Apes

[The Tree]

Is it true that apes cant be toilet trainned.i find this hard to believe.if you can toilet train a dog surely you can toilet train an ape aswell

[andy-hughes]

I can't understand your apparent link between an ape and a dog. Closer would be a cat - which also cannot be toilet trained, unlike an ape which is not a domestic pet.

Dogs are trainable on a 'reward' system, to which they respond. Apes are a far more evolved species, and would doubtless consider a piece of fruit to be a meagre reward for doing something in one space, when they get fed regularly for doing it where they choose.

[gessoo]

Andy, we have toilet trained our cat! He is blind and doesn't like a litter tray. We take him outside and stand with him and tell him to wee and he does - even when he has only a little drop to force out. He then storms inside again!!

[andy-hughes]

I stand corrected - I don't have a cat, but my experience of friends' cats is that they please themselvees, about toilet use, like everything else!

[gessoo]

Andy, He actually goes out with the dogs first thing in the morning, as well. They all have a wee and then come back in again all together. Cats can be trained quite easily actually - I think people just generally let them do their own thing and accept it. General misconception is that cats are aloof and wilful creatures who do their own thing. We have always had both dogs and cats and they are all, funnily enough, very similar in lots of ways.

Sorry The Tree to go off at a tangent. I can't think of why apes that are born and bred in captivity cant be toilet trained if living in a domestic environment.

[gessoo]

Found your question interesting, so did some research. It is not considered appropriate to have an ape or monkey as a pet for a large variety of reasons. On the toilet training issue, apes and monkeys can often be 'house trained' when they are very young but usually revert to their natural state as they become older, as well as actually playing or eating their faeces.

Don't know whether you are actually considering having an ape or monkey as a pet, but the general feeling is that is is a bad idea as, apart from the fact, that they are wild animals and need to live as such, they can become very aggressive.

[The Tree]

hi gessoo.i do find apes very interesting creatures but i wouldnt at all consider getting one as a pet.it was just out of curiousity i asked the question.i have heard about them becoming aggressive alright.apparently when they reach their teens they rebel.just like any teenager really.actually i think i heard that said on a programme about michael jackson.its why he had to part with bubbles.cheers for all the answers everyone

[JamesEverton]

I heard it was because Bubbles knew 'too much'.

[spaced]

I can see Robert De Niro saying "Jinxy cat, Jinxy Cat, where are you?"