well by Caplin send me an e-mail!!<3 (Approved 2010/04/29)
do you think capybara’s are legul in Austraila?
(Owner: I doubt it. Australia is very strict about exotic animals.)
(Approved: 2010/05/31)
Was the wound deep from when Caplin bit you when he went through his aggressive phase?
I can’t imagine getting bit by his ginormous teeth :\
When I bit my owner I took about a quarter size chunk of flesh from her. It took about a month to heal over and she still has a scar. Probably should have had stitches. I am over that now.
With so many cats and dogs crowding animal shelters and being put to death each year, why have an exotic animal like this? On top of that, I shudder to think of the environmental damage creatures like this could do if enough were to escape and get established.
I love capys so much! I love to watch all your videos and capybaras are one of my favorite animals for sure! I have a guinea pig and live in IL so I can’t have a capybara. When I’m an adult I plan to move to the South so I can have a pet who I will spoil!
Where can I order a custom made halter? I work w capys.
We are interested in having a capy join our petting zoo family. BUT we are in Iowa. Can a capy take the cold weather or will he need to be in the house or a heated area when it get to a curtain temperature? We have so many petting in the house now I am not sure we will have room for an other.
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