The Heartwarming Tale of a Little Meerkat’s Rescue, Rehabilitation, and VIP Journey to Freedom!

In January 2024, we received a call from kindly folks in Limpopo who had rescued a baby meerkat (Suricata suricatta) who had been badly bitten. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon occurrence when “breeders” have babies being born too often. There are problems with the dominant females, they tend to attack any other female’s pups if kept in close quarters.

The little male was tiny, about 40 grams, and was fortunate to be given the correct diet of Royal Canin Young Cat Milk. When admitted to FFW he was stable and steadily putting weight on. Margi took the case, and he was bottle fed for a further 10 days before introducing solids in the form of mealworms and crickets. The funny faces that were pulled initially showed his distaste of what would become a staple diet! He went from strength to strength and chopped chicks and mice were the next addition to the menu – no problem at all, just don’t put your fingers near to him when he was eating!

This lucky little meerkat had VIP travel to the Witsand Rehabilitation Centre in Griekwestad – Brendan Murray of Owl Rescue Centre flew the little chap back “home”!