PET CAPUCHIN MONKEY QUESTION !!?

YES - CAPUCHINS BITE. And not just bite, they attack. And they can do some very serious damage. You will think that everything is OK for the first few years, when the monkey is still young, then adolescence will approach and there will be trouble. I work with a number of capuchins who have sent people to the hospital - one of those people was disabled for life by his "pet". A capuchin, once it's grown up, will certainly NOT be a "companion for life" - you will have to stick him in a cage for the remaining 40 or so years of his life.

I'm afraid that answerer "Libra" really does not know what they are talking about. Either the monkey their mom used to have did not live with them beyond its childhood, or it grew up to be a very abnormal and sick monkey. Capuchin monkeys definitely, definitely bite.

Few monkey owners don't love their pet in some way. But this "love", and the desire to spend time with such a truly amazing animal, seems to blind people to the fact that they are causing a lot of suffering. I have been working with rescued ex-pet monkeys for many years, and I have still never seen a case where the owner didn't "care" about the monkey in their own way. But I have also never seen a case where the monkey wasn't traumatized or somehow damaged by this very same "love" (often the favorite monkeys are the worst-off!)! Part of the problem is that they are by nature social animals, and life without others of their own kind is very frustrating and lonely.

Infant monkeys are removed from their mothers way before the period of maternal dependency is finished, so that they can be sold as pets. Think about how traumatic this is! Do you want to be responsible for that happening to any thinking, feeling creature, so that you can have an interesting pet? Human care-taking, no matter how carefully or thoughtfully done, will not do much good for the baby monkey. It's been proven repeatedly that maternal deprivation, and isolation from others of their kind, has really negative effects on monkeys. It affects their physical growth, their psychological growth - it even affects brain development! The result is that you get permanently and severely damaged individuals - a lot like those poor children raised in orphanages in Romania that there was a big expose about a few years back. But, because monkeys are not domesticated animals and most pet owners really do not have much understanding of what a "normal" monkey should look like and act like, these problems often go undetected. I can't even tell you how many owners, when handing their monkeys over to rescue centers, will say that the monkey is "fine" and its behavior is "normal" when the fact is, the poor thing is sick, emaciated or obese, fearful, distressed, depressed and in many cases has been performing all sorts of abnormal behaviors on a routine basis - basically a sign of severe mental illness.

With nothing but the best of intentions, a lot of physical damage gets done, too. Owners give their monkeys "treats", or try to do the right thing and feed their monkeys diets high in fruit - the monkey winds up with major dental problems and diabetes. The monkey starts growing up, and acting a little unpredictable - and winds up a)relegated to a small cage - pretty much any cage is small when you think about the miles and miles they range in the wild every day; b)drugged, teeth removed or castrated - which leads to massive developmental and social problems; or c)foisted off on the nearest rescue center or zoo, which may well be overcrowded and underfunded already. Please, understand this - an adult pet monkey that interacts with human beings and does not eventually attack someone is not a healthy monkey. Capuchins do not relate to one another in the same way that humans do, and because they are not domesticated animals (this is a measurable biological process), they can not be taught to follow "human" rules without seriously subordinating their true natures.

Chances are, your keeping a monkey as a pet will inspire somebody else to do so - and somebody else, and somebody else. Even if the monkey you get is captive-bred, not all of them are - the fact that people can and do keep them has a real negative effect on wild monkey populations - all of which are threatened with extinction (some of these specifically because of demand for the pet trade).

The trade in pet monkeys causes nothing but suffering. Adopt a domesticated animal in need of a good home if you want to have a pet.

Monkeys are unpredictable, I would read up on professional reports before I even considered owning one. Make sure you know where you would let it sleep, what it needs to eat (and how much that food costs), and how much exercise it needs.

No. These monkeys don't get very big, If you treat it right, love it, feed it, give it exercise and attention. You will have no problems.