Sage (March 1996 - March 2000)

If you have never seen a prairie dog before, you might have seen my cousin, the squirrel. The differences between me and him are that I have a short, narrow tale, and short ears. Another difference is that I weigh about 5 pounds, while my cousin weighs about half a pound. We are both members of the rodents family. While my cousin likes to run in trees, we like to stay on the ground. We build tunnels and nests underground, and we like to live together in large social groups.

We are herbivores, which means we eat grasses and roots in the wild. We do not like meat, although we eat an occasional insect. I love to eat carrots, broccoli, fresh or dried corn, green beans, potatoes, and lagomorph, which is food specially made for prairie dogs and chinchillas.

Be careful when I'm around, if I don't like you I might bite. I have four front teeth that are long and sharp. I don't like them very much, because they never stop growing. I have to chew on everything to wear them down and to keep them short. If I don't do that, my teeth will grow and grow, until I am not able to eat anymore. They may even curl up and grow into my brain *ouch*. That's why I love to chew on wooden chew blocks, dried bone and dried corn. I also like just to chew on my cage bars.

When you come to visit me, you will need to give me lots of attention, because I'm a very social animal. I consider everone that lives in my house a family member, and I want attention from everyone. If some persons don't play with me, I will not give them attention anymore.

I love to be able to come out of my cage and play around. Mostly I pay all my family members a visit when I'm out of my cage. At those times they keep a good eye on me, because they don't want me to chew on everything that I can find. When I'm finished playing I let them know that by returning to my cage.

On my pictures page you can see photos of me.