Care Guide Reference

Bushy Tailed Jird
Sekeetamys calurus
Palaearctic deserts - Africa - China

Bushy Tailed Jird:

Sekeetamys calurus

Another lovely species, especially with its beautifully crafted bushy tail. Not as graceful as the Persian as it is more of a Scurrier jumper rather than the Persians forward jumping, but beautiful in its own way and this is primarily down to its actual physical appearance.

Very, very much a nocturnal species, very much a species that responds favourably to interior stimuli as it will use it continually - but at night. This is a species that is best described as valium on a good day. Bright, curious and agitated, fast acting and sensitive to response of movement, hyper like a child at age three - four!

This is not a species that enjoys being handled , and l would advise to never pick it up by its superfine tail. Whilst it is not a species that is not ready to bite this is not saying that it is unable to do so! But It is far too fidgety for the hand. So if you are to pick them up do so using either a tunnel scoop or a cup scoop.

Housing is ideally large, or as large as say a 30"x15/18" glass tanks for a pair.

Feeding requirements, are as you have read so far, comprising a good quality rodent mix with additional specialist seeds such as buckwheat, pumpkin seeds, canary mix, will appreciate soft green vegetables but not in an over abundance, such as broccoli, cauliflower, sliced carrot and cabbage but above all will thoroughly enjoy a high protein mix to their diet such as culture feeds but l have also found enjoy fish flavoured cat biscuits.

Litter production can be favourable but can also be disastrous - sometimes you have great pairs who will produce for ever more and then there are those pairs who will have a very dominant female who after mating and a successful litter will promptly kill the male.

I have found for the best results to remove the male after the litter has been born and then to replace him after the young have been removed at about five weeks. To do this however completely clean out the tank in which the female is residing. Place the male in first and allow him to scent the new cage and then after an hour or so replace the female and watch. If fighting ensues then to remove the female and to replace after a small period of say half-hour. Continue to do this until the male and females are accepting each other again.